The University of 2050
The University of 2050 is a vision of the university as it can and should be in 2050. It is written by uniquely qualified authors: the students of the university of the 2020s, many of whom will raise the people who may become the students of the university of the 2050s. This connection gives these authors a direct stake in the success of the university of 2050. The university of the 2020s remains much like its predecessor of 25 or 50 years ago. The campus, the classroom, and the curriculum of the 1990s or even of the 1970s endure much as they were. This endurance may be due largely to the efficacy of these arrangements, or it may be due to a paucity of visionary, long-term planning. If the university of 2050 is to be more affordable, inclusive and sustainable than the university of the 2020s, the planning must begin now. The authors themselves determine the educational ideas and values that the university of 2050 will serve. They will also consider how the technology of the mid-21st century may permit new educational possibilities, and which university traditions of decades and centuries past should endure.
The University of 2050 is divided into three parts: 1. The campus of 2050 2. The classroom of 2050 3. The curriculum of 2050
Within each section, chapters will consider more specific subsets of these subjects. Authors are invented to consider each of them broadly, without regard in inherited assumptions. For example, the classroom of 2050 need not be a physical room at all, or may include a room and more besides.