Sunday, October 15, 2006

The University of the Artic: A Model for America?

By Richard Vedder

Some 36 years ago, while standing at a banquet at an international economic history meeting in the Taurida Palace in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), the chap next to me introduced himself and thereby began a 36 year friendship. Rune Ryden was a young Swedish scholar who later became a distinguished parliamentarian in his country. While in politics, Rune also continued to dabble in higher education, serving on the governing board of the University of Lund and, after retiring from Parliament, running the Latin American research institute at the University of Stockholm. In a recent chat, Rune mentioned he was now on the governing board of one of the world's most interesting universities, the University of the Artic.

The University of Artic is a confederation of several dozen universities located above the 60th parallel, from every nation in that region --Russia, the U.S., Canada, various Scandinavian countries. I believe the current head of the university lives in an Scandianvian country,while the admissions office is in Canada. It is truly a multinational university. Students at the U. of the Artic can take courses at any member institution, The two official languages are English and Russian. Thus the U. of Alaska at Fairbanks may teach a class for its students, and any U. of Artic student can also enroll. Credits are freely transferable between the various members of the broader University. The University serves an area with low population densitites where Internet education is critical, and by pooling resources, the various schools can offer more courses more efficiently.

No doubt there are some problems, but the concept is a sound one. In particular, the barriers between U.S. universities are too rigid, and institutional hubris trumps efficiency and convenience considerations most of the time. We need to make interuniversity student migration more seemless and less costly, and encourage more multi-university cooperative ventures. Perhaps the University of the Artic is a model worth exploring.

10 comments:

RWW said...
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Kate said...

I didn't know cowboys wore diapers.

RWW said...
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Sherman Dorn said...

Several inter-institutional compacts exist in the U.S., but they're very specific arrangements. They exist among private institutions (Penn-Swarthmore-Bryn Mawr-Haverford is one example) and among public networks (the common course-numbering system in Florida, which allows for transfers of credits among all public postsecondary institutions in the state). The common thread is some basis for trust that the credits are transferable. That's much easier to do in a limited arrangement, which I consider the U. of the Arctic to be. I don't think it's generalizable.

Kate said...

To buy more diapers?

RWW said...
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Kate said...
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Kate said...

Cowboy-

No, I'm not trying to "kiss Vedder's ass" by posting on here. Quite frankly, I don't care whether he likes me or not. However, I do respect him and what he has to say. I thought it was rude that you alleged that he has "ICE AROUND HIS HEART"!1!!!1!1one

Any comments about diapers were in playful jest! Apparently you didn't understand and took to insulting my intellect, my school, and my apparent lack of "sense of humor".

You are the one with no sense of humor, mon ami.

ANDDDDDDDDDD... I'm not a freshman.

THANKS MUCH! <3<3Kate.

Kate said...

I didn't like his comment. It doesn't mean what I said was meant to get everyone all pissy! I was completely joking.

I don't even think whatever was in the picture was a diaper. It looked like gauze or something.

Trying to attack me for being "immature" is slightly hypocritical considering that you just called me a "bitch" who looks like a "french slut".

I wasn't aware blind misogyny was back in vogue.

Now can you please stop attacking me and go on giving me stuff to read like your last comment? I'm here to be enlightened, not to defend myself.

And for what it's worth, I'm truly sorry if I hurt anyone's feelings. That was not my intention, despite what you may thing. If you have anything else to say to me, I welcome your instant messages or emails. I prefer not to continue such a stupid argument on a comment board.

demosophist said...

Rich:

"Arctic" is spelled with two "c"s. I thought there might be an alternative spelling because MS Word's spell check doesn't catch it, but there's no such word as "artic" in Webster's Collegiate or Websters New World. OED lists it as an obsolete form of "arctic" along with "artik". Guess Microsoft considers it a "feature" of their word processor.