THE NEW PARADIGM OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY

Abstract

The Bologna Process brings major changes in European higher
education, regarding the philosophy of education and scientific research, the
mission of universities in the Knowledge Society, the structure and objectives
of academic studies. It is the reform of the very concept of education, a new
paradigm of academic education and scientific research. It includes such
elements as: emphasis from teaching to learning, student-centred education,
creativity and innovation, education focused on outcomes, system of
transferable credits, easily readable and comparable degrees, mobility for
students and didactic staff, quality assurance, European dimensions in higher
education, the internalization and globalization of education, new approaches
as inter- and transdisciplinarity, education as a free experience of mind, open
access, inclusive and responsive universities, diversity, multiculturalism etc.
By some of its most significant elements, the new paradigm expresses the
tendency of returning to the classic university model, of recovering, in
essential data, the “old†philosophy, rather than a radical dissociation of it.
The Bologna reform is built, in its main elements, on the Bologna University
and some other famous Europe’s universities classic models. It is not a
separation, but the valorization of the European academic tradition. It is also a
symbolic appeal of the European Union to its roots in a glorious academic
past, with powerful and living models, while facing the challenging future.