The university as pedagogical form: Public study, responsibility, mondialisation

Abstract

Universities are increasingly mobilised to address societal challenges. We argue that in order to take up their responsibility, universities are confronted first of all with the challenge to maintain themselves as universities, i.e. as forms of public and collective study that are not protecting and facilitating but are complicating and exposing learning and research and, therefore, that constitute a very particular way to deal with the challenges. This requires the invention of and experimentation with new forms, but, as we argue, these are primarily new forms regarding her “pedagogy”, i.e. her power to study and think. We first sketch the figure of the researcher and learner today, we then suggest to recall the university as universitas studii, and to pay attention to the university’s pedagogical form and public aspects. This is the basis to reclaim, in the third section, the university from a pedagogical point of view, that is, as the mondial university.