Fernando Alcoforado*
The University is a higher education institution made up of various colleges and conferring various academic degrees. These institutions may include, in addition to colleges, various departments, orders, research centers and other entities. According to historians, the oldest University is the Higher School established in China from 2257 BC until 2208 BC. The origins of the University is closely linked to theological education. By the year 1200, some Christian catechesis environments became universities in Europe.
The University of Bologna was founded in the late 11th century and is considered by many to be the “mother of universities”. The University of Paris was second to be founded, then came Oxford. At that time, the University of Paris became the philosophical and theological center of the world. The clergy controlled higher education. The scholar was seen as the guardian of wisdom. The modern university arose because bishops needed a place to provide clerical training. Theology was considered the “Queen of Sciences” at the University. Between 1250 and 1500, 71 universities were founded in Europe.
The University is an institution that, in its current predominant model, originates in medieval Europe. Medieval universities, because of their more frequent origins in clerical schools, were consecrated by papal Bula and also because most teachers were clerics. They inherited various rights and privileges that were unique to the clergy. Even when a University was created by royal decree, as was the case of Lisbon by Scientiae Thesaurus Mirabilis of D. Dinis of 1288, it used to acquire an ecclesiastical forum as it happened in this University with the label of Pope Nicholas IV De staturegni Portugaliae in 1290. The medieval universities (1300-1500) were under the papacy and also secular power. Even so, they were essential to the construction of Western knowledge because there were scholars in them who were primarily concerned with the development of science.
The birth of modern universities began in 1520, with the Protestant Reformation movement spreading across northern European countries and the beginning of the involvement of non-Catholic institutions in universities. This also occurred in the United States. Also the idea of linking scientific knowledge to technological development is present with the Higher Normal School and the Polytechnic School, founded in 1794 in France under government control and with the University of Berlin (now known as Humboldt University) in 1810, which it preached the need for universities to develop research and the primacy of academic freedom.
The university’s model for research as well as teaching was established between 1800 and 1900 and the successful German model of the University of Berlin spreads across Europe and reaches the United States. In 1876, the American Johns Hopkins University arises. The notion of modern university is associated with empirical thinking and the scientific discoveries that followed the Industrial Revolution that began in the eighteenth century. Traditionally, university courses were organized by discipline and hierarchical in pedagogical terms, that is, the student’s role would be to receive knowledge through the teacher, until receiving the diploma. However, the new university model recently put in place in the European Union based on the Bologna project challenges this traditional conception. It establishes greater interaction with new technologies, more space for individual research and field research initiatives, and flexible curricula.
The Bologna project seeks to modify the relationship of the knowledge with individuals, as there is a risk that competences are interpreted only from the perspective of the labor market, as it occurs today, that due to its volatile and precarious nature, it tends to guide the production and absorption of knowledge according to market needs. At a time when European Union political and economic actors are effectively committed to increasing the competitiveness of European senior management vis-à-vis the United States, China and Japan, Updating the curriculum structure of higher education should not only respond to market demands, but also provide knowledge to develop the empowerment and humanistic formation of the individual. The academy of the future in the European Union must focus on humanistic and comprehensive training. In it, the student is subject, creates his formation and knows how to solve problems.
Whereas in the past, a recent graduate of the European University was considered a ready-made professional and had virtually guaranteed vacancy in the fields of work, today the scenario is quite different. If there is no constant updating, either by courses at universities or other educational institutions or even from self-taught processes, there is a risk that the professional will be outdated and no longer considered appropriate by the labor market. Market demands and the adaptation of EU universities began slowly in the 1980s and exploded in the 1990s.
As more people graduate from high school, there is a greater demand for higher education and, consequently, for continuing education. Society lives in the information age, in which work that uses physical force to do it is replaced by tasks that require technical and abstract information, that is, the ability to construct one’s own knowledge. In a sense, it can be said that this has happened, as the Internet has become a powerful tool. The Internet has accelerated the accumulation and production of knowledge, making the capacity of professionals expanded and much more demanded. The development of the Internet leads us to think of a revolution in universities in the future, since classroom education can be complemented, even replaced by distance learning.
With the help of video conferencing, chat forums, e-mail and other technology applications, universities are in a position to digitize. Thus, the physical limitations (such as geographical distance) for access to higher education are reduced. In Brazil, possessing an outdated education system, its restructuring is required at all levels, from elementary to higher education. In the case of higher education, Brazil should be inspired by the Bologna project being carried out in the European Union.
What is the future of higher education? This topic was the subject of debate at the 21st FNESP, the largest forum for higher education in Latin America held in São Paulo on September 26 and 27, organized by Semesp, an entity that represents higher education maintainers in Brazil [SEMESP, MEDIA LAB ESTADÃO. Qual é o futuro das universidades? (What is the future of higher education?). Available at the website <https://educacao.estadao.com.br/noticias/geral,qual-e-o-futuro-das-universidades,70003034417>%5D. The main conclusions of this event are as follows:
- For the first time in history, students may come to the classroom as someone who knows even more than their teacher does, simply because they have access to the Internet and can “seek” answers to almost every problem.
- The University should be the space for organizing human knowledge.
- There is a need to review how to evaluate students in higher education. Research shows that decorating school content or studying for exams with the help of tokens only serves to do this: pass the exam. The traditional tests, where each one has to solve the questions alone, make no sense because they are disconnected from reality especially in the working world. In any real-life situation we use technology (calculators, Internet to search) and, in many instances, work together with colleagues and partners. That is what the University should also do.
- In the digital age, technologies have an “absolute centrality”: in the economy, in leisure, in citizenship. The biggest challenge today is building a new ultra-connected economy without losing sight of the most important thing, which is to make society better and better.
- One should not think the University without thinking that it is building the destiny of humanity.
- More than ever, the issue is for the student to acquire the ability to analyze data, process and think. This is the primary role of universities today and in the near future.
- It is important for the University to consider using new technologies, both in people’s daily lives and in classrooms (artificial intelligence, games, virtual reality, augmented reality, etc.) because technology intensify innovation. Moreover, since we have so much technology available, it is best to use it.
- Learning should be based on challenges (and not in contents programmatic), with flexibility for students to organize their academic path.
- The University should consider that learning is not just about acquiring more and more content. Learning is to make knowledge explicit through improved performance – at school, in life, at work.
- Worldwide, many young people enter higher education and do not graduate. How to motivate an entire University to work for the success of all students? The tool used in this case is the so-called predictive analysis (using historical data to predict future outcomes), with information on academic performance as well as engagement, such as participation in students’ extracurricular activities. Every time the system identifies an increase in the likelihood that a student will face problems that may lead to dropping out of the course, teachers, counselors, and peers themselves step in to side with this youngster and keep him stimulated.
- Teachers need to be valued to educate 21st century global citizens.
In addition to doing what is exposed above, the University needs to educate human beings by pointing out ways that can lead them to the achievement of happiness. For our Greek ancestors and philosophers, the pursuit of happiness should be the central engine of our lives. Individual happiness is achieved through self-education. The University must provide individuals with the education necessary to achieve happiness. Education is the means by which people would be empowered to make the best choices in life. The purpose of education should be to make the individual acquire skills, develop critical thinking, take possession of the scientific and cultural heritage historically built by mankind, but, above all, should be an instrument for promoting self-happiness and collective happiness. One of the purposes of education, perhaps the most important, is to offer people opportunities and means to be happy. The world is waiting for a revolution in education whose main objective is to provide the conditions for the happiness of human beings.
The education provided by the University to endow individuals with the achievement of happiness must be complemented by the use of Positive Psychology on the basis of which it is possible to do more than solve or alleviate psychological disturbances, that is, to make us happy. Positive Psychology works more on strengths than on human weaknesses, on the pursuit of happiness than on the study of mental illness. Positive Psychology is the medium through which people would achieve individual or collective happiness (community, region, country) which, ultimately, is the main goal that guides people’s choice in life. In short, while Education would act to enable people to make better choices in life and achieve happiness, Positive Psychology would reinforce the work of Education in pursuit of happiness. To be happy, the individual must therefore rely on Education and Positive Psychology. Happiness is an achievement that is made through self-education. Moreover, she will never be found out. To be happy, the individual must seek self-knowledge, including with the help of the psychologist (LOPES, Paulo. Positive Psychology. Matrix Editora, 2017).
* Fernando Alcoforado, 79, awarded the medal of Engineering Merit of the CONFEA / CREA System, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, engineer and doctor in Territorial Planning and Regional Development by the University of Barcelona, university professor and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and planning of energy systems, is author of the books Globalização (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1997), De Collor a FHC- O Brasil e a Nova (Des)ordem Mundial (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 1998), Um Projeto para o Brasil (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2000), Os condicionantes do desenvolvimento do Estado da Bahia (Tese de doutorado. Universidade de Barcelona,http://www.tesisenred.net/handle/10803/1944, 2003), Globalização e Desenvolvimento (Editora Nobel, São Paulo, 2006), Bahia- Desenvolvimento do Século XVI ao Século XX e Objetivos Estratégicos na Era Contemporânea (EGBA, Salvador, 2008), The Necessary Conditions of the Economic and Social Development- The Case of the State of Bahia (VDM Verlag Dr. Müller Aktiengesellschaft & Co. KG, Saarbrücken, Germany, 2010), Aquecimento Global e Catástrofe Planetária (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2010), Amazônia Sustentável- Para o progresso do Brasil e combate ao aquecimento global (Viena- Editora e Gráfica, Santa Cruz do Rio Pardo, São Paulo, 2011), Os Fatores Condicionantes do Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2012), Energia no Mundo e no Brasil- Energia e Mudança Climática Catastrófica no Século XXI (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2015), As Grandes Revoluções Científicas, Econômicas e Sociais que Mudaram o Mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2016), A Invenção de um novo Brasil (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2017), Esquerda x Direita e a sua convergência (Associação Baiana de Imprensa, Salvador, 2018, em co-autoria) and Como inventar o futuro para mudar o mundo (Editora CRV, Curitiba, 2019).
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