Last week Monash and Warwick launched an attempt, unique so far as I know, to build a globally networked university through cooperation as well as organic growth. It is early days, of course, but the omens are good.

It is interesting to consider just what proportion of world art and culture is housed in galleries and museums owned by universities. I suspect that the figure would be a pretty impressive one, any way you look at it. But what is really impressive is not the quantity but the sheer exuberance of so many university collections.

In the rest of this century, I suspect that getting our cities right will be one of the most pressing of the many lines of research that universities will have to engage with. Why would I make such a strong statement?

Why universities have taken on some of the activities that are now associated with them is sometimes close to anyone’s guess. I am not writing here about the 19th century sporting add-ons in the shape of Walter Camp and college football or the two Charles’s–Merivale and Wordsworth–and the boat race. Nor am I talking about events like the great expansion of research after the Second World War.

Everyone tends to assume that the growth of international students will go on unfettered. But I am not sure that, when all is said and done, it is going to be quite that simple. I was brought to this conclusion by a recent visit to Singapore.