The University as a Living System

Abstract

Revitalising the university in the context of the pandemic and climate change requires a new ecological framework. Here the institution is seen as a living ecosystem in which information is transformed into knowledge through the entangled processes of teaching, learning and research, which optimises the system for deep approaches to learning. This idea of the university entails a shift from a Cartesian-Newtonian view to an ecological/relational epistemology.

An ecological perspective focuses on the relationship of the individual with their physical environment and views the world as an interconnected and interdependent whole. This implies that we return to nature as a model for cognition and the design of institutions rather than the abstractions of mechanical and dualistic reason. In this view research and teaching exist in a symbiotic relationship to each other, in a new concept of the university as a living system.