Academics must get down from ivory tower, enter ‘knowledge tower’
In an interview with the MSTF, Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) emphasized that academics must leave ivory towers and enter the public sphere.
MSTF Media reports:
Ahmad Farhan Mohd. Sadullah in his interview with the Mustafa(pbuh) Science and Technology Foundation (MSTF), accentuated not only the significance of communicating science to the public by scientists, but also the necessity of acknowledging the efforts of the team that has worked with each scientist.
He noted that Muslim scientists in the past used to be considerably impactful in the world, but now they need to put much effort into showing the world that they are still able to be scientifically influential and can solve the problems of the world.
He appreciated how the endeavors of the Mustafa(pbuh) Prize are aimed at the recognition of “the best among the best.” However, he believes we need to further highlight the prominence of these works by acknowledging the efforts of the team behind the Prize laureates, so that “the principle of equity can also be practiced.”
“Sometimes we overglorify one person, but we must highlight the team or the supporting system, too. I think that would be a great move forward,” he continued.
Another suggestion put forth by Farhan was the recognition of shortlisted candidates.
Farhan also brought up “Mustafa(pbuh) Prize laureates as ambassadors” as another suggestion. Based on this, laureates need to give public lectures in order to inspire many.
“It will motivate more people to work within the Muslim world and establish our prominence. And, of course, we should inspire others as well and work with them even if they are not from the Muslim world,” he added.
Universiti Putra Malaysia hosted the 2nd Science and Technology Exchange Program (STEP) in Kuala Lumpur in 2016. Talking about platforms for networking, Farhan said in continuation of the network that STEP provided that year, “one of our research institutes continues to work with the partners across the world. That’s why we need that platform to assemble all of us.”
Talking about a possible initiative, he said a more comprehensive platform could be established where “all universities from Islamic countries are assembled every 2 or 3 years.”
In order to form better networks, according to Farhan, journals in addition to newsletters are also of high importance. “But again, behind all these, there must be people who are dedicated and champions that will push the agenda,” he noted.
Asked about the role of universities in science communication, he said “I think we cannot just live in our own academic world. So, at least at UPM, we believe that we have to go beyond just publication. Publication, no doubt, is important for us in academic world, but the people outside the university may not even know, appreciate, or even notice what we publish.”
The universities’ challenge regarding science communication, therefore, is “to get down from ivory tower, and to actually go to the public. And, I mean, we need to use the knowledge tower rather than the ivory tower.”
Elucidating this shift, he said “while in ivory towers you have to be exclusive and away from others, in knowledge tower, you should actually engage, educate, provide capacity building, and inspire the community.”
Another issue that Farhan pointed to was that the majority of organizers and academicians tend to highlight the winners more than how their achievements have changed the world. As an example, he mentioned Ahmad Fauzi Ismail, a 2023 Mustafa(pbuh) Prize laureate from Malaysia, stating “If for example the winner Fauzi who is a good friend of mine, is excellent in membrane technology, why can’t we in communicating him as a winner, also communicate how membrane technology has transformed the world. So, I think this requires capacity building which is poor in our countries.”
He said if we aim to motivate the youngsters to pursue science and change the current declining trend, we need to “go beyond the winner as an individual and highlight the impact and the work.”
Not only the public, our future generation, and our future students would benefit from this, but also the policy makers and governments would put it to good use, he said.
According to Farhan, they would think “This work of this person is really great, so why can’t we use this person to help solve bigger problems? So, I think it should be a stepping stone for our winners to be further used. It’s not the end of a career, but it is a beginning of new opportunities.”
Considering the 2023 Mustafa(pbuh) Prize laureate from Malaysia, Farhan was asked about his evaluation of Malaysia’s overall performance in science and research.
“The Malaysian government, especially the higher education ministry, perhaps started it as early as 2005. That was the first time there was a dedicated strategy towards strengthening research and innovation. It continued with the blueprint for higher education from 2015 to 2026. And now we are doing the next blueprint, and in each of these periods, strengthening research and innovation has been very critical,” he said.
In Malaysia, he continued, “the research trend has improved, but I think there are still a lot of capacity for improvement. I think we would like more impactful research, and by that I am talking about beyond publication, because I think we are there already in terms of publication, we are quite well covered in good reputable journals.”
“But the reputation of researchers and higher education among industry is still poor. Also, among parliamentarians and government policy makers it is still relatively unsatisfactory. Therefore we would like to have more impact in terms of the research work that we are doing. So the next level of higher education strategies in Malaysia, especially in research and innovation, is now going to be formulated for that purpose,” he added.
Ahmad Farhan Mohd. Sadullah, currently the Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Putra Malaysia, obtained his PhD in Transport Studies from the University of London in 1995, and his Master’s degree in Transport at the same university in 1990. He started his career as a lecturer in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) in 1995 and held the positions of Coordinator of the Innovation and Technology Development Unit, Dean of Engineering and Technology Research Platform, and Director of Innovation, Research and Innovation Division of USM. In addition, he was appointed as the Head of the National Blue Ocean Strategy Cluster (NBOS) of Road Safety and a member of the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) and served as Director General of the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS). He was the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic and International) at USM from 2017 to 2020.
