The Global University, Part 1

Missional Campus Ministry & The Global University, Part 1
       By Steve Lutz. Part of an ongoing series on Missional Campus Ministry

Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples…

For all the gods of the nations are idols,
but the LORD made the heavens…

Ascribe to the LORD, O families of nations,
ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
                       –Psalm 96:3,5,7

Water runs downhill and the highest hills are the great cities. If we can stir them we shall stir the whole country.  — D.L. Moody

More potently than by any other means, change the university and you change the world.”   — Charles Habib Malik

I. The “Global City”
In recent years, students of business, culture, and politics have observed that the world is “flattening,” creating a truly international community and making national borders less important. One of the results of this phenomenon is the emergence of the “Global City” or “World City.”

The Global City is defined as a city/metropolitan area that acts as a major node in international commercial, social, and technological networks. What happens in and through a Global City has a “direct and tangible effect” on the rest of the world in a variety of spheres. Global Cities often have more in common with each other than with those in their own country.

The term is believed to have been coined by Saskia Sessen in her 1991 book of the same name. The Globalization and World City Study Group (or GAWC) based at Loughborough University in the U.K. has also contributed to the body of knowledge on Global Cities.

A consensus on the characteristics of a Global City is emerging:
•       Name recognition: stating what country or state it is in is unnecessary. (“Paris” is assumed to be France, not Texas—or Hilton).
•       Large   population: center of at least one million, typically several million.
•       Diverse, multicultural: young professionals, immigrants and their 2nd generation kids, business leaders, creative leaders, empty-nesters, the gay community.
•       Commerce & Finance: Flow of major capital and employment through multi-national corporations and financial institutions.
•       Culture-Shaping: Renowned art, film, music, theater scenes.
•       Influential politically: what happens there matters elsewhere.
•       Major academic center: universities, colleges, some of which are also global (more on this below).
•       Advanced infrastructure: mass transit, airports, telecommunications.
•       Major sporting center: multiple teams, arenas & stadiums, ability to host international sporting events.
•       Examples of Global Cities: In 1999, GaWC awarded their highest Global City rating to NYC, London, Paris, and Tokyo. A second tier included Chicago, Frankfurt, Hong Kong, Los Angeles, Milan, and Singapore.  Many other cities are recognized as being global in some respect.

Jim Gilmore, a Christian and business futurist/author of The Experience Economy and Authenticity, has noted that whatever is happening in Vegas is coming to a town near you, very soon.  The culture-shaping influence of global cities has only accelerated with the effects of globalization and technology.  Those at the highest levels of commerce, culture, and politics have long recognized that there is no more strategic place than the Global City.

This is also true in ministry. As D.L. Moody recognized over a century ago, “the highest hills are the great cities.”  Churches are needed everywhere. But the most strategic places to plant churches are in the cities, and the most strategic cities are the ones with global influence. To reach the rest of the world, we must first start by reaching global cities.  Some of the most missionally-minded leaders in the church today are gearing their ministries to do just this.

II. The Global University
Certain universities are also among the highest hills in the world. The Global University (also an entity recognized by those studying Global Cities) may be thought of as a Global City in microcosm, in terms of its makeup, its culture, and its influence. They are “City-Centers” unto themselves.

Global University Characteristics Mirror Those of the Global City:
•       Name recognition: One or two word names that need no explanation, such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton.
•       Size: large (usually more than 30,000 students), or residing in/near a large, metropolitan area.  (Though not necessarily within a global city).
•       Academic Excellence: Not restricted to Ivy League, this includes number of published articles by faculty, Rhodes scholars, and other similar criteria.
•       Diverse population: including international students (more on this below)
•       Influential: culturally, politically, and of course intellectually. Higher Ed students make up 6.85% of our national population (20.5 million undergraduate and graduate students according to 2006 Census data). But because these people grow to be leaders in every sphere, the impact they have on the world far exceeds their numbers.
•       Destination for multi-national companies: Flow of capital for research & employment.
•       Major sporting centers: In the US, the NCAA is a billion dollar industry.
•       Examples: Several surveys attempting to rank Global Universities, which include the usual suspects (Harvard, Cambridge, Yale, Oxford, Stanford, Princeton), but perhaps some “surprises” in the Top 100, including the University of Illinois, University of Wisconsin, UT-Austin, University of Pittsburgh, Purdue University, and Penn State University. (See links to two of the most prominent surveys at the end of this document).

The Nations are coming to study in the US in record numbers:
•       Over the past 3 decades, the number of foreign students (those whose citizenship is in another country) in higher education has grown more than fourfold: from 600,000 worldwide in 1975 to 2.7 million in 2004. The United States hosts the largest percentage of these foreign students of any nation, at 22 percent, or 594,000.  (National Center for Education Statistics, “Foreign Students in Higher Education”)
•       This means international students make up approximately 3.5% of the total higher education population. This number may initially seem relatively insignificant, but keep in mind two factors: 1) many of these students are studying at masters and Ph.D levels, where they make up an even higher percentage of those seeking advanced degrees; and 2) many of them are the elite of their respective countries, to which they will return in significant positions of leadership and influence.

Berkeley is an excellent example of the Global University.  The “tremendous and unprecedented” extent of international and immigrant student presence has led some to call it the “Immigrant University.”
•       63 percent of the campus’s undergraduate students (excluding international students) were either born outside the United States or have at least one foreign-born parent. The figure is lower, but still strikingly high, in the University of California system broadly, with 54 percent of undergraduates at all nine campuses being first- or second-generation immigrants(!)
•       European Americans represent the largest of the eight overarching categories into which the survey divides students at Berkeley, but at only 30 percent of the undergraduate population (Inside Higher Ed, “Berkeley as the ‘Immigrant University’ “ Nov. 28, 2007)

For more on effective missional campus ministry in the Global University, continue to Part 2.

Links:
International Students and Global Cities
http://www.lboro.ac.uk/gawc/rb/rb161.html

“Berkeley as the ‘Immigrant University’”
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/11/28/immigrant

National Center for Education Statistics
http://nces.ed.gov/index.asp

Shanghai Jiao Tong University Global University Rankings
http://ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2007/ARWU2007_Top100.htm

Times of London Higher Education Supplement (THES) Global University Rankings
<http://www.topuniversities.com/worlduniversityrankings/results/2007/overall_rankings/top_100_universities/>

Tim Keller on Ministry in the New Global Culture of Major City Centers
Part 1 http://www.redeemer2.com/themovement/issues/2005/may/ministry_in_globalculture.html
Part 2
http://www.redeemer2.com/themovement/issues/2005/fall/ministry_in_globalculture_II_p1.html
Part 3
http://www.redeemer2.com/themovement/issues/2006/winter/ministry_in_globalcultureIII.html
Part 4
http://www.redeemer2.com/themovement/issues/2006/spring/ministry_in_globalculture_IV.html