If the Nineteenth Century is titled the era of Industrial Revolution and the 20th Century as the age of Technological Revolution, the budding omens and the promising harbingers of our times all indicate that the new century could deservedly be designated as the epoch of Communication and Enlightenment Revolution.  We owe this to the great names of the last century such as Freud, Einstein, Galbraith, Shrumm and Hopkins amongst many.  I would like to bring forward two names that although members of the 20th Century Olympus of Knowledge in their own rights, yet have been unsung heroes of innovation and futuristi foresight in the field of plurality education.

Nearly fifty years ago Herbert Marcuse and Erich Fromm laid the foundations of a new type of university in Mexico.  What made the Marcuse-Fromm experiment so distinct, however, was the proposal in displacing the focus of the process of education from the structure and institution to the learner and educant.    It was the Mexico experiment that coined new terms and proposed a new set of philosophies in the field of human learning.  Education was called upon to become effective, multi-dimensional, multi-disciplinary, and geared to the requirements of real world situations.   The student was trained to learn what is deemed to be the requirements of the chronological and spatial needs of the human community now and in future, in a manner that will result in self-betterment and self-accomplishment for life (Life-long Education).

The emphasis of the process of education was not to convey to the student a package of pre-determined lore, and hope that he understands it and can implement it in the future, but on the contrary, to train the mind of the student to research and recognize real-world problems, and using his/her expertise gained by a desire to seek knowledge, to find and implement real-world solutions.  This obviously could not be achieved unless the University moved out of its traditional, pedantic shell and accepted to make use of all and every means of communication available that could bring home the message and the know-how to the learners.

Based on this concept, the American University of Human Sciences came to being in August 1994, as the first multimedia, global university in the world, to provide quality higher education to all seekers of self-betterment and life achievement. The idea of democratic accessibility to higher education is not new, and in fact goes back to the last years of the 19th Century, where in London, England, the first "University Without Walls" was established.  The United States of America, with its expansive geography and demographic diversity, together with the liberal ideas that form the backbone of this great nation, was the first in the world to extensively advocate and practice distance and home learning at higher level. The innovation that the American University of Human Sciences insists upon, however, is using the latest tools and approaches of modern educational technology.  In this University the prominence is not put on the “institution”, as we believe any institution without the ability to adapt to the requirements of the real world becomes no more than a relic, a dinosaur.   With us the emphasis is on the “learner”, any individual who wishes to learn how to apply his/her acquired knowledge and experience to solve real world situations effectively and responsibly; any person who wishes to learn how to keep abreast of the process of change through multi-dimensional and multi-functional life-long education.

At this University we have no students; we are here to help learners, regardless of age, origin, color, belief, creed, or Place of birth and residence, to achieve a life-long goal toward self-reliance and for serving humanity at large.  We have no Main Campus with parklands, marble halls, security guards, playing fields or football and hockey teams with a group of coaches that cost the students millions of dollars a year.  The American University of Human Sciences parklands are the rainforests of the world that have to be preserved from ignorant and greedy destruction.  Our playing fields are the back streets of cosmopolitan slums, where we try to replace the syringes of murderous drugs with life-giving microscopes.  Our security guards are our mentors, who bring years of education and experience at a meager charge to help the next generation of guardians of human moral and cultural values in the villages of Africa, Asia and South America.At the end of 19th Century it was University of London that created “the university without walls”, and it was at those last days of the 20th Century that we created “ the university without geographic and national boundaries”.   The guiding light of the University is its motto Libertas ab Discere (Freedom to Learn), thus accepting the fact that knowledge is not amonopoly of any given nation or human group, but on the contrary, the kernel of the common mass of human heritage.  The operational aim of the University is stated in its slogan “ Educating the World for the 21st Century”, and we endeavor to achieve this through updating and using the latest tools and approaches geared to the requirements of the societies in which we operate.  American University of Human Sciences views the world as the paragon “Global Village”, and contends to become the “Village University”, as the spatial and temporal dictums of the Age of Information Technology require.

The dreams of all advocates of democratic higher education, I believe, finally will be fulfilled, and my colleagues and I, and the learners who put their trust in us, are very proud to feel that we have been a small party to this aspiration. I wish the University every success with its future and have every trust that the new management team will lead it to our ultimate compassionate goals.