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WHY HIGHER EDUCATION AND WHY STUDENTS?. ESU Convention Budapest, February 18, 2011 Sjur Bergan, Council of Europe. WHY THE EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION AREA?. Concern about : attractiveness of European HE mobility: numbers and balance time taken to complete degrees employment
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WHY HIGHER EDUCATION AND WHY STUDENTS? ESU Convention Budapest, February 18, 2011 Sjur Bergan, Council of Europe
WHY THE EUROPEAN HIGHER EDUCATION AREA? • Concern about : • attractiveness of European HE • mobility: numbers and balance • time taken to complete degrees • employment • Brought in later: • social dimension • global dimension • Not explicitly mentioned: • broader purposes of higher education • the contribution of HE to European societies beyond ensuring employability
SOME CHALLENGES TO EUROPE • Disaffection, fear of the future and of others • Public and private spheres • Populism • the search for easy solutions • blame thy neighbor • Improve trust in public authorities • Complex issues requiring sophisticated answers • Environment • Social cohesion
PARTICULAR CHALLENGES • Be able to relate to multiple purposes • “Multipurposes”, not just multitasking • Look beyond the immediate • Long term vs. short term benefits and risks • Values, not just value added
EDUCATION – TOWARD A DEFINITION • Education: that which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding • Ambrose Bierce: TheDevil’s Dictionary
ONE ANSWER: EDUCATION • Fundamental to developing democratic culture as well as employment • Not a “once in a lifetime experience”: lifelong learning • “It’s the economy, stupid” • or • “Man does not live by bread alone”? • Broad range of competences
WHAT ROLES FOR HIGHER EDCUATION IN MODERN SOCIETIES? • Preparation for the labor market • Preparation for active citizenship in democratic societies • Personal development • Developing and maintaining a broad, advanced knowledge base • Council of Europe Recommendation Rec(2007)6 on the public responsibility for higher education and research
WHAT COMPETENCES? • Subject specific and generic • As societies, we need competences in a broad range of disciplines • Need ability to cooperate across discipline boundaries • Need ability to put our own discipline into a broader context • Knowledge, understanding, ability to act – but also attitudes • Subject specialists but also intellectuals
IS HIGHER EDUCATION A GUARANTEE OF CIVIC COMPETENCE? • Good examples • Students for civil rights • Students under military regimes • Students under Nazism • Students under communism • Bad examples • Students against civil rights • Students under military regimes • Students under Nazism • Students under communism • Democracy: institutions but above all democratic culture
WHY STUDENT PARTICIPATION? • Utilitarian arguments • Active learning better than passive • Do only employers, teachers and ministries know what students really need? • Cannot learn citizenship without practicing it • Students contribute a different perspective -> real added value • ESU has proved its value
WHY STUDENT PARTICIAPTION? • Fundamental arguments • Higher education is yours, as much as or more than anybody else’s • Are we serious about stakeholder participation? • Our societies need critical thinking and constructive solutions • Example: Belarus • Customers or members of a community?
HIGHER EDUCATION GOVERNANCE • Balance of competence and representation • Not just numbers • Not just research and teaching competence • With the shift toward external stakeholder representation, the view of what kind of competence is needed is tacitly shifting
WHAT EDUCATION FOR THE FUTURE? • The answer to the question “What kind of education do we need?” lies in the answer to a different question: “What kind of society do we want?” • Eugenio Tironi: El sueño chileno (2005)