European Universities: New Dimensions of the Unity of Tradition and Modernity

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Abstract

The article explores, based on new trends in academic mobility and artificial intelligence, interaction of traditions and modern tendencies in European universities. Using a sociocultural methodology, the author examines contemporary European universities in three fundamentally different dimensions, representing either the regional peculiarities of university life (the mobility imperative in the curricula of EU universities), the university’s alignment with global technological innovations (the demand for artificial intelligence technologies in higher education), the movement within the framework of centuries-old traditions (the university as alma mater). The choice of mobility dimension for this conceptual framework is linked to the desire to highlight the specifics of European policy in the field of higher education. The study demonstrates how mobility-based education provoke, among students, sense of belonging to their university. It is argued that through the function of “belonging”, the interaction of the traditional and the innovative takes place in European higher education. At the same time, it is emphasized that the current deepening of student literacy in the field of artificial intelligence fits precisely within the traditional framework of the university process of acquiring new knowledge.

About the authors

E. V Vodopianova

Institute of Europe RAS

Email: veritas-41@yandex.ru
Doctor of Sciences (Philosophy), Professor, Department of social and political studies Moscow, Russia

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