The rise of innovative edu-districts

EDUCATION allows us to find meaning in everything, and gives us an understanding of the world around us. It offers society an opportunity to progress - regardless of race, gender, religion or politics.

The education arena has evolved, diversified and grown over the centuries and contributed to man's own evolution. While craft-based apprenticeships have historically trained artisans for the needs of society since ancient times, theory-based learnings of the ancient civilisations would find greater expression in the medieval universities that would groom early doctors, theologians and lawyers. As courses expanded in complexity and diversity to keep pace with man's curiosity and thirst for advancement, new institutions were formed that would reflect the needs of the time. By the industrial revolution, science, technology, engineering and mathematics-based learning (STEM) were being offered in industrial era polytechnics. Today, the education landscape is going through further transformation that similarly reflect the shift from industrial-based to knowledge-based digital economies.

So why has there been a proliferation of "education cities" in recent times? Well, this is not a new phenomenon known only in our lifetime. Education-oriented urban environments have been existing for centuries - and can be the socio-economic lifeblood of a city, which is why education continues to be a quintessential element within the city. In the past, education-oriented towns and cities like my alma mater, Cambridge, grew organically out of the confluence of learned individuals who in turn attracted other scholars to create centres of learning. These centres of learning - be they schools, colleges or institutions - became engrained in the urban fabric, and acted as catalysts for the growth of neighbourhoods and communities around them. The centres of learning and their communities continued to prosper and would both support and enhance industry, trade and commerce of the broader city for which they belonged.