“In Colombia, we envision a university centered around the common good of knowledge.”

In the InfoCLACSO of September 18, “What role do public universities play in society?”, Leopoldo Múnera RuizThe Rector of the National University of Colombia spoke with CLACSO.tv.

The Rector criticized “the idea that the only valid knowledge is scientific and academic knowledge, and that everything else is superstition; that we shouldn't engage in a dialogue of knowledge; and that there is only one way to understand science. Because that is another debate we haven't opened up enough: there isn't just one way to understand science, and even Western modernity doesn't have a single way of understanding science. As the Colombian philosopher Alfredo Gómez Müller says, Thomas More stands in contrast to Erasmus, and there are different conceptions. Spinoza stands in contrast to Hobbes. And that's only if we're talking about the West.”

Regarding the specificities of our region, Múnera Ruiz pointed out: “If we look at Latin America, there are a great many developments beyond the hegemonic way of understanding science and knowledge. So, I think there is a debate about that, about what scientific knowledge is. And about whether scientific knowledge can be self-contained without negating itself. I believe that if science is self-contained, it becomes dogma, it denies its starting point.”

Furthermore, he referred to open science, which for him “implies discussing other forms of evaluation and that in Latin America we consider, as is already being done and as CLACSO is promoting, other ways of evaluating scientific production, but also our own institutions. That we have contextualized elements—in feminist terms, situated—and do not start from an abstract, supposedly universal reference point applicable to all forms of knowledge. This has to do with academic productivity, how we value it, but also with projects of interaction with society.”

Regarding the experience of the University of Colombia, he stated: “There is a different university model than the one that has prevailed in Colombia and Latin America, which is a model centered on the commercialization and commodification of knowledge and on a university that provides paid services. We are proposing a university centered around the common good of knowledge and even affirming that the university is a common good of the country.”

Interviewed by Gustavo Lema.