Broadening multidisciplinary programs and exploiting the Internet’s educational resources helps the TU stay competitive in the new knowledge economy, argues TU Professor William Melody, who is retiring this year.
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”The 21st century marks an early phase of a fundamental transformation of the global economy. The industrial economy of the 20th century is being transformed into an information and knowledge economy,” says Professor William Melody, of the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management (TPM). A distinguished economist with some 40 years experience working for governments and universities across the globe, Melody argues that people, or human capital ‘knowledge workers’ are the primary resource powering the 21st century’s knowledge economy, attracting ”investment because knowledge is essentially produced, stored and applied by humans.”
Naturally, universities, whose staff and students are repositories of human capital, can play a key role in the new knowledge economy; however, they must first throw off their traditionalist chains and embrace change. Otherwise, Melody sees universities like TU Delft becoming anachronisms, marginalized by international competition from the private sector.
During his 5-year tenure at TPM, Melody helped develop new multidisciplinary programs integrating engineering, economic and policy disciplines. He sees the broadening of disciplines for TU students and greater exploitation of Internet resources as human capital and knowledge areas that can benefit the TU at home and abroad.
Melody’s TPM faculty produces the multifaceted human capital that the knowledge economy loves and, not surprisingly, while TU faculties like Chemical Engineering suffer (terminal) enrolment slumps, TPM is thriving, its enrolment numbers rising annually, as ambitious students combine technology, economics and management studies. However, TPM is still not generally accepted by TU management. ”The debate continues to rage: should we be at the TU or Erasmus,” Melody says.
While the TU remains reluctant to fully embrace its young, successful TPM faculty, MIT recognised five decades ago that an evolution was taking place within engineering and immediately acted decisively, broadening the disciplinary foundations of its traditional engineering and technology programs. In the 1950s, MIT surveyed its engineering graduates and discovered that most had gained management positions within a few years of graduating. Providing Technical engineering training only was clearly insufficient, so soon thereafter MIT made basic economics and management studies requisite parts of its engineering degrees and, moreover, founded its Sloane School of Management.
Today, the TU still hasn’t fully followed MIT’s lead, but Melody remains hopeful. ”If engineers are any good, within five years ofgraduation they’ll be promoted and will have to deal with budgets, cost restraints, and managing people,” he says. In the real world off campus, nobody does anything without strict budgetary considerations. ”If students leave the TU without a solid understanding of technology, policy and economics, we’re doing them a disservice,” Melody says. ”It’s a question of producing well-rounded operational engineers, as opposed to technicians.”
Pools
In its aversion to change, the TU isn’t alone among universities. Melody: ”The basic organisation and structure of how universities go about their business hasn’t changed much in the last 300 years.” Most universities, the TU included, have been very slow to take advantage of the Internet’s possibilities. Yet, the Internet, quickly distributing knowledge worldwide, offers great benefits for human capital and the knowledge economy.
By fully exploiting the Internet, the TU can positively impact underdeveloped countries and increase its enrolment numbers and access to global pools of talented human capital. Melody: ”Internet makes possible the twinning of universities, university programs, and individual faculties and students in rich countries with those in poor.” Rich country universities like the TU should provide Internet access to their libraries, course materials, and offer virtual courses to poorer countries. This would inexpensively transform universities in poor countries and ”there’s no reason why the TU couldn’t double it’s European student numbers and double that again by establishing twinning relations with poor country universities,” Melody says.
Because the Internet means ”the capacity to teach students is not constrained by the physical capacity of buildings, classrooms, and offices,” Melody predicts that in future the leading universities ”will become virtual organisations.”
Although Melody’s retiring, he also plans to go virtual, continuing to work via Internet as a ”virtual professor”, advising global organisations on the new knowledge economy and helping universities from Europe to Africa set up new multidisciplinary programs. Melody: ”I’m retiring, but my mission to support the development of human capital in the knowledge economy continues.”
Broadening multidisciplinary programs and exploiting the Internet’s educational resources helps the TU stay competitive in the new knowledge economy, argues TU Professor William Melody, who is retiring this year.
”The 21st century marks an early phase of a fundamental transformation of the global economy. The industrial economy of the 20th century is being transformed into an information and knowledge economy,” says Professor William Melody, of the Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management (TPM). A distinguished economist with some 40 years experience working for governments and universities across the globe, Melody argues that people, or human capital ‘knowledge workers’ are the primary resource powering the 21st century’s knowledge economy, attracting ”investment because knowledge is essentially produced, stored and applied by humans.”
Naturally, universities, whose staff and students are repositories of human capital, can play a key role in the new knowledge economy; however, they must first throw off their traditionalist chains and embrace change. Otherwise, Melody sees universities like TU Delft becoming anachronisms, marginalized by international competition from the private sector.
During his 5-year tenure at TPM, Melody helped develop new multidisciplinary programs integrating engineering, economic and policy disciplines. He sees the broadening of disciplines for TU students and greater exploitation of Internet resources as human capital and knowledge areas that can benefit the TU at home and abroad.
Melody’s TPM faculty produces the multifaceted human capital that the knowledge economy loves and, not surprisingly, while TU faculties like Chemical Engineering suffer (terminal) enrolment slumps, TPM is thriving, its enrolment numbers rising annually, as ambitious students combine technology, economics and management studies. However, TPM is still not generally accepted by TU management. ”The debate continues to rage: should we be at the TU or Erasmus,” Melody says.
While the TU remains reluctant to fully embrace its young, successful TPM faculty, MIT recognised five decades ago that an evolution was taking place within engineering and immediately acted decisively, broadening the disciplinary foundations of its traditional engineering and technology programs. In the 1950s, MIT surveyed its engineering graduates and discovered that most had gained management positions within a few years of graduating. Providing Technical engineering training only was clearly insufficient, so soon thereafter MIT made basic economics and management studies requisite parts of its engineering degrees and, moreover, founded its Sloane School of Management.
Today, the TU still hasn’t fully followed MIT’s lead, but Melody remains hopeful. ”If engineers are any good, within five years ofgraduation they’ll be promoted and will have to deal with budgets, cost restraints, and managing people,” he says. In the real world off campus, nobody does anything without strict budgetary considerations. ”If students leave the TU without a solid understanding of technology, policy and economics, we’re doing them a disservice,” Melody says. ”It’s a question of producing well-rounded operational engineers, as opposed to technicians.”
Pools
In its aversion to change, the TU isn’t alone among universities. Melody: ”The basic organisation and structure of how universities go about their business hasn’t changed much in the last 300 years.” Most universities, the TU included, have been very slow to take advantage of the Internet’s possibilities. Yet, the Internet, quickly distributing knowledge worldwide, offers great benefits for human capital and the knowledge economy.
By fully exploiting the Internet, the TU can positively impact underdeveloped countries and increase its enrolment numbers and access to global pools of talented human capital. Melody: ”Internet makes possible the twinning of universities, university programs, and individual faculties and students in rich countries with those in poor.” Rich country universities like the TU should provide Internet access to their libraries, course materials, and offer virtual courses to poorer countries. This would inexpensively transform universities in poor countries and ”there’s no reason why the TU couldn’t double it’s European student numbers and double that again by establishing twinning relations with poor country universities,” Melody says.
Because the Internet means ”the capacity to teach students is not constrained by the physical capacity of buildings, classrooms, and offices,” Melody predicts that in future the leading universities ”will become virtual organisations.”
Although Melody’s retiring, he also plans to go virtual, continuing to work via Internet as a ”virtual professor”, advising global organisations on the new knowledge economy and helping universities from Europe to Africa set up new multidisciplinary programs. Melody: ”I’m retiring, but my mission to support the development of human capital in the knowledge economy continues.”
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