ABSTRACT
The traditional university has been under attack everywhere for not being “relevant” to social needs. The universities in developing countries, copied largely from traditional European models, have sometimes seemed remote from and unresponsive to the needs of the people. Many of the changes in higher education reported at Wingspread have grown out of demands for relevance to real-life experiences and needs. Wingspread educators were divided on the most appropriate role for higher education in training. The values of the culture affect both the university’s means and its ends. The university can help to clarify and examine social values, potential as well as existing ones. Educators in developing countries agreed that the university must help to identify the problems of society and train people to solve them. Universities in developing countries have thus tried to join more closely the three commonly acknowledged functions of the university--teaching, research, and service.
