Critical Thinking, Democracy, and the University Today: A Central European Perspective

Abstract

It is assumed here that the university was closely linked with the nineteenth-century political invention of the nation-state and in the last half century it was more and more dependent on the welfare state. Now we are witnessing a major redefinition of the state’s responsibilities in the model of the welfare state and a major revision in thinking about the role of the state in politics and economy brought about by globalization processes. The main factors contributing to the need of rethinking higher education institutions today are connected with the globalization pressures. Although CEE countries do not feel them yet, they are likely to be affected by globalization-related processes very soon. Higher education worldwide, including CEE countries, is not a unique part of the public sector anymore. In the CEE countries it is doubly affected: by the local post-1989 transformations and by deeper and long-lasting global transformations. To neglect any of the two levels of analysis is to misunderstand the nature of problems with reforming CEE higher education systems.