Session 4: Democracy, Citizenship and Higher Education

Session 4: Democracy, Citizenship and Higher Education
Chair: Frank McMahon
Developing Active Citizenship: Universities as Agents of Social Change
Sarwet Rasul
Fatima Jinnah Women University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan

In the present scenario of globalization the notion of social change as an inevitable and essential phenomenon has significant implications. To fabricate a culture of tolerance, forbearance, and acceptance it is essential to prepare the youth as active citizens each one of whom knows his/her importance in the system, and is ready to play his/her role effectively. In this context Universities and other higher education institutions all over the world need to adapt themselves to the new role of facilitators in participatory development and social change. The present paper explores the possibilities of utilization of the potential of Pakistani Universities, higher education institutions, policy makers, and syllabus designers in this regard. On the national level the need of designing and introducing active citizenship syllabus at various levels of education with the consideration of both short and long-term impact is highlighted; and its future prospects are discussed. The paper also probes into the possibilities of finding out various national and international governmental and non-governmental organizations as partners who can be interested in bringing about this social change.

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This paper aims at exploring the various ways in which higher education affects young people lives, in the particular context of Jordan and within a more general analysis of how citizenship is built through education. I will discuss the history of the university system in this country, then I will concentrate on the University of Jordan, the oldest institution of this kind, founded in 1962.
I will discuss firstly the importance of higher education for the process of the building of the nation, and its relations with the previous ways of learning. Then I will consider the inner functioning of the University of Jordan, with a particular attention on the recent changes in getting admitted to the university – changes linked to the privatisation process – , and the implications of these differences for the students involved. I will lastly analyse the differences among faculties – which are ordered officially from the more to the less prestigious – especially differences in the way courses are taught and the different relations professors have with students.
This in-depth analysis will enable me to conclude that in Jordan there is quite an overt attempt by state power to divide the student population in different categories. The more privileged enjoy more freedom and a better teaching system, and this in turn reflects in their future entrance in the labour market, while for the less privileged little is left but an old vertical and authoritative learning process and less possibilities of personal expression. My ultimate purpose is to show that this distinction reflects strongly in the Jordanian society at large and in the inner functioning of the regime.

The paper is to demonstrate a role of education in development of a country.
After the break up of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstani higher education faced the necessity of re-analyzing the education concept. One of the tremendous changes that Kazakhstani education system has gone through, refers to higher education.
The paper will focus on two major changes in higher education: 1) transition towards “customer-oriented” model and 2) globalization.

1). In Kazakhstan as a part of the Soviet Union, higher education was provided by the state. Today higher education is also provided by private institutions. Moreover, understanding of the concept of education itself has changed. Nowadays education is understood as a good\service, and students are viewed as customers of that service. Accordingly, education management is also being changed.

2). The second change that Kazakhstani higher education has faced is globalization. As a Soviet Republic, Kazakhstan was isolated from other parts of the world. Consequently, education system of the Soviet Kazakhstan was excluded from global education trends.
After the break of the Soviet Union and declaration of independence, Republic of Kazakhstan faced the necessity to learn about international experience in education, about world education systems, their practices, their advantages and shortcomings, as well as about important education processes like Education for All, Bologna Process, and others.

Today Kazakhstan is the most developed country in the Central Asian region. Referring to the Message of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the People, the goal of Kazakhstan is to enter the list of fifty most competitive countries in the world. Education system reform plays an important role in realization of this goal.
Based on the example of two important issues in higher education mentioned above, the paper will explore the essential role of education in development of a country.