APPENDIX 14

EIGHT CRITERIA FOR INVOLVING SITUATIONAL COMPLEXITY
IN THE PROGRAMS OF HIGHER EDUCATION

    The university that is favorably inclined to proceed along the indicated lines will require a set of guiding criteria to monitor the necessary transition.

  • Close Association with the Mission of the University. The factors involved should have a close association with the mission of the university, first to justify their existence within the university, and second to make possible articulation of why these factors and any activity involving them deserve a significant place in the university.

  • Prospects of a Significant Social Benefit from a Program Involving Complexity. It is reasonable to ask that prospects exist for a significant social benefit to accrue by admitting programs involving complexity into academic offerings.

  • A Body of Existing Knowledge Adequate to Underpin Programs Involving Complexity. While it isn't reasonable to expect that everything would be known about complexity in order to admit it overtly to university programs, it is reasonable to ask that there be some existing body of knowledge that is adequate to mount a program.

  • University Faculty With Significant Knowledge of Complexity and the Capability to Program and Lead Programs or Projects Involving Complexity. Unless there are faculty who are equipped or can and will become equipped to construct and lead programs or projects involving complexity, there would be no point in incorporating such programs or projects in the university.

  • Identification of Complex Situations. It must be possible to identify those complex situations to be studied, in order to justify the development and use of the supporting infrastructure for their study.

  • Human Learning Events. There must be events taking place in the university that facilitate human cognition about the complex situation.

  • Human Information Sources. There must be human beings involved who have exercised or will exercise space-time sampling of a complex situation that would be part of any system inquiry into it.

  • Supporting Infrastructure. Some part of the university's new Horizon College infrastructure should be arranged to facilitate system inquiry as part of a study of a complex situation.