Questioning the Idea of the University in the Contemporary World.

The contemporary world calls for a new paradigm of living. Since the educational reforms of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the university has promoted the pursuit of 'usable knowledge'. The contemporary university, the main provider of higher education world-wide, is organised and structured on the principle of maximum effectiveness of the educational process. The corresponding idea of learning that is embodied within the contemporary university, differs significantly from earlier versions, although it is still somehow related to older ideas of knowing and learning left in heritage to us from the time of classical Greece, the Middle Ages and the modern period. Despite the recent development of many theories about the emergence of a 'knowledge society,' about 'intercultural education,' on the achievement of skills such as technical, vocational, artisan and other lifelong learning skills, there hasn't been much critical analysis done on how this double-bind and ambiguous relationship between society and the university came about and what could be its consequences. The contemporary university is meant to fulfil social, economic and often political purposes. But the meanings of the terms that determine its social role today have completely changed. In his book The Idea of the University (1946) Karl Jaspers reminds us that the main purpose of the university is not to solve social and economical problems - even though it can offer many useful ideas and insights that might important for solving them. But what could Jasper's formulation of the mission of the university still mean in our contemporary social context? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]