Soulware: The American Spirit in Global Higher Education

Dr. Way Kuo is the president of City University of Hong Kong and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Dr. Kuo will discuss how the process of internationalization in higher education has enabled the rapid development of universities around the world. Many people have been learning the America’s higher education system. However, there is still a lack of what he refers to as proper “soulware”, i.e. a type of culture, mentality, professionalism, behavior and way of thinking; a certain quality among educators that needs to be cultivated in order to create an innovative environment in which academics and students fulfil their potential so that universities are regarded as necessary rather than as ornaments for learning. Dr. Kuo was previously on the senior management team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Dean of Engineering at the University of Tennessee, and Head of Department of Industrial Engineering at Texas A&M University. He worked for Bell Labs before assuming professorship at Iowa State University in the 1980s.