Higher Education as the Producer, Transmitter, and Broker of Knowledge as well as of Competence

Abstract

Higher education is a rapidly changing mutant. In post‐industrial society, the entire world of higher education is being questioned because new and different producers, transmitters, and brokers of knowledge and competence have emerged and are now flourishing. As the result of a wide‐ranging research exercise on reforms in higher education within the European Union Member States, this article discusses the most crucial problems and contradictions of the present life of the university and non‐University sectors of higher education and suggests the justifications for and the conditions of their new role within the globalization of economics and information. The relationships between research and teaching, academic and professional preparation, the independence of “culture” and its responsiveness to social demands, as well as the relevant changes in the types of publics entering higher education are critically assessed, and a new mission for the whole system of higher education is suggested.