The university in the digital age

Introduction: The university as an architect of the development of societies

Nowadays, when we refer to a university, we define it as an institution of higher education that issues academic degrees, which enable those who hold such degrees to exercise a profession and, consequently, to access the sector of the labour market corresponding to some of the areas of knowledge of their degree. At the same time, it is assumed that having a university degree gives one a better chance of success in finding a good job and developing as a professional. In reality, however, these assertions are not entirely accurate and correct. However, the argument that having a university degree will give more chances to get a job has been the main argument for people to choose to study at a university. This reality means that people often study by ‘choice’ (to get a job) rather than by ‘vocation’ (a person’s natural inclination or predilection for a specific field of work).

The process of urbanization of cities, the growing population and competition in the labour market has led to an increase in the number of universities in urban areas, which has led to a massification of higher education (Addie, 2016). These facts have led to education being seen as an industry, and a university industry has been created, which produces professionals with technical skills, but not necessarily people with a universal vision of things and committed to the development of their societies.

Of course, there are still universities that are aware of their commitment to being agents of development in their societies and committed to building a better world, training leaders with positive action, with values and principles, and with a universal vision of the world. But for many universities, education is not seen as a service, but as a product. This has contributed to the development of a mercantilist vision of education, a vision characterized by an emphasis on economic models of scale and commercial aspects of education, a vision that is detrimental to the quality of teaching (Segovia-García & Martín-Caro, 2023). For many universities, students are no longer citizens to be educated and trained, but customers to satisfy a need and to be paid.

If we take any city in the world as a reference, we look at the number of inhabitants and map the professional needs of that city: teachers, doctors, nurses, lawyers, economists, etc. We would see that the demand for jobs in that city does not correspond to the academic offer provided by the number of universities in that city. On the one hand, because all the universities have the same academic offer. On the other hand, with all of them together, they will offer the market a higher number of graduates than the number of jobs that the city requires. In commercial terms, we could say that there is misleading advertising on the part of the universities, which already know from the outset that there are not that many jobs or, even worse, that the courses they offer will not guarantee their graduates a job.

The first role of a university is to understand its time, to study the social, economic and cultural phenomena that may have an impact on its societies and to try to respond to the challenges that a society faces in a given period of its history. The essence of a university is to be a centre of thought, reflection and knowledge, a generator of new ideas that contribute to the development of its societies.

Since their origins, universities have used research as a working method in order to teach on the basis of the results of this research, only what is known can be taught, and this knowledge is provided by research and study. However, under a business and mercantilist vision, many universities are created only to teach, without research, and what is even worse, they are not committed to the development of societies but to the development of their shareholders of the business group that owns them. This vision has not only damaged the image of the university but has also brought certain professions into disrepute and has led to low salaries, generated by an excess of job seekers compared to the supply of jobs.

There are an estimated 25,000 universities in the world and an average of 254 million university students, a figure that has doubled in the last 20 years and is set to increase; but despite booming demand, the overall enrolment rate is 42 % with large differences between countries and regions (UNESCO, 2024). Among the top 10 countries with the highest number of universities are:

As can be seen, if we take as a reference only the first 10 of the 193 countries, we can conclude that, of the 10 countries with the most universities in the world, 9 belong to the G20 and 4 to the G7, and in all cases they are regional powers. If we were to take into account the geographical location, we would say that, of the five continents, there are mainly three continents with the highest number of universities worldwide: Asia, America and Europe.

Asia is the continent with the most universities in the world, with 18,555 universities (including the universities of India, Indonesia, China, Japan and Iran). This figure would be higher if we consider Russia, which is always in doubt as to whether it is a European or Asian country. In this study, we have considered Russia as a European country. The second continent with the most universities is America with 5,686 universities (United States, Brazil and Mexico), and in third place would be Europe with 1,675 universities (adding the universities of Russia and France).

It is not surprising that Asia is the continent with the most universities in the world, considering that developing countries in East Asia and the Pacific are growing faster than the rest of the world (World Bank, 2024), which translates into more companies in that region, and therefore more labour supply. World Trade Organization forecasts for 2024 estimate that Asia will contribute more to global trade growth than in the past two years (World Trade Organization, 2024), and by 2023 Asia is expected to account for two-thirds of the global middle class (KPMG, 2019).