Metropolitan Universities: Models for the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

Some universities today are presented with an unusual opportunity to evolve toward a model that addresses the contemporary challenges our nation faces, while at the same time seeking prestige and eminence. With eighty percent of the population of our nation living in metropolitan centers, opportunity occurs primarily for those institutions serving these areas. These metropolitan universities will be defined not so much by common characteristics as by the interactive philosophy from which these institutions establish significant, symbiotic relationships with their metropolitan areas. The metropolitan university concept is an inclusive and enabling model that may be adapted for institutions located in the central city, on the periphery of metropolitan areas, and within more broadly distributed population centers. Metropolitan universities will transform and be transformed by the society of which they are a part.