An interview with Santiago Iñiguez, President of IE University, Spain

 How does an institution evolve its curriculum to keep pace with the rapidly changing landscape of technology and AI?

Organisations, both in business as well as in education, tend to be quite conservative and reluctant to change. That said, universities must be flexible as they are regarded as the cradle of innovation and knowledge. They can keep traditions but must also introduce governance systems and decision-making processes that favour innovation and change. There has been criticism of universities being ivory towers because, sometimes, the research systems and the way faculty are recognised, incentivised and paid favours the academia. So, we have to introduce several changes in the governance to align with the incentives of faculty and make them closely connected with their respective professions.

What are the critical skills that students must acquire to succeed in this AI-driven world?

We should foster our reading and writing skills in the age of AI or we will lose an important part of our cognitive skills. But, if we think about generic skills, I would say critical thinking is particularly important to foster innovation. Exposing students to different forms of assessment, not just the typical essays or multiple choice exams, but oral assessments where they can improvise, showcase creativity, think outside-the-box or even without one... While AI is going to offer many improvements, we also need to enhance and foster traditional skills that make individuals stand out as human beings.

When it comes to AI, how can an institute balance theoretical knowledge and hands-on practical experience?

The mission of universities is not just to train students to join a particular job, but to train them into committed global citizens. Students should also be taught civic virtues, making them more sociable, interactive, understanding of fellow human beings by learning from different cultures and even learning new languages. There are some things that universities provide that you cannot learn in the workplace. Having said this, we also need to bring research and teaching at universities closer to reality.

At IE, for example, technology is part of our learning process. We believe it is a friend, not a foe, and train our students to face and navigate this new world. We are the first partner of OpenAI in Europe. We are now distributing the licenses of ChatGPT to our faculty and will do that for our students very soon. We are also developing AI tutors to help our students in an empathetic way.

How important is interdisciplinary education? Why is collaboration across different fields necessary?

I think it’s essential. Innovation, in most cases, lies at the boundaries of disciplines. I always use an analogy to illustrate why this generalistic approach to education produces more entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial spirit. Look at two different systems. The one prevalent in Europe is discipline-oriented, created mostly in the 19th century. Basically, the idea is that professionals and students begin to specialise from year one. So for instance, they become mining engineers from the first year of their studies and they go deeper.

The system in the U.S. is different. Most students start with Liberal Arts course or a programme focused on the Humanities. This fosters a generalistic approach. Then, the second phase is of specialisation. Which of the two systems fosters more entrepreneurs? The answer is the one that combines a generalistic approach along with a specialisation afterwards.

What is the role of higher education in shaping the future of AI?

I believe that education is the major engine to transform societies. As an institution, we want to foster education across all geographies and bring participants who are talented from different cultures and produce entrepreneurs, global citizens and competent professionals committed to changing the world for the better. Universities should become universally accessible.

We are strengthening our scholarship programmes to bring talent from many different quarters. Our role as universities is, on the one hand, preparing those global citizens who transform the world for the better. Second is producing knowledge and research that helps the different professionals in their respective fields and industries.