Critical Muslim 59 Universities

The decades-long, worldwide project to reform higher education has failed to live up to either present challenges or projected future change. The university is now facing existential threats. Since the pandemic, the question of whether we need the university, as a physical entity, has been raised with increasing frequency. Advances in technology, including growing digitalization and the spread of AI, have also increased the risk of the whole enterprise going down with the bricks-and-mortar buildings. Moreover, the race for financial survival and profit may have consigned the university as an institution of academic excellence to the dustbin of late-stage capitalism. Can it survive in its current form? What might replace the ossified teaching machine, unable to adapt to change? How might we find new democratized ways--freed from concerns about rankings and fiscal gains--to continue knowledge building and prepare new generations for the future? This issue of Critical Muslim examines these and other related issues.

About Critical Muslim: A quarterly publication of ideas and issues showcasing groundbreaking thinking on Islam and what it means to be a Muslim in a rapidly changing, interconnected world. Each edition centers on a discrete theme, and contributions include reportage, academic analysis, cultural commentary, photography, poetry, and book reviews.

Ziauddin Sardar is a renowned writer, broadcaster and cultural critic. A former columnist on the New Statesman, he has also served as a Commissioner on the Equality and Human Rights Commission. He is professor of Law and society at Middlesex University, and the author of numerous books, the most recent being Reading the Qur'an (OUP); Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Sceptical Muslim; What Do Muslims Believe?, and Balti Britain: A Provocative Journey Through Asian Britain.