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Acceptance Speech
Prof Dzulkifli Abdul Razak, IAU President
IAU 14th General Conference, 30 November 2012
Inter American University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA
Dear General Conference participants
I would like first of all to express my heartfelt thanks for being given such trust and honour to head the
IAU as its new President. I am humbled by the level of confidence and support of a group of friends who
took the trouble to nominate me for the position. In 2004, when I joined IAU as a Deputy Board
member, I was just too grateful to be included, and to contribute the little I could for higher education.
Like some of you in these last few days, Prof Hans van Ginkel, the President at the time, was kind
enough to request the signatures of the then board members who were not even aware of my
existence. For that I would like to acknowledge Prof van Ginkel’s effort which enabled me to begin anew
in IAU today.
Unlike the previous IAU Conferences, this morning I woke up and felt a little weight on my shoulders. I
was wondering if this has anything to do with yesterday’s announcement by Prof Juan Ramon de la
Fuente assigning me the new Presidency of the esteemed IAU. Heavy or not, it looks like this is
something that I have to get used to for the next four years till 2016, working together with you and
your elected representatives as members of the Administrative Board, as well as the Deputy Board
members, aided by a top class Secretariat that Presidents of other organisations can only envy. Given
the experience of the past 8 years, as a Deputy Board member, and latter a full Board member cum
Vice‐President, I am convinced that together we can be a formidable team to collectively lead the IAU in
ensuring not only its mission is met, but also several of the expectations that you have expressed for
example in this Conference alone.
In the last 2 days, we have been inspired to look into the future to prepare a whole new generation of
co‐learners as we venture together with them to shape an emerging model of the university of
tomorrow. Over the last 2 days, we have heard candid comparisons of what a 19th century university
looked like as compared to what a 21st century version ought to be!
We have been challenged by Dr Ismail Seragaldin’s vision of the university of the future, and how wrong
it is to copy the manufacturing process, as is happening today. Some compared today’s university to that
of human factories producing more human “goods” rather that the humans that we are all first and
foremost. And that human dignity comes only second to human “capital”!
Yesterday, we listened intensely as Prof Monique Castillo teased out (in French) the 3 visions of
globalisation (if I understand her correctly). Two of these follow the economic dimensions, obeying and
adapting to the market needs leading to several unintended consequences that could be harmful to
higher education in the long‐run. Instead, she argued that we need a cultural common good for
Acceptance Speech, Dzulkifli Abdul Razak, IAU President 2012-2016_IAU14th GC, 2012 Page 1