Many of the leaders in education are flocking to Raleigh today and Friday to discuss changes that need to be made to higher education in the coming years.
The forum, titled Transforming Higher Education, is put on by N.C. State’s Institute for Emerging Issues.
Some of the speakers include Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings, controversial Harvard professor Larry Summers, William Amelio, CEO of Lenovo, as well as many other business and university leaders from across the nation.
According to Anita Brown-Graham, director of the Institute for Emerging Issues, the speakers will focus on three main topics: the role of institutions in providing economic development, how to push innovative technology and entrepreneurship and to consider the institution’s role in providing opportunities to more people.
“We’ve recognized we’re not doing this for the sake of higher education, but for the students and the business leaders and public officials that hire those students,” Brown-Graham said.
With discussions taking place across the nation on the state of higher education, Brown-Graham said this year’s forum topic is particularly timely, and they have worked to bring the leaders of the discussion to Raleigh.
Spellings, along with fellow forum speaker Governor James Hunt, put together the Spellings Commission in the fall, which addressed access and performance in higher education.
“We were looking for people like Joe Hadzima from M.I.T, which is noted for its cutting edge approaches — we’ll see if those can be applied here in North Carolina,” Brown-Graham said. “There’s people like Charlie Reed [Chancellor of The California State University] who is known for his ability to reach out to underrepresented groups.”
Brown-Graham notes that the United States is the leader in higher education, but that gap may be decreasing.
“It is becoming increasingly apparent that within the United States, higher education will play a critical role in advancing globalization,” she said. “It is important for the U.S. to continually examine our competitiveness internationally.”
This year’s forum is the twenty-second annual, and according to Roland Stephen, the assistant director for research and policy for the Institute, the University formed the Institute to become a 365-day operation.
Stephen said the Institute forms committees throughout the state, refines ideas and deals with the mobilization of leaders.
“The Forum is just part of the overall program,” Stephen said. “This year, we spent time on tax and finance, which was last year’s topic. The Forum is a huge event, but it’s just part of our comprehensive goal.”
Today’s forum will include a focus on North Carolina. Businesses from across the state will send their leaders and many of North Carolina’s universities will send their chancellors and presidents.
“It’s really important to recognize good things not only in the U.S., but also the innovative things happening in North Carolina,” Brown-Graham said.
