The emergence of new generation university: philosophical view

Abstract

High dynamics of socio-cultural, economic, technological and other changes leading to high uncertainty about the future are significant issues for philosophy and social sciences. The changes cover higher education and form complex picture which is often interpreted as a multifaceted crisis. The extreme form of the crisis reflection is “death of university” conception which emphasize the power of challenges faced by universities. The proposed article aims to “switch” the comprehension of the changes to understanding them as forthcoming of new generation of universities to replace the previous one. The task becomes to comprehend the differences of generations and the features of a new, emerging generation of universities. The methodology of the study has included following components: 1) conceptual analysis, 2) elaboration of categories and schemes used as a framework, 3) series of expert workshops. To conceive universities and their transformation systematically, there is a need for an ontological structure that links different aspects of internal processes occurring in universities and reflects their involvement in the external socio-cultural context. The philosophical categories used for defining conceptual framework are: “the activity-related”, “the social” and “the anthropological”. Therefore, phenomena of existence and transformation of universities are considered in three projections: 1) in the activity-related dimension university contributes to the reproduction of activities in society through education and training; acts as a platform to implement a number of complex activities (research, education, design, innovation, expertise and others); serves as a platform to create new practices; 2) in the social dimension it is an institutional form for a number of society functions, ensures the reproduction of social norms and relations, forms of communication and a social structure through the reproduction of elites, of intellectuals, of ideology and the world view; 3) in the anthropological dimension it reproduces a human through the transfer of value systems, packages of knowledge; formation of skills, socialization; it is a space of freedom, in which the new human images, new forms and structures of personal life are anticipated and built. The being of university and its crisis are also treated through basic processes of society – production and reproduction. To indicate different generations of universities we use the notions “University 1.0”, “University 2.0”, “University 3.0”, “University 4.0”. The features of each generation are analyzed on philosophical level in the set of categories “activity-related – social – anthropological”. The University of the Fourth Generation is described in a sketch and project way since the appropriate reality (“cognitive society”) is only being formed. In the analysis of generational changes of university we also use the model of “overcoming – positing – deployment”: the next generation appears as opposing to some phenomena and trends in society, in culture and in universities themselves; further, it posits something else instead of the overcomable – it unfolds innovative practices with the new activity-related, social and anthropological content right on its “body”. At the next step the university of new generation scales the promising practices – implements technologization of their components and distribute them.