Questions for discussion

Let's discuss the following questions during our round table:

1.     The current system of higher education is confronted with contradictory demands. Politics asks for accessibility for the largest number possible, the worldwide competition among universities however asks for a rigorous selection. The system can no longer cope with these different demands and hits the wall. Is there any possibility of maintaining the 19th-century ideal of values such as equal opportunities and social mobility? Or, put in a more general way, what are the values education should be based on?

2.     There is a continuous request for more money to be invested in education. Partly understandable. Yet, suppose money is not the solution of the educational crisis, meaning there is no external solution for the problems of education. How then could those working within the current system change it? Meaning, it is not the only responsibility of politicians and opinion leaders, there is also a responsibility of those working in the system.

3.     Education is not an isolated system, it is directly related to other areas of our society such as economics and politics. Mostly however, it is seen as the supplier of well-trained people needed in those other branches. In other words, it has a subservient and secondary role in our society, accepting the widening social gap. Can education also become the shaper of values, norms and attitudes, as was the goal of confessional education in the 19th century? Can it contribute to bridging the social gap? Or is this a kind of unrealistic idealism in a society run by selection?