Universities without Walls
By: Prof. Dr. Younes Megdadi,
The concept of universities as an educational incubator for creating minds has transcended into a strategic partner in building society and all its components, which prompted universities to search for a seat for them to contribute to the process of development, change and construction based on the principle of participatory, social responsibility and community service in order to achieve sustainable development at various levels.
Believing in strategic partnership and community service, universities in developed countries have competed for decades to open their doors to everyone, starting with removing their surrounding walls as an expression of their administrations’ orientations towards sincere participatory and within community initiatives and programs to serve their communities, which made them one of the effective references in building and development, evidence and evidence of This is a lot and many know it, especially those who are students in those universities around the world, and these facts have created a civilized thought and culture that those universities and their countries sing about and the progress they have reached in various fields.
In fact, we find that the majority of Jordanian university administrations and leaders have graduated from Western universities and were inspired by the policies, directions and goals of those universities, not to mention the purpose of the absence of walls for those universities, which emphasized the necessity of integrating universities into society as a partner in achieving sustainable development, but we did not hear from One of them, over the decades of the life of our universities, put forward the Universities Without Walls initiative. Indeed, we find the majority’s belief in closed fences, gates, human and electronic guards, etc. As a result, stereotyped images of universities were left far from new concepts and roles, and the evidence is that we find the majority preoccupied with following up on the details of the educational process, the student and academic community, and the auditorium. Classroom, attendance, absence, meetings, papers and other details, all of which have become a place of energy consumption despite the digital transformation, and being content with showing them to society with specific aspects according to the order of their priorities, and as a whole they constitute only a small percentage compared to the size of the contributions of universities in developed countries, which stopped the followers and those wondering about the goals and reasons for these walls If we really believe in participatory and development, given that J Bright is a strategic partner in building society without borders and restrictions.
Modern strategic thought of universities administration, which believes in participatory service to society, requires a review of the strategic policies and plans of universities aimed at removing the walls surrounding universities to integrate them fully with society. A qualitative shift for its societies, which we hear about in the smallest details, and which has brought it to what it is in terms of progress and development and is at the forefront of the countries of the world, and this indicates the civilizational advancement of the vital role of universities in building countries and their civilization.
As a matter of fairness, we do not deny the Jordanian universities’ attempts and contributions aimed at construction and development as one of their responsibilities, but they are still modest in light of being surrounded by closed walls that isolated them from society, which needs to be reviewed within a new vision that touches their new responsibilities to become a fertile environment for modern thought of the concept and the inexhaustible role of universities in serving society in harmony with the aspirations of His Majesty the Hashemite King Abdullah II, the great son of Al-Hussein, and his trustworthy Crown Prince, may God protect and preserve them.
