Universities need to ¡°trigger¡± decision-makers by giving them information they cannot ignore, a Bangkok conference has heard.

Bernhard Schwartl?nder, global health envoy with the German Foreign Office, said the higher education sector needed to focus on producing ¡°strategic information¡­that hurts¡±.

¡°It hurts people in a way that they feel triggered and obliged to¡­move in a certain direction, to take difficult and inconvenient decisions,¡± Dr Schwartl?nder told the Association of Pacific Rim Universities leaders forum hosted by Chulalongkorn University in Thailand.

¡°We can trigger those decisions by providing the right information [which] puts people on the spot and says, ¡®You have the choice; you can do this or that.¡¯ And it¡¯s obvious which is the right choice.¡±

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He said universities and researchers needed to get better at ¡°finding that right piece of information that triggers a completely different sector in society to get into gear¡±. This ability constituted a ¡°research topic¡± in its own right, he added.

A medical doctor, epidemiologist and former chef de cabinet for the World Health Organisation¡¯s director general, Dr Schwartl?nder was discussing how universities could work more effectively with diplomats and other decision-makers.

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He said that this was a pertinent question in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, which had fuelled innovation of unprecedented pace ¨C in isolating the virus, publishing the genomic sequence, developing an ¡°excellent lab test¡± and producing ¡°highly effective¡± vaccines ¨C amid institutional inertia that had stymied the sharing of information until ¡°all checks had been done¡± and the findings had been published in ¡°a renowned journal¡±.

None of the blockbuster movies about catastrophic epidemics have captured the ¡°disconnect between some of the most impressive scientific progress and political realities based on mistrust, individual interests [and] the lack of foresight¡±, Dr Schwartl?nder said.

He advocated bringing students ¡°to the forefront¡± of policy development. ¡°It is about linking the wisdom of the communities in general into decision-making. That requires more than hierarchical systems.¡±

john.ross@timeshighereducation.com