The need for a pro-active role for universities in the Third World in health development is identified as one of the important frontiers of international health. The questions of how to combine scientific objectivity with involvement in social problems are examined, using the experience of the Aga Khan University in Karachi, Pakistan as an example. The need for a clear and explicit value base to guide the university in its engagement with the problems of its society is stressed. The Third World university must serve the purposes of both absorbing advances in science and benefiting those who live at the social and geographic periphery of the country.
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