New Impulses for a Lifelong Learning University: Critical Thinking, Learning Time, and Space

Abstract

This chapter takes as a starting point argument and evidence that we developed around 2010. This includes a review of the Bologna process and university lifelong learning and our proposal to change from university lifelong learning (ULLL) to lifelong learning universities (LLLU). We had compared the European ULLL model to an ideal institutional model, i.e., the LLLU model, which should be an agile and flexible organization where learning is lifelong and lifewide, fully connected with individuals, communities, and societal aspirations and needs. This chapter examines how far ULLL developed in this direction subsequently, the new impulses following the Covid crisis and megatrends in contemporary society. In our view, three key aspirations emerge from debates and surveys: critical thinking, learning space, and learning time. The chapter revisits these concepts and explores them in a social and democratic perspective. More than ever, critical thinking appears as the priority to promote and develop in all university domains (learning, teaching, researching, and managing). Moreover, universities are invited to re-think learning time and space inside and outside the university and to develop oases supporting different kinds of learning – informal, non-formal, and formal – promoting learners’ emancipation and responsibility. Hybridization, diversification, and extension of learning spaces and diversity of learning rhythms, ownership, and slowness of learning time are all essential. The chapter highlights important elements to be considered specifically by European universities, but applicable more widely, in developing lines of action to implement an LLLU culture moving toward a learning organization. It finally suggests perspectives for further research.