U.S. research universites, both public and private, are the single most transformational force in society.

But I do not know that Americans living today ever imagined we would face economic competition on the level we are about to encounter from China and other countries scattered across the globe.

We may have become a little bit overconfident — and, I regret to say, a little bit complacent.

Creative destruction

It is essential to realize that the global economy still operates according to the forces of "creative destruction," described by the economist Joseph Schumpeter nearly a century ago.

The only way to move forward is to replace what you have with something better — to innovate and to create new technologies and products and processes that replace those that already exist.

Chinese investment

To anyone who has looked at the role of innovation as a driver of economic development during the past half-century, the most obvious mechanism to enhance the long-term economic competitiveness of our nation is to invest in America's research universities.

It is imperative that our students are capable both of integrating a broad range of disciplines and understanding a broad range of cultures in a rapidly changing world.

In order to maintain the mantle of leadership we take for granted, the challenge is to recognize that we must make an investment in education comparable to the current Chinese investment. Yes — the Chinese investment.

As part of a joint effort undertaken with the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, I led a delegation of American university presidents to China last year to participate in a forum on university design in the twenty-first century.

Striving for research

The objective of the meeting was to conceptualize and launch an international institute on university design charged with redefining research universities around the globe.

In China I had the opportunity to witness an unprecedented effort now underway to build from scratch approximately one hundred research universities modeled on, and intended to compete with, institutions of the caliber of the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, two of our leading public research universities and world-class by any standard.

Upcoming leader

In addition, the Ministry of Education in China plans to launch approximately two hundred other universities.

The global economy still operates according to the forces of "creative destruction."

The Chinese intend to compete, and they intend to compete on a global basis — as a global power — economically, militarily, culturally and every other conceivable way by making massive investments in education and research.

With an annual rate of growth of approximately 9%, the Chinese economy only hints at what is happening in the rest of the developing world.

Similar trends are underway in Singapore and elsewhere, and some nations are poised to transition from Third World to First World status, skipping all of the steps in between.

Influential entities

As we have learned here in the United States, our research universities, both public and private, are the single most transformational force in society.

No institution or organization possesses more potential to improve the human condition, foster sustained social advancement and economic growth, and provide society with the tools required for better planetary stewardship.

But for too long our great universities have been exclusive — that is to say, they have defined their excellence on the basis of exclusion.

Unfulfilled opportunity

The Chinese intend to compete on a global basis economically, militarily, culturally — and every other conceivable way.

The momentum of increased access to higher education by a wider demographic that marked the course of the past century has faltered in the past several decades, with the result that more and more students who would most benefit from access to this most obvious avenue of upward mobility choose not to pursue, or are not aware that options exist to pursue, a quality four-year university education.

In this global knowledge economy, education is the main driver for success, both for the individual and the collective.

Fit for globalization

And universities are the primary source of the knowledge and innovation that has driven our economy and provided us with the standard of living that we take for granted.

In order for us as a nation to remain competitive, it is imperative that our universities prepare students with a global focus who are capable both of integrating a broad range of disciplines and understanding a broad range of cultures in a rapidly changing world.

Among all the factors that I advocate in rethinking our colleges and universities, access is perhaps the most crucial.

But at present our universities engage relatively small numbers of students in a very structured learning process.

Ensuring the future

The new information technologies are enablers of universal access to information, but the socialization process associated with learning remains critical, and this takes place nowhere as effectively as in our traditional universities and colleges.

In China, I witnessed an unprecedented effort now underway to build from scratch approximately 100 research universities.

Traditional assumptions about who can and should attend college are no longer adequate, if we are to remain competitive.

Without the economic success that is the product of education, we as a nation may face a reduction in our quality of life in the next generation, something unheard of in our past.

To avert what sometimes appears to me an impending societal train wreck, education must become the central focus of our society.