Cultural transformations of higher education: towards the university in the age of supercomplexity
The article deals with modern tendencies of evolution of the University as a social and cultural project of the European intellectual culture. The research uses the methodological framework introduced by the research of post-historical studies of the university, conducted by Bill Readings. According to the approach, the history of the modern University could be represented through the evolution of its basic idea, which changed from the idea of “reason” to the idea of “culture” and finally switched to the modern idea of “excellence”. The methodology utilizes the conception of transformation of these ideas, which must finally disappear. Consequently, it would not lead to disappearance of the University, but it will turn it into a non-ideological project; it means that higher education will be based not on axiological values, but on pragmatical ones. The resulting changes will affect both the general syllabus and the pedagogical process as well as the bureaucracy of education. According to the model of Ronal Barnett, such models of the University requires the interpretation in terms of social uncertainty and complexity. Furthermore, the modern state of social dynamics could be described not as “complex”, but as “supercomplex” because of increasing pace of changes. The other reason of such description is. the fact that modern University wields strong influence on social processes. The most significant traits of the project of University are interdisciplinarity, critical approach, communicative tolerance, intellectual flexibility and adaptive strategy planning.