What Is a World University?

Every university must be a world university. It cannot be that one university out of all the others is the only World University, and the rest are not. Shall it come to pass that one university is the World University and others are non-world, unworldly, or against the world? By World University, we mean a university worldwide in outlook and global in approach and curriculum, universal in attitude and programming, macrocosmic as well as microcosmic in the search for knowledge, and perfectionistic in the pursuit of virtue dedicated to the idea that humanity as a whole is the final nation to which every human being should belong.

World University education is one that is completely and totally world-oriented. It is one of the best ways to dissolve the narrow domestic walls of nationality, power cliques, economic blocs, and the blockages of ignorance in the heart and mind of every individual who pursues an education. How shall an uomo universale come about? Are our institutions of learning so destitute of vision and of determination that, seeing the problems of the individuals, our decisions and resources cannot be committed to the awakening of the universal man, world-oriented and global in his attitudes to life and to his fellow human beings?

The curriculum of World University transcends clime and culture, or any divisiveness that separates nations and regions, peoples and places, even universities from other universities by prestige or competitive pursuits, and the tragic conflict of man-against-man-against-environment.

A World University, surely, cannot be one that is merely able to enroll students or enlist professors from different countries. All too often it is much easier for university administrators to be construction engineers, fund raisers or real estate developers. Oh yes, the facilities of an institution of learning and its infrastructures have their place and their usefulness. But some of us, or possibly most of us, are not aware that many, if not all, of the wisest of teachings that have really guided humanity were not even uttered in some sophisticated and ultra-structured university estate gilded with concrete and reinforced steel alloys, and stuffed with shining hardware.

Where is that curriculum which can fathom the innermost secrets of the human heart, not only the intellect, as we accelerate our success in piercing the depths of space towards the moon and beyond? It is so simple. The cry for peace beneath the human breast is so utterly resounding in comparison to the clamor for food by the stomach. Yet we are inclined immediately to agree that if there were only enough food for everyone, there would be peace. But it may be the other way around, even if it is to our surprise, that if there is peace, if we have found peace in our hearts, if we are at peace with one another, there will surely be food for all in great abundance.

There is the food hoarder who operates by the law of supply and demand, which is not even really a law. The law that there is, is the law of brotherhood. The law of supply and demand is plain selfishness, a violation of the law of brotherhood. Abolish selfishness, uproot it from our human system, and we abolish the law of supply and demand. But, you and I cannot abolish the law of brotherhood, the unity of our human relationships. One cannot hurt anyone without ultimately hurting oneself. So the thing to study really is not just the law of supply and demand but the more important law of human happiness and survival which we have violated so many times in the past and so many times now - the law of human brotherhood.

Where are the educators and statesmen who can meet this urgent challenge of our time? Educators, real educators and not brainwashers, statesmen, real statesmen, and not politicking politicians. Whence will come the university administrators who can provide this new environment of learning? How shall there arise professors and teachers who have not only well-trained minds, but also strong wills for the good, as well as hearts deep with wisdom and love.

It is so tempting to paraphrase Lincoln. Every university must be a university of the world, by the world, and for the world. A world that is humanity's one and only home in the vastness of space. The state of almost every branch of science already holds the infinite blessings that can result out of its applied knowledge. But where are the decision-makers who have the virtues of non-aggrandizement, who can transform the state of the sciences into a state of abundant life for mankind? Universities have helped produce the goods and the hardware. Have we produced the human beings who are humane?

The task before us is so worldwide in its challenges. Every university will have to do its utmost share. It would be too much to expect, or almost impracticable to have, one university which would be the so-called World University, to become the sole educational agency for world peace.

Every university would have to be harnessed as a World University. It may well be that we will transform existing universities into world universities for example, World University in Hawaii or World University in Ghana or World University in Indonesia, etc., all of them dedicated to world education and permeated by a world consciousness for peace.

We now have one in the United States, in the County of Ventura, in the beautiful Valley of Ojai.
 

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