Opinion: Universities’ role in building a better Canada – Edmonton Journal

November 16, 2015

Universities are among the most enduring institutions in society because they are educators, generators of new ideas, and engines of social, cultural and economic prosperity. Universities hold us all to account.

No other institution in society has as its ultimate purpose the search for truth and knowledge. No other institution has the freedom to undertake curiosity-driven research, research that may have no immediate utility, but from which we know all major social, scientific and technical innovations flow. No other institution has the licence — indeed the responsibility — to question accepted truths, blow up tired assumptions and reimagine the possible.

Today, Canadian universities are trusted more than any other public institution. This is not only because they reflect and champion our fundamental democratic values of intellectual integrity, freedom of inquiry and expression, and the equal rights and dignity of all persons, but also because universities remain our nation’s great opportunity equalizers.

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