1. IAU Durban Conference, August 20-25, 2000
11th General Conference: Universities as Gateway to the Future
Plenary Panel III
Warren Clewlow
Chairman, Barlow Limited, South Africa
Introduction
I am very happy to be here. I hope you as visitors to our lovely country have enjoyed your short stay
in Durban. I come from Durban and of those of you who know Natal well, if you come from this part
of the world you are called a banana boy. I also had the privilege of being educated in Natal
University and am happy to still have some links with that wonderful institution.
Outsider's Point of View
I am like an outsider looking in on this Conference, which you have all been attending. So, if I may
just put a view from an outsider, when it comes to higher education I read your papers and have been
thinking about it. I have tried to put into four little boxes, four little categories. The first thing which
comes apparent to an outsider is that if you can use market terms there is a huge increased market for
knowledge. The business that you are in is growing tremendously. So, my first point there is this
huge new market for education. The second point is that technology and especially just in recent years
has advanced so much that there are now many many wider sources available to obtain that knowledge
and many of those sources are giving you knowledge at a very high quality. The third point I make is
that there is an explosion of institutions and sources of that knowledge. The fourth point is a little bit
harder to describe. From the outside, as an industrialist, where we need technically very competent
people - that is very much the emphasis today. There is still the need overall to produce people, not
only technically and skills competent, but people I would describe as being educated and civilized.
The Life-long Market
From a university's point of view, my first point, the increased market: what a great opportunity it is
for you. More and more people wish to be educated today. I think of the time when I was a youngster
and referring to the paper that was presented by Dr. Ismail Serageldin, he described the way I was
educated. Twelve years at a school, four years then at getting higher education and then forty years of
applying it in the business world. That is not happening today. The market for people requiring
knowledge does not stop when you finish those four years. It goes on and on and on. So, there is a
greater demand for knowledge by people from all sorts of life and in all ages. This to me is a great
advantage and challenge to universities to get into that market.
Technology
The second one is the technology, the advancement, and the means of getting knowledge. That is
pretty wide-spread. As universities, you will no doubt be tapped into those sources of knowledge so
that you are increasing the quality that you are giving to your students. It is easier to give it to them in
a way from a technical point of view. So, from a university point of view the knowledge
advancements and technology is a great plus as far as you are concerned.
Competition
The third one introduces perhaps more competition to universities. Why do groups offer that
education? And, there they are. In other words, they are also competing for that first broad new
market.
The Edge
But, the fourth one that is where I believe that you have the edge. That is something that we can never
forget. In spite of all that is available to impart knowledge today, we still need to make sure that we
are producing people, especially in this country, people that I would call educated and civilized.
Introducing skills, which you cannot pick up from Internet. Skills such a " How do you make people
more innovative?", " How do you make people think differently?", "How do you impart to a student
the importance of ethics in the times that lie ahead?" How do you teach a person how to communicate
today? If you cannot communicate you have a great disadvantage. All those extra factors on which I
think you have to concentrate and which I am sure you are doing so.

2. Money and the State
The previous speaker covered points I was going to make about financing. He made a really good
point that the state has an obligation in all our countries to support higher education. But in addition to
that, whilst the state will play a role, other sources of financing are going to be needed. Over and
above what the student himself or herself can pay. That means the universities have to interface with
the business world, with funds that provide money for education. That is a very important aspect.
Now, if I may come back to Natal University, where I have an involvement, we were quite hard at
that, the university and the business world, the world that is helping the university with funds in
different ways. We work together and it is important that it is from a university point of view.
Professor Gourley works very hard at explaining to us from the outside what the issues of the day are.
How they have to approach them and I think, in South Africa, we have that extra challenge that we
have to give opportunities of education to a much wider group of people that took place in the past.
Openness
So there is the university interfacing with the business world telling us what the challenges and the
problems are. From outside giving interface back to the university, we are trying to explain the sort of
qualities that we need, the sort of people that we need, how various advancements are taking place in
the outside world that have to be met by the generations coming through. So, it is the interface. Now,
how does it work best? Tthere is only one answer and that is absolute clarity. One has to be open, one
has to be honest with each other. One has to make sure that we understand all these facets. When that
happens, it helps everybody to get the wheels of development going. I am sure in the rest of the world
you probably could be ahead of us as far as that is concerned. But, I believe, we in South Africa, are
trying very hard to make sure that that cooperation between the universities, what they are trying to
do, what the private sector requires, the education, the civilization, all those factors we are working
very hard at developing those skills. I think by having a Conference such as this one, here in our
banana land (I'm not going to say our banana republic), you have given us the honour of getting
information from you, which is going to help us.