What is University of Technology

This chapter interrogates an ecological model of university as a framework to understanding evolving roles played by institutions of higher learning, particularly universities, thus including their implications for a wider society transformational change. Barnett has explored various models ranging from the metaphysical, scientific, entrepreneurial, and bureaucratic to liquid, therapeutic, authentic, and ecological models. The author further argues that being and becoming ecological is a huge project, as it takes the university into a new order of being. A university within this model becomes an entity that constantly engages with itself and its adjacent environment in order to remain relevant and be part of the solutions to the societal challenges. In this chapter, case studies from the South African universities were used as the research technique, including selected interviews with key stakeholders in the higher education sector.