THE NEW PARADIGM OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY
THE NEW PARADIGM OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY

Summary/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.

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