Education for a United Europe

European integration and closer relations between East ans West require new corses and new approaches to higher education. This has prompted the appearance of new, integrated coarses in European Studies.

As far as higher education is concerned, universities are not “Temples of Wisdom”, whose sole function is to produce an intellectual elite, with or without any relevance to society’s actual needs. In order to respond adequately to society’s growing complexity and its need for a highly-skilled labour force, educational policy-makers have had to provide for as many young people as possible to enter the higher education system. Therefore university threshholds have had to be lowered both economically and sociologically, but also in terms of admission criteria. Another development which has occurred almost everywhere is the inclusion in the university system of technological or polytechnic institutes.

This shift has had certain consequences. Universities everywhere are facing similar problems: lack of space and infrastructure, inadequate administration, limited funds for research and teaching.The conjunction of these elements with the demographic surge of the past-war years has resulted in areal “university crisis” characterized by student over-population in the first university levels and a general failure of the system to respond to market-demands. On top of this, it appears that a university degree is no longer considered the asset it was before in terms of getting a job.

Postgraduste education has grown accordingly. This evolution has been particularly significant in the social sciences.

This is the context in which courses in European Studies- sometimes called Integration Studies- have grown. Of course, different strategies have been followed. Some such courses offer an extensive programme, trying to cover in a multidisciplinary way the various aspects of the “European identity”.In these cases, topics such as comparative history, culture and sociology form an important part of the curriculum. As expressions of individual cultures and bearers of common values, language and literature also find a place in such programmes.

European Studies courses of this type must be continued and deepened, given the new context after the disappearance of the artificial barriers in history and politics imposed on Europe over the last decades.

The problems we are now facing in Europe often concern existing EU institutions. These institutions are part of the national context in each of the Member States. Accordingly, there is a growing need for experts in these matters. Given the growing degree of integration with the West, the countries of Eastern and Central Europe and the newly independent states cannot afford to ignore these questions. Bearing in mind, there is definitely a place for specialized programmes concentrating on such issues. This is not only a question of strategy but rather of priorities.

When these considerations are taken into account, the composition of curricula in European Studies becomes rather more obvious. In terms of European economic union, there must be provision for a strong economic component emphasising the process of economic inteegration and relevant EU policies. Since the EU is also a legal cnstruction with a mass of specific legislation, no one can doubt that “ European Law” should become a major element in such curricula. Finally, if one wants to understand anything at all about European integration, contemporary history and politics are very necessary subjects in the build-up of a European consciousness.

One way or another, all these components should be present in such courses. Quite evidently, the particular emphasis and the respective weight of the chosen topics are strictly related to individual situations, to availiable resources and the particualr needs and goals of the organizing institutions. Moreover, any analysis of the European integration process limited to only one of the above-mentioned aspects would undoubtedly be doomed to fail. In that sense, what seems to be essential in such a programme-be it general or more specific- is a careful balance between the various components and a high degree of multidisciplinarity.

Finally, according to experience at the College of Europe, the international component to these studies appears essential to their effectiveness. In the incrasingly interdependent world in which we live today, there is as never before a need for persons who will not only be competent in another language but who also will be able to communicate with partners abroad.

Such considerations evidently apply to European Studies programmes. This factor must be taken into consideration where both student and faculty recruitment is concerned.

This is a dynamic process, even more so now that the world that we once considered stable and fixed is changing so dramatically, changes that are going to introduce modifications and significant adjustments to our programmes.

CONTENT

PART I

1. HIGHER EDUCATION IN RUSSIA3

1. Part II

THE NEW ROLE OF UNIVERSITY

EDUCATION 15

PART III

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16