Australian National University chancellor Gareth Evans has drawn a parallel between blue sky research and teaching, saying that an obsession with measurement could leave students ill-prepared for a world ¡°where the content and context of employment-relevant knowledge is changing all the time¡±.

In a call to arms to fellow chancellors, Professor Evans warned universities not to become pigeonholed, teaching only the skills ¡°that are immediately useful for today¡¯s world¡±.

¡°Those of us in leadership positions in the university sector have a particular responsibility to get out that message,¡± he said.

¡°If that sense of preparing for the future is to be consolidated in the minds of potential students ¨C and industry, government, philanthropists, the community generally ¨C it has to be articulated by all of us much more insistently and persistently.¡±

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Professor Evans told Times Higher Education that universities faced the ¡°competing imperatives¡± of demonstrating their impact, through measures such as?graduate employment rates, while preparing people for an uncertain future where current jobs may have vanished.

¡°The main thing is not to lose track of the second in terms of being obsessed with the first,¡± he said.

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¡°Maybe ¡®blue sky teaching¡¯ is an alternative way of making the point. Educators have a responsibility to educate in the broadest rather than the narrowest sense, and we shouldn¡¯t get too spooked by the imperative to be seen to be delivering immediate employability.

¡°University environments should be designed to stimulate thinking and creativity, and not necessarily being on a vocationally oriented treadmill.¡±

Professor Evans said that much research, also, was ¡°worth doing for its own sake as well as for the serendipitous results that sometimes arise from following your nose¡±.

This included research in the humanities, where ¡°the potential for measurable real-world practical impact may be non-existent¡±, he said. ¡°These are the areas finding external financial support ever more difficult to come by.¡±

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He said that the ¡°distinctive value-added of a university¡± included nurturing the capacity of individuals and society ¡°to create and apply new knowledge, in ways that will be relevant for the world of the future¡±.

¡°Universities are not simply a sociable rite of passage before joining a graduate training programme,¡± he said, citing former Hong Kong governor and current University of Oxford chancellor Chris Patten. ¡°Lifelong learning is going to have to become the norm for anyone who hopes to stay employed.¡±

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com