On the Obligations of Universities

Abstract

The author of the article provides answers to two fundamental questions: (1) Do societies need universities? (2) What should universities be like? Searching for the answers, the author quotes the opinions of esteemed Polish intellectuals: Kazimierz Twardowski, Leszek Kołakowski, Tadeusz Czeżowski, Piotr Sztompka and Barbara Skarga. The views of these scholars draw on the views of Wilhelm von Humboldt, the founder of the Humboldt University of Berlin. It was his ideas which lay the conceptual foundations for modern European universities. They are also reflected in Magna Charta Universitatum Europaeum signed by the Rectors of the European universities at the University of Bologna in 1988. Such a vision of a university which is autonomous, free, and which crosses geographical, political and economic boundaries is shared by the author of the paper. With reference to the current attempts to modernise this important institution, the author opposes the conception of entrepreneurial universities (postulated e.g. by Clark, 1998). In the author’s view, one cannot succumb to such economic “reductionism”. Besides the rights preserved by universities, it is important to consider the obligations they have. The author points out that university means not only a place to conduct research and teach students, but also a place where formation work with the young generation occurs. Thus, it is an essential obligation of a university to shape an “open society”. The young generation should be educated in such a way as to be prepared to co-exist in Europe without political boundaries, without ethnic prejudices, or xenophobia where the spirit of respect for difference and for democracy prevails. The author also stresses the significance of countering scientific malfeasance, various pathologies which ruin academic life. The most acutely experienced include plagiarism, fabrication of results, falsification of results, guest-writing, or ghost-writing. According to the author, due attention should be given to fighting these pathologies in order to ensure further existence of universities and to enable them to continue fulfilling their role in the development of the society.