The campuses and projects that declare themselves as a Multiversity will honour this guiding spirit:
1. People-stewarded and learner-led
Learning at Multiversity will be designed by the learners, the community
and the local place, not by external experts. It will be driven by the spirit
of inquiry, self-exploration, dialogue, friendship, unlearning and
experimentation. There is no need to ask external authorities for
permission to define our own learning spaces, processes and gurus. The
‘stewardship’ of the Multiversity’s direction and activities will be in the
hands of those who constitute that particular local group and its
community and promote inclusive and shared decision-making. We will
value diversity of styles and approaches amongst the different Multiversity
projects.
2. Putting the planet at the centre
Operating from an earth-centric cosmology, the Multiversity will be
integrated in values of care for the planet, social justice and emancipation
of all living beings. They will explore the possibilities of localization,
human-scale systems, alive-hoods and living as a part of Nature.
Multiversities will seek to rebuild a partnership with the consciousness and
intelligence inherent in the natural world and regenerate and strengthen
diverse local eco-systems.
3. Valuing all kinds of learning and unlearning
Multiversities will invite participants to fluidly move between the roles of
a learner, a mentor, a guru, a curriculum designer, a researcher, networker,
and a practitioner as they engage more deeply with the head, hands, heart
and home. They honour and value wisdom, knowledge and experiences
from all sources, human as well as nature, as they break the false official
categories of ‘curricular’ and ‘extra-curricular’, fragmented disciplines,
anthropocentrism, etc. They seek to decolonize knowledge and
understanding, and to support diverse peoples' knowledge systems. They
are located in the ‘real world’ – continuously impacting and impacted by
live projects, problems, dreams and events. They encourage learners to
celebrate and learn from their mistakes, conflict, failures, etc.
4. Committed to nurturing inner and outer shifts
Multiversities are committed to shifts from within as well as in the world,
creating spiritually-anchored social action and spirituality anchored in a
social context. They will focus on regenerating the Self-in-society.
Multiversities support a bold experiment in creating a new story of human
consciousness beyond greed, fear, hatred, over-consumption, exploitation
and war. Hence principles such as interdependent self-reliance, sustainable
lifestyles, creativity, gift culture, non-violence, grassroots politics, social
entrepreneurship, emergence and radical collective intelligence will guide
it and manifest through.
5. Learning and knowledge freely shared by all
Multiversities will challenge the paradigm of education as a commodity,
business, patenting, student-debt, and copyright. The research, knowledge
and learning materials generated will be under the domain of CopyLeft
and belong to the community as a whole. We believe in developing more
models of collaboration and sharing. We will not deny learners access to
educational opportunities due to inability to pay money.