Peripatetic: 9 Answers to Why Travel Is Necessary for University Leaders
March 28, 2011, 11:28 am
It is out of term in many parts of the Northern hemisphere and this is a time when many university leaders will be threading their way around the world. For example, I am about to set out on a two week journey taking in China and the United States, visiting Beijing, Xiamen, Washington, New York, San Francisco and Seattle (the last, by the way, to give a paper at the Association of American Geographers annual conference).
Many people question the value of these kinds of journeys – indeed one British newspaper recently grouped all expenditure on overseas travel by Vice-Chancellors as perquisites. So why, in these days of teleconference suites that really work and a general concern about carbon footprints, is this kind of schedule still necessary?
Here are nine answers to the question – I am sure there are more.
First, you will not often get the opportunity to see certain key actors (e.g. Chinese government ministers and industrialists) outside of their home territory. Meetings with these actors are vital in order to exchange information, build trust and assert the presence of your institution in what is now an international – and internationally competitive – marketplace.
Second, certain key points of contact for universities which are extremely influential so far as student choices are concerned are inevitably overseas, most especially embassies. Visiting ambassadors and their education officers is often vital in order to maintain visibility. Similarly local media are important as a means of raising profile.
Third, just as in every other walk of life, opportunity comes through contacts. Some of the most fortuitous contacts I have made have been at overseas meetings which were often set up for a quite different purpose but moved on to produce unexpected opportunities and analyses.
Fourth, the conduct of higher education depends on professional relationships which are also friendships. These friendships can lead on to all kinds of exciting and fruitful cooperation. I can think of three university leaders who I can rely on because we are and will continue to be friends and I need to see them to maintain what is both an enjoyable and a productive relationship.
Fifth, as any reporter will tell you all information requires feel to be effective. De-contextualised information often tells you very little at all. You need to know the lie of the land – who is really important, who knows who and can get you to meet them, and so on
Sixth, university leaders need diversity of outlook. As Scott Page and other complexity sociologists will tell you, leaders who talk only to their own will construct a worldview which is narrow and in all likelihood obdurately out of touch. A range of perspectives is better than like minds.
Seventh, all modern universities have extensive alumni networks and their members rightly expect to see you now and then. These alumni networks are a part of the university which is located abroad but are a part of you.
Eighth, many universities teach overseas, through overseas campuses and many other means. Graduation ceremonies and the like are often conducted in these overseas locations and although it may not be possible to attend every time, an appearance every now and then is clearly in order.
Ninth, not unnaturally, students and staff from overseas on your own campus expect you to know about their countries and to have visited them. Quite correctly, they expect connection.
All of these factors and audiences demand a personal presence but crammed domestic diaries make efficient travel choices an absolute necessity. Telepresence, and tools such as this very blog, can help share ideas with international audiences but to make lasting connections with individuals within these audiences, and to build true partnerships with them and their institutions, means coming to where they are in both a metaphorical and a literal sense.
via chronicle.com
