We cordially invite you to participate in the international academic conference entitled:
University in the frontier. Knowledge. Human being. Environment
Rapid transformations that are taking place in terms of economics, society, traditions and customs often require a methodical reflection on both the purpose and the significance of universities as academic institutions. The most important question that the conference organisers would like to raise is about the role of universities in the frontier in contrast with universities located closer to the centre (both locally and politically). Despite being remote, these frontier universities usually display more connections with other, smaller institutions like universities and colleges that are – in many aspects – significant for the development of a specific geographical region. The term ‘frontier’ could be widely defined and understood – as the frontier of education, society, culture, economics and geographical dimensions. That is why the role of frontier universities is crucial – they need to define their goals, their main purpose, the character of academic community and their course of transformation so that they could be active constructors of change that takes place both regionally and cross-regionally.
Currently, one of the most important issues that is being discussed when it comes to universities as academic institutions, concentrates on the position of and in universities, and it is often defined as ‘new barbarism’. While remaining open to this point of view, we would like to emphasize that a frontier university could be also perceived as an unique entity, an important change-maker when it comes to the region, the country and/or the international scene. That is why we would like to consider the three main dimensions of a university. The first aspect is based on generating and promoting multidisciplinary knowledge and its functions, especially when it comes to education and its social responsibility. The second aspect concentrates on a human being and his or her educational, intellectual, existential and social needs that are based on trust to create widely understood cooperation. The third aspect is connected with the environmental impact based on sustainable development principles.
The various subject matters mentioned above will be divided into several working teams that will be managed by educational leaders, and the results of their exploration will be shared and exchanged in order to prepare interim reports in both Polish and English.
Suggestions for the topics to be researched and discussed are listed below:
Universities in the frontier – knowledge
The significance and position of a university are determined by its academic potential. Universities are still one of the most important centres of initiating and conducting research and – at the same time – defining and resolving various issues that express the most current and potential challenges in the modern world. This trend is often connected with the strategic geopolitical position of a given university. Its location creates possible new perspectives in terms of ontology, epistemology and axiology and that is why we would like to focus on the following issues:
- university’s academic potential,
- specificity of research, especially when it comes to correlations between its ‘local character’ and versatility, concentrated on strengthening and enriching the common knowledge,
- identifying the number of research efforts concentrated on gaining the actual knowledge and not just on ‘getting the job done’ in order to check it off the list.
The main issues of debate and information exchange will be as followed:
- organizational potential, especially the operating of research centres,
- carrying out grant projects,
- publishing capability, especially when it comes to academic publishing houses and journals,
- human potential, including practices and mechanisms of recruiting research staff (both internally and externally), getting to know the issues of doctoral dissertations within a university and the involvement of students in the work of various research groups.
The topics mentioned above do not exhaust the points for further discussion. Our goal is to discover the academic potential of universities and the ways in which their history and socio-economic location provoke the specificity of the issues and carrying out research.
Mechanisms of counter-hegemony
This research team will concentrate on looking for ways to undermine the hegemony of the core countries in science. Our goal is to start with the diagnosis that applies to structural conditions that make the core for creating and distributing of knowledge in order to define the mechanisms that form internationalism and promote research that expands the cooperation between the centre and the frontier, both locally and globally. We intend to look for ways that bring true internationalism without submission.
Below are listed some of the issues we would like to concentrate on:
- publication policies of international journals;
- hegemony of the English language;
- the academic market and mechanisms of marginalization;
- questioning imposed internationalization;
- mechanisms of supporting solidarity between researchers from the semi-periphery in the national and international dimensions;
- mechanisms of academic innovation in the semi-periphery;
- counter-hegemony of semi-periphery;
- issues and options of the world-systems theory by Wallerstein in relation to universities.
The following academics confirmed their participation in the works of this particular team: prof. UMK, dr hab. Krzysztof Abriszewski and prof. UAM, dr hab. Andrzej W. Nowak.
Historical background for establishing universities in the frontier
The history of universities, strongly related with the history of the culture itself, is also linked with the advancement of various areas of civilisation. The formation of academies and universities in the capital area of a country and in its economically and culturally developed hearths has been the most common approach to keep the ongoing expansion of knowledge and to maintain the region’s capacity to its fullest. The formation of frontier universities always had its strategical connotations and from a historical point of view it is important to take into account the various factors that played a crucial role in this advancement. Even though these universities were somehow geographically distant from the centre, they were significant in the growth of the frontier regions.
It is particularly important to revise this issue from a multiperspective, taking into account all the factors that were essential when it came to creating frontier universities, for instance:
- geopolitical factors, including the attitude of central and local authorities towards the formation of universities and the importance of both the formal and legal factors,
- social factors, connected with demography, migration and social initiative to create academies,
- cultural factors, related to the location of universities in the frontier,
- economic factors which were strongly connected with the infrastructure and other material resources.
University education in the frontier
University – until recently – perceived as one of the most prestigious academic institutions, has lost some of its glamour and now it is often seen as a place to study in order to get an education. It may seem nowadays that more and more people decide to continue their education and graduate with an academic degree but at the same time this does not relate to the advanced level of research, economic progress or reducing the levels of social inequalities; moreover, it brings the progressing depreciation of the meaning of academic degrees. In our theories we follow Professor Kazimierz Twardowski when he claims that academic cognition and knowledge should have the highest status and the role of university should remain socially unique. A university, often called Alma Mater, should not only be a place of education but also an institution that creates and educates the future generations.
Academic education should include the following aspects of social values:
- non-economic equity of academic education,
- academic education in terms of building social and emotional relationships,
- academic infrastructure – economic assets and development potential.
Academic education should also include the following examples of best practices:
- academic learning objectives,
- the social role of a university teacher,
- correlation between research and education,
- hidden curriculum of academic education.
We would like to raise and try to answer the following questions: What is the purpose of education in the frontier universities? Who is the recipient of education? What are the terms and conditions of education? How could we define the education itself? Who are the academic teachers? Who are they qualified to teach? How is the frontier university using its location to support itself and its community? How does it fulfil the aspirations and cultural needs of its local community?
University’s environmental impact
The working time of academic teachers is divided into their research and their educational and organisational work for the benefit of the academic community, not only locally. The variety of responsibilities makes the academic arena sensible to change and sometimes the change can be unexpected in its dimensions. Recently, the expectations for academic institutions, including universities, their faculty and students, have been raising which opens up a gap for questions about the meaning and significance of modern universities.
Back in the day, following the paradigm of Professor Kazimierz Twardowski, academic education was perceived as a kind of social reality which consisted of multiplicity of personality processes that were crucial for both the scientific and ethical condition of the academies as well as of the society and the region. We believe that one of the most important objectives of an academic institution is to build a bridge between the community, the society and the university.
Another essential factor is the unique atmosphere that is created by an academic institution and which consists of its traditions, history, customs, internal organization as well as the implemented educational process in conjunction with the expectations of the local and social environment.
Without further ado, we would like to invite you to join our team for discussion, soul-searching and reflection based on the topics mentioned above. We would like to focus on the following:
- University – is it still an academic community?
- Traditions and customs vs. contemporary changes in university’s identity.
- The culture of a university vs. the culture of an academic community.
- University student as an important member of an academic community.
- Independent innovations building the networks of a socialized university.
- University’s social responsibility.
University as a source of change in the quality of human life – internal and external perspective
The word universitas could be defined both as ‘unity’ and ‘plurality’. One of the biggest strengths of a university is its diversity, which includes all kinds of abilities, for instance neurodiversity and many others that may require all kinds of support but at the same time contribute to university’s life, bringing in new values, experiences and traditions to help the institution itself become a more integrated and stronger community. Over the past twenty years we have witnessed how the academic community has opened up to more diversity, including people with various disabilities. Different communities, including the academic community, have been overcoming stereotypes and opening up to new ideas, often thanks to the experiences that could be observed in other countries all over the world. Frontier universities often cooperate with other cultures and are active participants of the area of transcultural experience and that is why they stay open to inclusion, sharing ideas, innovative organizational solutions and concepts. The boundaries that, as an ambiguous construct in the entire psycho-socio-geopolitical complexity of the human world, the university in the frontier respects and overcomes, which is a complex metaphor of adaptability and emancipation – so essential in the life of every human being. This metaphor provides not only theoretical but also practical messages to take the role of the university as a leader of social changes in large and small communities, creating conditions for improving the quality of life and achieving a better tomorrow for all members of these communities, especially those more easily subject to the processes of social exclusion. Considering the above, we would like to initiate a discussion about the role of the university in the frontier – both geopolitical and psycho-social borderline of human fate:
- developing university’s diversity, especially in terms of opening to disability and neurodiversity, creating knowledge and actual transformation towards universal accessibility;
- in creating education for all and contemporary disability studies;
- in identifying the factors of exclusion, multiple exclusion and kyriarchy-like complications of the present day;
- in using the experience of multi- and transculturalism in building a culture of inclusion;
- in the emancipatory role of higher education, its potential for transgression and levelling out differences between people;
- in increasing the quality of human life from an internal and external perspective;
- in building a civil society and creating small and large social policies – also in the field of education – taking into account building a better future for everyone.