Universities that focus only?on preparing students for careers are partly to blame for the retreat of support for globalisation, a vice-chancellor has warned.

Alfred Bloom, who leads New York University¡¯s outpost in Abu Dhabi, said that universities must provide students with a ¡°global perspective¡± and the skills to create ¡°a world of common understanding¡±.

In an interview with Times Higher Education,?Dr Bloom said that this worldview must be taught at undergraduate level.

¡°If we don¡¯t bring it about, if we just educate for careers, I think you¡¯re going to get a continuation of the kind of division and divisiveness that we experience so much today,¡± he said.

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Dr Bloom, the former president of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania,?defines NYU Abu Dhabi as ¡°a great liberal arts college inside a research university¡±.

As well as providing the depth and breadth of study typical of liberal arts institutions, the university also seeks to develop in students a ¡°sense of real ethical obligation to take intellectual activity and put it to work in creating a better world¡±, he said.

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He added that the institution also helps students to recognise the ¡°commonality in human beings¡± and teach them that despite differences it is possible for the world to reach ¡°common goals and common responsibility¡±.

He said that it is ¡°always scary¡± for institutions to change, especially if they have a long tradition of excellence and a history of success, but was confident that NYU Abu Dhabi¡¯s model of global education would gain traction in the way that other issues such as diversity have done.

¡°When people started to add the equality of women or diversity in general or environmental sensitivity [to their mission], nobody could say that it did damage to their enduring core goals of the university,¡± he said.

¡°It never was obvious, but now it¡¯s obvious that this is something that universities need to do if they¡¯re going to be leaders and models for their nations and the world.

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¡°I hope that the model we provide will help to shape a view of global universities that are not only about providing excellent education for others but [are also about] providing a new way of looking at education that places as the highest priority developing agents of common humanity and agents of a more united world.¡±

What does the retreat of globalisation mean for such international universities as NYU Abu Dhabi, which has students from more than 110 countries?

¡°That we have to succeed,¡± said Dr Bloom.?¡°I really believe that the future of improving the human condition and of sustaining the environment and of sustaining peace has to lie in cooperative effort.¡±

He said that while the barriers to internationalisation are not new, they are more ¡°explicit¡± than they once were and more likely to be ¡°expressed¡± by the public and ¡°reflective in policy¡±.

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He said that if members of the public ¡°feel left out¡±, ¡°feel like the regimes have not responded to who they are¡± or ¡°feel that they need to protect themselves against difference¡± then higher education institutions have a responsibility ¡°not to ignore them but to include them and find a way to bring about a conversation¡±.

¡°I think this is the kind of education that will do it,¡± he added.?¡°We have to educate people who can provide inclusive answers and the kind of articulation of those answers that will reverse the feeling of exclusion and bring people to a sense of common human endeavour.¡±

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ellie.bothwell@timeshighereducation.com