The global impact of urbanization presents unprecedented opportunities and profound challenges for higher education. It significantly impacts the expectations placed on universities and where in the world – and the city – they need to adapt their infrastructures, pedagogical practices, and ways of operating. The multiscalar networks of global urbanization mean urban universities must be understood as being more than located ‘in the city’. The ‘new urban university’ is regionalizing and globalizing in dramatic, chaotic ways. What capacities do universities have as urban leaders in a globalizing world? How can universities better mobilize in, and for, extended city-regions? How can marginalized urban communities be more effectively engaged, and how can they inform universities’ spatial and strategic actions?
NEW URBAN UNIVERSITY responds to the challenges of global urbanization by illustrating how higher education providers can better serve people in places, versus drawing people to a place. In taking stock of the influence major sociospatial changes in urban regions have on universities (e.g. globalization, neoliberalization), the project:
1. Advances and redefines understandings of university-territoriality relationships
2. Analyzes cutting-edge developments in universities’ spatial strategies
3. Enhances the mechanisms through which urban oriented innovations are mobilized
4. Promotes spatial strategies that enhance access for marginalized social groups
To meet these objectives, NEW URBAN UNIVERSITY: (1) provides a global assessment of universities’ engagement practices and impacts, covering broad trends, visions, and strategies across scholarly and policy literatures; and (2) presents a path-breaking examination of urban higher education systems at the city-regional scale, with a focus on both inter- and intra-urban dynamics. In-depth studies of universities’ spatial strategies in the London and New York global city-regions speak directly to best practices in creating and sustaining reflexive, resilient university-society networks for diverse communities in globalizing urban contexts. NEW URBAN UNIVERSITY deepens academic and policy understandings of how knowledge transfer takes place, enabling higher education leaders and urban policymakers to optimize universities’ contributions and realize lasting societal impact. The project’s high-quality empirical research and theoretical innovations have been published in international journals and presented at global academic and policy conferences.
Project website: www.newurbanuniversity.org
