Center for Studies in Higher Education

Charles Vest gave the second of three Clark Kerr Lectures on the Role of Higher Education in Society on April 21, 2005 on the Santa Barbara campus. The Age of the Internet presents remarkable opportunities for higher education and research in the United States and throughout the world. The rise of a meta-university of globally shared teaching materials and scholarly archives, undergirding campuses everywhere, both rich and poor, could well be a dominant, democratizing aspect of the next few decades. Even as we develop the meta-university and other forms of digitally empowered educational globalization, we must maintain the openness of our campuses here in the United States. Our openness to international students, scholars, and faculty members, as well as the openness of scientific inquiry and communication, must be balanced against national security concerns in the face of terrorism. But the lessons of history confirm that openness is a great contributor to the security of our nation and world in the long run, and must be preserved.