Page 142 - Šolsko polje, XXXI, 2020, 3-4: Convention on the Rights of the Child: Educational Opportunities and Social Justice, eds. Zdenko Kodelja and Urška Štremfel
P. 142
šolsko polje, letnik xxxi, številka 3–4
role of a professor and publicly active critical intellectual, also a Slovenian
“public watch-dog”.2
Emphasis is placed on the urgent, imperative (pressing) social need
to raise the awareness of all those working in the university environment
of their own responsibility for ensuring a high-quality education system,
for protecting and developing knowledge as a value and for a democratic
society based on knowledge as an absolute priority. I argue that high-qual-
ity knowledge is a prerequisite and the only means for assuring social pro-
gress. I mean this literally, emphasising the distinction between cultural
progress and technical development. Universities should take more care here,
not mostly focusing on technical progress or the market value of services
and products, of the results of their educational and research work.
In writing this article, I relied on available scientific, professional
and newspaper sources. At the same time, I wish like to emphasise that
10 years ago discussions on this topic were quite active, frequent and, in
part, passionate and controversial. Yet, over the last decade they seem to
be less frequent and more restrained. On one hand, this is one of the big
problems of today’s universities while, on the other, it is an outcome of the
backward, excessively bureaucratic and legalistic policy of the state when
it comes to the organisation and content of work in universities. The ex-
cessive formalisation and bureaucratisation of legal policy in relation to
the science, teaching and operation of universities has led to a situation
which I critically assess as being the decline of the academic function and
value of universities, their democratising function and their general so-
cial function.
With an obvious and devastating side-effect: that one can find ever
fewer educated people (because having a university degree does not mean
being educated), that students are less and less interested in real, accurate
and thorough studies, that professors are ever less concerned with finding
proper ways and means to motivate students to study and strive for quali-
ty knowledge, such that the younger generations find it ever more difficult
to resist their lack of will, inspiration and nihilism (see Galimberti, 2010).
This is especially the case when they realise that a university degree and
high-quality knowledge do not guarantee them employment or employa-
bility as such. Finally, the creation of a family life, without also worrying
too much about whether they will be able to provide themselves and their
family members with a socially dignified life.3
2 According to the ECtHR (European Court of Human Rights) decision in the case
Magyar Helsinki Bizottsag v. Hungary (2016).
3 See Eurostat Statistics Explained, Youth Unemployment, 2020.
140
role of a professor and publicly active critical intellectual, also a Slovenian
“public watch-dog”.2
Emphasis is placed on the urgent, imperative (pressing) social need
to raise the awareness of all those working in the university environment
of their own responsibility for ensuring a high-quality education system,
for protecting and developing knowledge as a value and for a democratic
society based on knowledge as an absolute priority. I argue that high-qual-
ity knowledge is a prerequisite and the only means for assuring social pro-
gress. I mean this literally, emphasising the distinction between cultural
progress and technical development. Universities should take more care here,
not mostly focusing on technical progress or the market value of services
and products, of the results of their educational and research work.
In writing this article, I relied on available scientific, professional
and newspaper sources. At the same time, I wish like to emphasise that
10 years ago discussions on this topic were quite active, frequent and, in
part, passionate and controversial. Yet, over the last decade they seem to
be less frequent and more restrained. On one hand, this is one of the big
problems of today’s universities while, on the other, it is an outcome of the
backward, excessively bureaucratic and legalistic policy of the state when
it comes to the organisation and content of work in universities. The ex-
cessive formalisation and bureaucratisation of legal policy in relation to
the science, teaching and operation of universities has led to a situation
which I critically assess as being the decline of the academic function and
value of universities, their democratising function and their general so-
cial function.
With an obvious and devastating side-effect: that one can find ever
fewer educated people (because having a university degree does not mean
being educated), that students are less and less interested in real, accurate
and thorough studies, that professors are ever less concerned with finding
proper ways and means to motivate students to study and strive for quali-
ty knowledge, such that the younger generations find it ever more difficult
to resist their lack of will, inspiration and nihilism (see Galimberti, 2010).
This is especially the case when they realise that a university degree and
high-quality knowledge do not guarantee them employment or employa-
bility as such. Finally, the creation of a family life, without also worrying
too much about whether they will be able to provide themselves and their
family members with a socially dignified life.3
2 According to the ECtHR (European Court of Human Rights) decision in the case
Magyar Helsinki Bizottsag v. Hungary (2016).
3 See Eurostat Statistics Explained, Youth Unemployment, 2020.
140
