The Role of Universities in the Modern World (original) (raw)
Related papers
IACLSCJIS Journal, 2020
In this short overview of the university's history in Eastern Europe I tried to demonstrate the way traditional societies of this region transited into a condition of ambivalent modernity. Being in direct communication and under influence of modernization in the Western Europe, societies that were part of imperial Russia in the 19 th century developed a highly ambivalent model of education and scientific institutions responsible for the rationalization of their cultures. A witness of this process, Aleksander Griboiedov call this modernity a «Drum Enlightenment» stressing upon the fact that the modernization was going on as an imperial policy imposed over traditional national cultures. The Eastern European modernities have had their own dialectics of struggle of instrumental rationality of the system and ambiguous communicational rationality of life-world. In this struggle university has played a role of a leading institute that was weak in promotion of critical rationalization in traditional societies and strong in institutionalization of power that was undermining modernity goals of individual's emancipation.
The Russian State and its Universities: A History of the Present
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2012
The article offers a broad historical overview of the university policy of the Russian state. It suggests that such a general picture could shed some fresh light not only on the role of the state in shaping the Russian university model throughout two and a half centuries, but also on the way of its functioning as the means of knowledge production and transmission. The wide chronological range of the overview primarily aims at singling out the major phases of this policy and at sketching its main directions. Five such phases are distinguished: 1) University as a project of enlightened monarchs (1724-early nineteenth century); 2) University as a state enterprise aimed at modernization (long nineteenth century); 3) University as a socialist enterprise (1918-1991); 4) University as a post-socialist enterprise (1991-early 2000s); and finally 5) the Russian university model reconsidered (ca. 2005-2012). The article's narrative is structured chronologically in accordance with these phases, highlighting major characteristics of each.
THE RUSSIAN STATE AND ITS UNIVERSITIES: A HISTORY OF THE PRESENT 1
The article offers a broad historical overview of the university policy of the Russian state. It suggests that such a general picture could shed some fresh light not only on the role of the state in shaping the Russian university model throughout two and a half centuries, but also on the way of its functioning as the means of knowledge production and transmission. The wide chronological range of the overview primarily aims at singling out the major phases of this policy and at sketching its main directions. Five such phases are distinguished: 1)
Higher Education in Russia: How we See it in the XXI Century
Proceedings of the First International Volga Region Conference on Economics, Humanities and Sports (FICEHS 2019), 2019
The huge development of technology has given new set of challenges to the core of the tertiary education the classical university. The aim of the paper is to analyze how modern universities respond to the existing challenges and adapt to an increasingly geek economy. In each period of time, universities played a number of roles in their respective societies. Since the 60s of the last century, one of the main criteria for the effectiveness of universities has been their social utility and ability to meet social demands. The notion of 'Third Mission' develops from the growing importance given to direct connections between university research activities and the external economic and social environment. For the majority of Russian universities facing financial and social difficulties, the only opportunity to stay afloat and even to develop is to be needed by the community where they exist. International experience demonstrates how well-considered and active interaction between the university and the local community can impact the life of the university and its perception in society. Close links of the Russian tertiary education with local communities are not only a tool for survival, but also an opportunity to tailor higher education to the realities of modern life, to improve the quality of education, to sharpen its practical focus. For Russia pursuing the path of innovation is impossible without training a new generation of specialists, who possess qualitatively new professional knowledge and common employability skills.
Towards a new role of universities in Russia: prospects and limitations
Science and Public Policy, 2009
The paper refers to a contemporary discussion of S&T and innovation activities of Russian universities and respective national policies against the background of institutional transformation of the national innovation system. It emphasizes the Russian NIS structure and subsequent positioning of universities and the research institutions of the Academy of Sciences. The analysis makes it evident that the innovation activity of Russian universities is strongly challenged by various interdependent hampering factors. These factors arise directly from traditional barriers between science and education, which in turn relate to the imperfection of Russia's NIS originating from deep structural breaches far beyond S&T and education activities. National policies nowadays are aimed at increasing the innovation activity of universities, and the article concludes with an overview of the current debate on the most urgent issues.
The Retrospect and Prospect of the Modern University Models: Russian Example
Many higher education theorists and practitioners agree that the university system is progressively becoming ineffective. The article explores the historical retrospect and prospect of the evolution of the modern university as a social institution, the successor of the medieval university and the university of the Modern Times. Humboldt's idea of a university outlined the design of the modern European university model and became the underlying concept for the Russian higher school, which, as compared to Europe, did not have any medieval predecessor-universities. As we can see, the Humboldtian model of the university comes into conflict with the present-day cultural environment and with the processes taking place in higher education: commercialization, massification, bureaucracy, etc. These processes, together with such trends in education as globalization, informatization, cultural space networking, changing youth socialization, etc. urge the revision of the conceptual framework of the university model. The three former university models: corporate (medieval); classical (Humboldtian); modern (pedagogical) are being replaced by new models of the university of the future: the "Open (hybrid) University", the Third Generation University, the Entrepreneurial University, the Research University, etc. Great expectations are pinned on new technologies to overcome the crisis of the modern university system. However, they should not be seen as the panacea -the viewpoint adopted by some university authorities who are fast in employing IT innovations, though they are nothing but a mere tool of no inherent value. As a tool, they have their own benefits that should not gloss over their limitations.
The National Russian Model of University at the Era of Academic Capitalism
Sociology and Anthropology, 2015
The transformation of the national model of Russian University is under the influence of academic capitalism. The very same academic capitalism was born in the depth of the neoliberal capitalism. The basic principles of the neoliberalization were fully implemented within the transformation of national educational systems:-An arrangement of conditions to accumulate capital and political power in economic elite circles;-A denial of the concept of nation, and, consequently, a promotion of an idea that the government interference in economy is dangerous (in this case in the form of minimization government interference in education);-Assistance in independent and stable functioning of the whole education system including all the levels and elements (schools, institutes, universities, etc.). In Russia and other countries, this leads to the destruction of national educational systems. E. Durkheim said that if in society there are many cultures than each of them which have its own education system. G. Simmel argued that cultural diversity enriches the world community. However the implementation of neoliberal policy in the field of education under the slogan of "globalization" ignores the law and seeks to simplify the interaction between the educational systems in order to achieve clarity and transparency of market exchange. Author analyzes on the example of Russia the trends that resulted from the modernization of the education system that implements neoliberal principles and creates academic capitalism. Virtually neoliberal utopian promises in practice lead to quite the opposite, rather than expected results.
Higher education in the XXI century Russia: an imperative of reindustrialization
Proceedings of the 2nd International Scientific conference on New Industrialization: Global, national, regional dimension (SICNI 2018), 2019
New industrial technologies and innovations as an imperative of reindustrialization have given a new set of challenges to the core of the tertiary education-the classical university. The aim of the paper is to analyse how modern universities respond to the existing challenges of reindustrialization and adapt to emerging modern management technologies and development of knowledge-intensive activities. In each period of time, universities played a number of roles in their respective societies. Since the 60s of the last century, one of the main criteria for the effectiveness of universities has been their social utility and ability to meet social demands. The notion of 'Third Mission' develops from the growing importance given to direct connections between university research activities and the external economic and social environment. For the majority of Russian universities facing financial and social difficulties, the only opportunity to stay afloat and even to develop is to be needed by the community where they exist. International experience demonstrates how well-considered and active interaction between the university and the local community can impact the life of the university and its perception in society. Close links of the Russian tertiary education with local communities are not only a tool for survival, but also an opportunity to tailor higher education to the realities of modern life, to improve the quality of education, to sharpen its practical focus. For Russia, pursuing the path of innovation and reindustrialization is impossible without training a new generation of specialists, who possess qualitatively new professional knowledge and common employability skills.
The future of higher school in Russia: missions and functions of universities
Currently, changes in higher education are conceptualized as a multifaceted crisis. We consider that the crisis is civilizational at the bottom and is connected with the "phase shift" (the transition from industrial to post-industrial way of social existence) so all developed countries experience it with varying degrees of acuteness. The article presents Foresight results concerning future of Russian higher school in the context of world and Russian economic, technological and socio-cultural trends that determine higher school prospects in the time horizon to 2030. Large-scale Delphi survey with participation of 730 experts from 39 cities in Russia was conducted within the project. Expert survey has obtained data that reflect professional community vision about options for higher education future in Russia. New variants of higher school mission and functions have been identified based on Delphi survey. Analysis of economic, social and cultural trends made it possible to identify four variants of higher school mission. They are "Source of skilled personnel", "Institute for society (country, region) development", "Institute for social stability", "Core of cognitive society". According to the survey, the changes in higher school mission in the long-term future are expected. First and foremost, higher school should become a "core of cognitive society" and "institution of society development". The role of higher school as a "source of skilled personnel" will not disappear, but will be subordinate in importance. Multidirectional dynamics will be observed in the system of higher school functions in the period from 2020 to 2030: 1) "descending" – traditional functions "education as personnel production" and "incubator for young people" will lose their value; 2) "rising" – importance to society and realization of functions "school for adults", "core of cognitive society", "anticipatory education" will increase because of forthcoming demographic changes and global transition to a "knowledge economy" and "cognitive society". Experts expect that higher school functions "science outpost", "innovator", "anticipatory education", "school for adults" will be leading by 2030. In addition new "emerging" functions can be identified, their importance will increase, but feasibility will remain low up to 2030. These functions are "think tank", "platform of future in present", "core of cognitive society", "school for innovators and entrepreneurs".