APEC University Leaders’ Forum Featured in University World News
November 23, 2017
01

Universities Can Help Overcome Economic Nationalism
Yojana Sharma 23 November 2017 Issue No: 484

Find the full article from University World News.

In an era when economic and trade nationalism is disrupting the multilateral world order, universities have a role to play in driving multinational cross-border collaborations, and preparing for a future thrown into uncertainty by the so-called fourth industrial revolution.

University presidents, policymakers and business leaders in the Asia-Pacific region came together in a University Leaders Forum just before the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation or APEC summit in Vietnam earlier this month to talk about joint strategies and policies to keep pace with disruptive technologies – digitisation, robotics and artificial intelligence.

The rise of economic nationalism and decline of the multilateral trade system, particularly since US president Donald Trump entered office this year, was a major focus of the main Summit of APEC heads of state from the 21 member countries in Danang, Vietnam. Early in his presidency Trump announced his country’s withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP, a multilateral trade pact with 11 other Asian and Pacific Rim countries in Australasia, North America and Latin America, sparking consternation in the region.

Many governments are fearful of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which “has created hopes for higher productivity but also anxiety about its transformative implications”, said Vietnam Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh, Co-Chair of the APEC ministerial meeting on 9 November, which preceded the leaders’ summit on 10-11 November.

Universities can inform policy makers on how to prepare for disruption, particularly understanding what is happening with students, who are in the cutting edge of innovation, delegates from business, government and universities heard at the University Leaders Forum in Danang on 8 November, organised by the Association of Pacific Rim Universities or APRU.

With many universities already collaborating in cross-border and multidisciplinary research, “we can see many opportunities and an emancipation from the national context,” said APRU secretary general Christopher Tremewan.

Referring to disruptive technologies, Chi Youngsuk chairman of Elsevier, a science information and analytics company, told the forum, “the issues that we approach today are too big for one nation to tackle, too complex to understand concretely in one discipline, it runs across all disciplines.”

Resisting economic nationalism

Chi added universities were the one place where economic nationalism could be resisted. “Collectively APRU has the most powerful set of universities with (an) incredible voice to overcome this period of turning our back (away) from multilateralism,” Chi said. “We want to see more collaboration because the problems are just too damn big. We cannot solve this alone.”

Multilateralism is giving way to bilateral conversations which does not accomplish as much for the world as it accomplishes for individual countries,” said Chi.

While major companies cannot resist the trend for many governments to move towards more inward looking economic and trade policies, universities can try to promote multilateral discussion, as well as understand the pace of change and challenges at a time when governments are focused on short-term initiatives, he said.

He called on universities “to stick your neck out and resist this (nationalism) trend, which is dangerous for all of us.”

Though there is much talk about cross-sector innovation, “there are still a lot of barriers against innovation, especially in relation to partnerships between governments and universities”, said Wang Yan, coordinator of the Education Network (EDNET) of the APEC Human Resource Development Working Group.

She pointed to the APEC Education Strategy Action Plan endorsed at the APEC Summit – the first educational blueprint up to 2030 since the inception of APEC in 1989 – as a new example for multilateral education collaboration, including in delivering the skills required for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

“It is increasingly important that education and training deliver competencies that reflect the current and future needs of the regional labour market and that these competencies be commonly understood and recognised across borders, and system,” according to the policy document drawn up earlier this year on APEC’s education strategy and submitted to the Summit by APEC’s Human Resources Development Working Group.

International trade lawyer and digital trade expert Robert Holleyman, previously deputy US trade representative during the administration of former US president Barack Obama and now CEO of C&M International, a trade and public affairs consultancy, told the forum that university collaboration with the private sector and policy makers in APEC can produce the next generation of leaders who will understand how better to collaborate.

Government officials are focused on short term initiatives,” Holleyman said, and this can be as short as their own term in office. Yet the disruptive changes of the fourth industrial revolution can seem threatening because of the pace of change and extensive global competition.

Universities bring to the table, especially in APEC, things that policy makers are looking for “in some cases before the policy makers know what the questions are,” including understanding what is happening in a fast-changing technological and research environment, Holleyman said. “Artificial intelligence poses opportunities for more quality jobs in the future,” said Huang Dinglong, founder and CEO of China’s Malong Technologies, which focuses on artificial intelligence.

Companies will need more people to do interesting work in these areas. “The best job has not been created yet, it is still coming,” he told the forum.

Skills mismatch

APEC economies have identified structural unemployment and a skills mismatch as major concerns for the region. There is a gap between the skills of workers looking for work and the skills required for emerging job opportunities according the 2017 APEC Economic Policy Report on structural Reform and Human Capital Development.

In Danang, APRU announced a partnership with the APEC’s project DARE on Data Science, Analytics and Raising Employment to bridge the skills gap in the region. “Higher education institutions will play a critical role in addressing the future DSA (data science and analytics) skills shortages,” said Nguyen Kim Son, president of Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

“The lack of DSA skills currently sits on top of the skills shortage in the APEC region, not just in terms of the size of the gap but also its essential role in driving artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, cyber-physical systems that are at the centre of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the future of work and the future of global prosperity,” said DARE co-chair Clay Stobaugh, executive vice-president of Wiley, a global publishing and research company.

“One million jobs will go unfilled in APEC because the skills sets won’t be able to provide for data analytics are required by employers,” Stobaugh told the university leaders’ forum.

Project DARE was launched by APEC earlier this year to develop the competencies required for future DSA workers. “DSA-enabled knowledge workers will have skills not easily replaced by automation; instead they will be better prepared to unlock the promise and potential of data and the technologies that depend on it,” according to APEC’s HRD working group in a June communication in preparation for the November Summit.

The competencies were developed by a 50-person Advisory Group from 14 APEC member economies, co-chaired by Wiley and the Business Higher Education Forum or BHEF. Advisors included business leaders who oversee data science and analytics within their companies, academics involved with inter-disciplinary data science initiatives and curricula; and government officials involved in human resources development.

Related Articles
Keio University News: Keio University Launches 2023 Mentoring Program to Promote Female Faculty Member Empowerment and Leadership
more
APWiL Third Cohort & Professor Freshwater as new APWiL Presidential Champion
more
New APRU Member – The University of Adelaide
more
APRU Presents Solutions for New Core Competency- Building at 18th APEC Future Education Forum
more
APRU on Bloomberg: The next stage: APRU-Google-UN ESCAP AI for Social Good Project now working directly with government agencies
more
APRU APEC University Leaders’ Forum 2022 Successfully Concludes with High-level Discussions on Preparing for the Next Pandemic
more
APEC Healthy Women Healthy Economy Prize Accepting Applications 2022
more
New APRU member - Simon Fraser University
more
Cyberport University Partnership Programme 2021-2022
more
Winners of the 2021 APEC Healthy Women Research Prize
more
APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Policy Dialogue
more
DiDi and APRU strengthen partnership with MoU and new APEC project
more
2020 Healthy Women/Healthy Economies Research Prize Application Open Through May 2020
more
New Member Spotlight: Shanghai Jiao Tong University
more
Biodiversity Essential to APEC Economies
more
New Member Spotlight: Universidad San Francisco de Quito
more
University of Malaya takes the lead on the APEC University Leaders’ Forum 2020
more
APRU shaping Asia Pacific education framework at 15th APEC Future Education Forum
more
What are the co-benefits to SDG14 when making progress toward other SDGs? Initial findings reported at APEC SOM3 from the APRU Pacific Ocean Program
more
APRU Partners to Close the Digital Skills Gap at APEC
more
Close the Digital Skills Gap by 2025 through Collaboration: APEC
more
APRU updates APEC officials on key insights relating to the Future of Work
more
APEC Healthy Women, Healthy Economies Research Prize 2019
more
APRU Partners with United Nations ESCAP and Google on AI for Social Good
more
APEC Project DARE (Data Analytics Raising Employment)
more
APRU Contributes Insights on Innovation Networks and Latest Research Partnerships to Policymakers at APEC Meetings
more
APEC Health Meetings in PNG enriched by APRU insights
more
The APEC 2018 Workshop on Innovative Marine Debris Solutions, July 26-27, 2018, Beijing
more
Experts Welcome Framework for Developing APEC Skills
more
APEC International Workshop on Adaption to Population Aging Issues
more
Call for APRU Expert Engagement for the development of the APEC Marine Sustainable Development Report 2
more
Invitation to the 6th APEC Conference on Cooperation in Higher Education
more
APRU Research Experts say APEC Economies Must Build Educated and Mobile Workforces to Offset the Negative Impact of Aging Populations
more
1
33