THE UNIVERSITY: A SPECIAL WORLD OF FREEDOM. Articles, studies, speeches.

The book comprises: THE UNIVERSITY AS A HISTORICAL FROM AND TRADITION A text on the historical form of the university and the modern need for change. The search is provoked for the unused capacity of tradition through interpretation of the historical elements of the university. An exploration which continues to challenge the matrices of the dependability of universities on other institutions, and of the enforcement of certain historical elements of university communication at the expense of the oblivion of others. A text which seeks to introduce innovative elements to the university – innovative elements which have had their historical form but have been erased by various ideologies. ON NEW BULGARIAN UNIVERSITY A text about the need for a new university in Bulgaria which would educate more than clerks alone. The state university is discussed, with its advantages, but also with its rigidity, as well as the private university the way it should be – with quality facilities and rich in resources, which further determines the number of students wishing to study there. The author depicts the image of the private university of the future. A VIEW ON THE HISTORY OF UNIVERSITY EDUCATION IN TERMS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE HUMANITIES IN BULGARIA The text discusses an array of problems related to the changes in higher education during the transition to civil society and market economy. The historical development of the university is examined: the European university of the 18th and 19th c., its earlier version of the 11th and 12th c., the higher schools of the Late Antiquity and Byzantium, back to Pythagoras’ school of philosophy established in the 6th c. BC and already having the features of a university. On this basis, the author traces the elements inherited by the present-day university, the transformations they have undergone, and the changes needed today. THE UNIVERSITY: PAST AND PRESENT Explorations of the university in view of the past and of practice, and introduction of the everyday notion of university. Education is explored not as knowledge but as a public value, and so are the benefits and harms resulting from such an interpretation. Lecturing, in particular, is shown as a harmful tradition, as a monologue of the knowledgeable professor, from where all problems of education in general arise. The idea is set forth of changing the university and introducing diversity. THE UNIVERSITY: IDEOLOGY AND REALITY A text on Pepka Boyadjieva’s book “Dimensions of the University Idea”, whose Part One comprises texts dating back to the early 19th century and the important age of the foundation of the Berlin University – speeches, excerpts from treatises, and plans for reforms by Schelling, Fichte, Schleyermacher and Humboldt, while Part Two presents mostly the German tradition – Jaspers, Gadamer and Habermas, but also Ortega y Gasset and an excerpt from a book by Parsons and Platt. The structure of the volume is analyzed as well as its contributions to the Bulgarian university environment. THE OPEN SOCIETY AS A PROBLEM OF THE INDIVIDUAL The open society not just as an ideology but as a project. A text on existence in Bulgaria through the endless matrix of the open/close metaphor. The open and the close pass through the theories of Soros, Popper, and Bergson. The author depicts the open society as an opportunity, too, for the individual to get rid of his clear belonging and his simple biography which is always told in the same old way. HIGHER EDUCATION AND THE DISCIPLINE OF IDENTIFICATION The university/individual relation is discussed, the similarities between school and family, the historical development of the university model, and the introduction of secondary-school elements to the state university. As a counterpoint to the closed, hierarchical and orderly university, the model of the liberal university is explored which originates from the corporate structure of some medieval universities, which was later adopted by the English college of the Oxford and Cambridge type, and is best established in the USA. An emphasis is placed on the form of the American university as capable of creating new professions and contributing to social development. CLASSICAL EDUCATION IN BULGARIA A text on the form and ideals of classical education, on the studying of the history and culture of ancient Hellenes and Romans, on the Latin and Old Greek languages. The study explores the reasons for the penetration of Greek and Roman culture into the Bulgarian territory, provides historical data on the existing relations, presents the individuals who contributed to the development of classical education, discusses the impact of the Greek school over the Bulgarian school, the role of Greek schools in the Bulgarian national revival, and university and secondary classical education nowadays. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND STRATEGIC PLANNING. THE EXPERIENCE OF NEW BULGARIAN UNIVERSITY On the confusion between the institution of the Sofia University and New Bulgarian University, between closed state education and private education aspiring to be open. A text about the changes in New Bulgarian University, about the new type of training and about the nature of the university’s philosophy. NBU’S VISION AND ITS IMPORTANCE FOR THE UNIVERSITY’S PROGRAMS OF STUDY The text examines the role of New Bulgarian University’s strategic plan and of the setting of specific goals to the university community. The relation is traced between the university’s goals and its mission. The model of study at the university is discussed, the programs of study, the attitude toward students, and the goal of encouraging the development of educated individuals, with an individuality allowing them to be unproblematically involved in various ‘we-’environments, that is, capable of various types of transition. WE CANNOT BE JUST AN ALTERNATIVE TO EDUCATION IN BULGARIA A speech by Prof. Bogdan Bogdanov, Chair of the Board of Trustees of New Bulgarian University, delivered at the official ceremony for the university’s 10th anniversary. An account of the strong and hard times in the life of the university, about working communities, about the promotion of the university’s public image, about the building-up of an alternative university and its specific tasks. AN UNDERSTANDING OF CULTURE A text for the opening of the university seminar “Science: understood and made” which, in New Bulgarian University, is aimed at encouraging the development of the Artes Liberales type of education. Attention is paid to scholarly discourse, considered as both work and culture; the relation is examined between language and world in connection with speech and reality; cultures are discussed and their expansion into entire worlds, as well as religion and science as ways of wholification.

Price: 12.00 lv.