Not only should higher education provide the best in educational opportunities, it should also generate new knowledge and new insights to serve the needs of the community and society.
Higher education institutions have a distinctly public character or responsibility to society. 13 To meet this public responsibility objective, higher education institutions historically receive significant funding from government sources. Today, the basic funding and functions that higher education institutions perform are going through a process of change. The teaching and research functions are being reassessed in particular with an eye on the contribution they make to the social-economic well-being of their environment. Higher education is not only expected to deliver excellent education and research, but it also has to deliver those outputs in ways and forms that are relevant to the productive process and to shaping the knowledge society. In addition to the transmission and extension of knowledge, universities have been called upon to engage the following: (1) Play an important role in the general social objective of achieving greater equality of opportunity; (2) Provide education adapted to a great diversity of individual qualifications, motivations and aspirations; (3) Facilitate the process of lifelong learning; and (4) Assume a public service function by making a contribution to the solution of major problems faced by the local community and society at large. 14
wtamu.edu/wt125wp-responsiveness-to-industry
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