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Perceptions of Dilemmas of Reform: Remarks and Interpretations concerning a Study by the Vienna Institute for Human Sciences

1993; Wiley; Volume: 28; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1503406

1465-3435

Stefan Amsterdamski, Aaron Rhodes,

Global Educational Reforms and Inequalities

In 1991, with the support of the Commission of the European Communities, the Institut fir die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (IWM-Institute for Human Sciences) launched an international project aimed at identifying the main problems confronting the reform of higher education and research in the post-communist nations of Central and Eastern Europe and strategies for addressing them. The project, guided by an international Expert Committee with Sir Ralf Dahrendorf as chairman, is meant to develop ideas salient to the reform process, to stimulate debate, and to try to enrich it with perspectives on higher education and research from the West. Beyond this, concrete strategies--'levers of change'-are developed and implemented to assist the process of reform. It is thus an element in the Institute's broader effort, started in 1982, to contribute to the intellectual reintegration of Europe. Some of the recommendations generated by the project have been incorporated into actions of the European Commission, in particular a major programme of cooperation with Central and Eastern European countries in science and technology that was initiated in 1992. Entitled Transformation of the National Higher Education and Research System of Central Europe, the project has several components, among them a series of national studies analysing opinions and perceptions existing in the societies themselves about the problem of reforming higher education and research. These studies, designed and coordinated by Stefan Amsterdamski, were undertaken in 1992. Professor Amsterdamski also prepared the Summary of Remarks on these studies which is given in full below [1], preceded by a preface by Sir Ralf Dahrendorf. Following the Summary is a set of Brief Interpretive Comments on the studies prepared by Professor Amsterdamski and Aaron Rhodes.