The role of collaboration in enhancing knowledge integration in higher education

Knowledge in higher education should be closely related to research and innovation; research brings together teams from different disciplines to develop new ideas that may lead to advancing innovation. Collaboration is a data-centric activity at which each discipline shares information with other disciplines to create a common model, and integration which is knowledge-centric stipulates that each discipline contributes knowledge. Unlike collaboration, integration relies on participants sharing their knowledge. Knowledge integration is the process of combining many knowledge models and diversity of perspectives into a corporate model. Collaboration efforts in higher education are needed between institutions, not only to set the standards that would secure the quality assurance in higher education, but also to share experiences and knowledge among higher education institutions. On the other hand, integrating knowledge diversity is a crucial element, countries or a group of countries that share common background shall collaborate and create new approaches that take into consideration “their local” cultural heritage, wisdom and experiences to pave the way for better cooperation and knowledge integration. In order to have more integrated approach and to address new issues, some forums should be created on the national level to launch new initiatives towards transformation of knowledge in higher education, keeping in mind that regional and global collaboration will always be essential for success. These initiatives would help in setting new mechanisms to integrate knowledge among new disciplines and setting new standards, new applications and also to assure collaboration that would lead to enhancing knowledge integration.