University Leaders From Asia and the Pacific Consider Challenges of Globalization - Karin Fischer, Chronicle of Higher Ed

Rather than refusing to participate in online-education experiments, universities should consider offering MOOCs in their strongest academic areas, said Tom Apple, president of the University of Hawaii-Manoa. For his institution, that could mean courses in astronomy and ocean sciences. But Mr. Apple acknowledged that developments like MOOCs are so very new that it's not yet clear how they might be incorporated into more traditional education. For example, online courses could help provide education in certain regions, like parts of Southeast Asia, where there are limited opportunities for formal schooling.... What is clear, said Chorh Chuan Tan, president of the National University of Singapore, is that presidents and vice chancellors in the Asia-Pacific region will have to assume greater global leadership in education. Working with Yale University, for instance, NUS hopes to create the first East-meets-West liberal-arts institution. "As the center of gravity shifts to this region," Mr. Tan said, "what does that mean for our role, our responsibility in creating knowledge?" http://chronicle.com/article/University-Leaders-From-Asia/137907/