The Epistemology of Universities Rectors‘ Conference Budapest, November 29-30, 2002 Klaus Segbers Free University Berlin

1Developments shaping educational systems There are processes constraining and enabling national developments in education While national varieties are a reality, the general tendency is toward harmonization and integration Isolationist strategies (opting out) are not promising

1.1Global processes: Globalization Globalization is not primarily a political, a designed project. It is an outcome in many ways beyond intentional impact. Major tendencies are: Deterritorialization and shrinking sovereignty Compression of time and space Increasing number of actors, more levels of (inter)action, multilevel games Transborder flows of capital, people, content Increasing governance problems

1.2Global processes: integration There are strong incentives to reduce transaction costs by integration and standardization Yet this does not lead automatically to homogenization – stimuli and content are received and perceived and modified on regional and local levels Path dependencies and legacies produce indigenization rather than homogenization Consequences for higher education are: Standardization of formats/ curricula, indigenization of content

1.3Global processes: Changing labor markets Labor markets are becoming more and more flexible Formal and informal markets coexist Rapidly changing opportunity costs require, and produce, changing qualification profiles This has significant consequences for the format and content of higher education: it is becoming briefer, more compact, modulized, focused an tools, communication and methods

1.4Global processes: Europe There is an increasing responsiveness of European societies to global trends, as reflected by the Sorbonne and Bologna declarations and processes European integration must, and will, include the educational sector as an important policy field The consequences are to facilitate compatibility of curricula, methods and degrees while preserving, or even developing, selective diversity of content

2.1Consequences The impact of these four global trends on educational systems and on the organization of science is significant While the emerging nation states in early modern times required national cultural standards for developing competitive national economies (E. Gellner), societies in a global context require global cultural perspectives - and standards

2.2What are new educational standards? That‘y my list: One native language English Internet MS Office Stats Internet, data banks & search strategies To understand digital logic – and its limits To know ratchoice and games To deconstruct narratives and content

2.3„Eastern Europe“ as an Area Areas are increasingly problematic as independent spaces and variables Eastern Europe today is a patchwork of actors and institutions, of dynamic and depressed regions, coexisting in a very loose framework Against this background, the multitude of educational institutions, organizations and performances should be assessed, and addressed

2. 4No opting out In a non-normative sense, there is not much space for „bowling alone“. Opting out produces structural disadvantages for societies and economies, and certainly for individuals. Still, there is more than blind adaptation...

2.5Enabling According to Habermas, if blindly supporting and vigorously opposing globalization are not viable options, there is another strategy: Enabling. To provide people, especially young people, with tools and competences to make sense out of their environment, to reflect on it, to operate in it in a sovereign way.

3.1Values and cleavages: leftovers of etatism There are cleavages regarding interpretational tools between students having an West or East European backgrounds About ¾ of the students coming to Berlin from EE societies (mostly from Poland, Russia, other NIS and Hungary) are solidly grounded in geopolitical, realist thinking and metaphors For most of them, the concept of container states is dominant

in a pluralist environment While most of the students from EE reflect attitudes and also competences of global tribes, they tend to think in quite traditional ways, especially re. politics In a world where pluralist and diverse landscapes, conflicts, dissenting voices, networks and flows enhance the role of social players, an etatist mind set may run into trouble

3.3Values and cleavages: The importance of „secularism“ After 9/11 and in connection with its interpretation, the importance of an education grounded on secular principles has become more urgent, and more visible The attacks of fundamentalists of all sorts and origins in education are even more harmful than those against the twin towers

3.4Values and cleavages: how to cope with anarchy Todays world is characterized by permanent and rapid change This should not be mistaken as a transitory phase but rather as a new, ongoing quality of life These changes produces multiple identities and searches for orientation. A major task for universities is to teach how to co-exist and cope with insecurity and with decreasing control.