In the future "bio-economy", economic value will be created at the molecular level, which we now refer to as nano-technology.

According to Kim Young-gil, president of Handong Global University in South Korea, the development of the information economy has progressed from the data age (1950-1960), to the information age (1970-1980), to the knowledge age (1990-2000) and finally into what could be called the "wisdom" age.

Given this progression, the most important economic development in recent years has been the rise of a new system for creating wealth. Such a system is no longer based on muscle and machine, but on mind and knowledge. As a result, the labour force in advanced economies no longer requires us to work on "things". Instead, people act on information and information acts on people.

In this era, the real power of a nation is therefore measured by its "knowledge" capacity, or the aggregate amount of knowledge, creativity, ingenuity and wisdom that its people possess. The yardstick for measuring the knowledge capability of a nation in the information-based society is the education level of its people.

This is the basis for all economic and social development. In such a situation, the importance of education cannot be over-emphasised.

In a paper on cross-disciplinary, cross-border education for the 21st century that he submitted to the World University Presidents Summit here in Bangkok last month, Kim says that the "new" university must undertake a paradigm shift if it hopes to prepare students to live and work in our increasingly complex world.

One trend that has emerged is that we are global citizens. We live and work in a rapidly changing global environment in which local economic and social forces clash with their international counterparts. We all face new challenges and opportunities, contradictory interests and commitments, diversified values and tastes and various environmental issues.

As global citizens, we're also required to develop a "global" mind-set by increasing our capacity to think and work on a global and inter-cultural basis.

This can happen through the "new" higher education. For instance, one of the challenges for universities is to provide effective global-leadership training and education.

Another challenge is to impart broad knowledge that transcends the barriers of academic disciplines. While departments in universities have traditionally been established along the dividing lines of academic fields, problems and challenges in today's world do not always fall within pre-determined lines.

For instance, a production accident at a steel mill is not just a problem of metallurgy, but a complex set of problems, involving the mechanics, electronics, engineering and operations management. In this context, solving problems requires knowledge that can only come from an inter- and trans-disciplinary education.

Inter-disciplinary education allows students to major in more than one academic field, centring around somewhat related fields, while trans-disciplinary education gives students opportunities to major in unrelated fields. In other words, students must be given broad knowledge and numerous ways to learn new skills after they graduate. This is the only way to keep pace with rapid technological changes.

At a time when the differences between disciplines are increasingly blurred, students also need more latitude in choosing their majors so that they can combine traditionally dissimilar and rigidly separated fields. Statistics show that it has become rarer for graduates to work in the field of their academic majors throughout their entire lives, especially when those students come from a technology or related major, where technical knowledge has a limited shelf life.

US statistics show that less than 30 per cent of the graduates of a well-known engineering school are working in a field related to their major five years after graduation. This phenomenon has become common in recent years, resulting in the increasing popularity of more flexible academic programmes, with combined majors.

Nophakhun Limsamarnphun

 nop1122@yahoo.com