education

EDUCATION

"Overall importance of education is that good men with an understanding of principle will not need endless rules to guide their lives" (Plato).

Education, the key to individual life chances and means
'to draw out', facilitating realisation of self-potential and latent talents of an individual. Education encompasses teaching and learning specific skills, and also something less tangible but
more profound: the imparting of knowledge, positive judgement and well-developed wisdom.

MEANING

Education has as one of its fundamental aspects the imparting of culture from generation to generation. It was fixed in the philosophical and psychological treatises of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds that children are to be reared for citizenship, and that this required systematic schooling in what is often translated as virtue. The Greek arête translates readily as moral excellence and refers to a set of behavioural and emotional dispositions, powers of self-control, and the adoption of worthy goals.

The Magna Charta Universitatum is a document that was signed by 388 rectors and heads of universities from all over Europe and beyond on 18 September 1988, the 900th anniversary of the University of Bologna. It contains principles of academic freedom and institutional autonomy as a guideline for good governance and self-understanding of universities in the future

Bertrand Russell said “most people would sooner die than think, in fact they do so”, Allan Bloom wrote the book “The Closing of the American Mind about triviality and quality of education and George Steiner lectured topics as to what extent do today's universities reflect the history and ideals of the proud word Universitas. Fundamental is the must to lead up to ways to find the right knowledge and instructing about substances. Learning is to understand and after that the search follows of a better grade or salary in future.

Perhaps an enumerate of study guides of Intercollegiate Studies Institute (www.isi.org) of the most important fields of knowledge could support people: natural science, study of law, political philosophy, religious studies, liberal learning, European history, literature, Classics, music history, European political thought, economics, philosophy, history, the core curriculum, psychology. This knowledge, including transmission of knowledge about “old” culture, the idea of tolerance and social policy, family ties, environment, Europa and globalisation tackles the whole and will make the mind open.

Children and young people needs teaching and schooling. It is plausible that most of them cannot teach themselves. But when does learning begin? ‘It’s folk wisdom that teachers are uniquely responsible for what happens to children'. “But, actually, it’s not folk wisdom. There is a kind of a wiser understanding of how children grow and develop and learn that recognizes that children’s first educator is their family, and that nurturance really matters.”

Lessons are the means to give food for reflection. It let see and feel human beings what values meant during their existence. Besides, it helps to contribute to maintain dialogues and to understand each others arguments. Schooling and teaching is pre-eminent(ly) the way to built a fit society, in which also full play should be given for innovation, technology and financial education (and responsible lending).

A common approach to promote lifelong learning was at the heart of the informal meeting of EU Education Ministers in Heidelberg on 1-2 March 2007. In particular, EU Ministers highlighted the importance of improving early childhood education. Further items discussed included adult learning and the contribution of education policy to the development of a European community of values.
Another initiative to stimulate education is laid down in the Bologna Declaration June 1999, which is focussed on the stimulation of the European higher education area: “We will make every effort in Europe to ensure that young children’s thirst for knowledge can be satisfied”, German Education Minister Annette Schavan declared, adding that “the pre-school period is at least as important as schooling itself”.

Education as the key to individual life chances is especially important for young children. Therefore, governments in Europe will increase their efforts to improve the training of teachers working in early childhood education. In this respect, it is important that institutions providing this form of education have access to qualified staff and funding. Education and training are crucial factors to develop the EU’s long-term potential for competitiveness, the European Council underlined in March last year. However, implementation of adult learning remains weak in many EU Member States. Even though it is never too late to learn, adult learning has not yet gained enough attention in terms of visibility, policy prioritisation and financial resources.

Library of Congress: Minerva the Roman Goddess of Learning and wisdom with the statue of Victory. She is holding in her hand a scroll that lists various departments of learning, science and art.

What accounts for our polarized public life, and how can we begin to heal it? Political philosopher Michael Sandel offers a surprising answer: those who have flourished need to look in the mirror. He explores how "meritocratic hubris" leads many to believe their success is their own doing and to look down on those who haven't made it, provoking resentment and inflaming the divide between "winners" and "losers" in the new economy. Hear why we need to reconsider the meaning of success and recognize the role of luck in order to create a less rancorous, more generous civic life.

ARTICIFIAL INTELLIGENCE CHATBOX

ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence chatbot developed by OpenAI and launched in November 2022. It is built on top of OpenAI's GPT-3 family of large language models and has been fine-tuned (an approach to transfer learning) using both supervised and reinforcement learning techniques. ChatGPT is a member of the generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) family of language models.

There are implications for cybersecurity (writing phishing emails and malware) and academia (ChatGPT can write introduction and abstract sections of scientific articles, which raises ethical questions. Several papers have already listed ChatGPT as co-author).

WELCOME TO ACUNS!

The Academic Council on the United Nations System (ACUNS) unites people active in the work and study of the UN, in order to better understand and address the most pressing global issues of our time.

In 1949 of the College of Europe in Bruges was founded by leading European figures such as Salvador DE MADARIAGA, Winston CHURCHILL, Paul Henri SPAAK and Alcide DE GASPERI in the wake of the first Congress of the European Movement in The Hague in 1948. The idea was to establish an institute where university graduates from many different European countries could study and live together in preparation for careers related to European cooperation and integration.

Comenius has been organising, together with leading universities and research institutes from Europe, America and China, courses that are rooted in the academic tradition of research and dialogue

Ioannes Amos Comenius (28 March 1592 – 15 November 1670) was a Czech philosopher, pedagogue and theologian who is considered the father of modern education.

Columbia Global Centers

Columbia Global Centers: Columbia University and the Columbia Global Centers have launched a distinctive initiative to provide thousands of Columbia students with access to global study and community spaces. This fall term, University students in 65 cities around the world can convene, study, collaborate, and experience new programming opportunities created just for them, in safe, comfortable, and enriching environments.

Columbia-designated spaces at existing sites and pop-up locations include our Global Centers in Amman, Beijing, Istanbul, Nairobi, Paris, Santiago, and Tunis, which have expanded their capacities to become study centers for students in their regions,as well as dedicated spaces at WeWork facilities inBeijing, Hong Kong, London, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Singapore, and Seoul. In addition, students can now access non-Columbia-designated spaces at WeWork facilities in another 50 cities around the world. The University has also arranged for designated space for its students in Tel Aviv, at Tel Aviv University, and in Athens, at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center.

GLOBAL JUSTICE THROUGH EDUCATION

a growing library of free multimedia resources

Learn about complex international relations and foreign policy issues? World101 is a growing library of free multimedia resources that provide an immersive learning experience in a variety of settings: in classrooms, in corporate training rooms, and at home. Through its entertaining, interactive story-telling, World101 makes complex international relations and foreign policy issues accessible to learners both inside and outside formal academic settings

"What happens in the classroom is consequential for the fabric of society": the democratic process requires a special kind of conversation in which people with very different perspectives, interests and identities come together to find joint solutions to common problems. These democratic conversations happen in politics, but also in neighborhoods and civil society. Without them, democracy cannot work. This is why education must teach our future citizens how to engage in democratic conversations, and help them appreciate the value of human rights and diversity.

"Building of a nation, citizenship and freedoms": big historical changes made not by institutions, but people. Be engaged, be critical, and take responsibility. Citizenship education is not only the job of schools, parents also play a critical role. Politics plees for a democratic conversation in society and that conversation starts at school. Leadership education is critical part of higher education and leaders must understand the art of compromise.

Citizenship education is important at both the secondary and vocational levels. Teachers are best placed to gauge what their students need. Human rights education is essential because of great differences in how people live and what they believe. Living in a democratic society requires democratic conversations - a joint quest for the best solutions; professional information resources ask for truth.

The Magic Mountain Revisited

The Magic Mountain Revisited, Cultivating the Human Spirit in Dispirited Times

‘A man changes a lot of his ideas here.’ This is how Hans Castorp is greeted upon arrival at the sanatorium high in the Swiss mountains at Davos; but the greeting is also addressed to the reader of his story in The Magic Mountain, Thomas Mann’s masterpiece. The novel ends in 1914, when the great war has erupted. We meet Hans Castorp one last time, no longer far from day-to-day reality high in the 4 mountains, but as a soldier on the battlefield. We do not know if he will survive this war. But we know that in these seven years he has received a spiritual education, a Bildung, that made him a different person, an adult — with very different ideas from when his story began.

‘To create intellectual clarity about life itself’ – that was Thomas Mann’s ambition with his masterpiece The Magic Mountain. In the spirit of its founding novel, the Nexus Institute has been bringing together the foremost thinkers and artists from all over the world for the past 25 years. To celebrate our 25th anniversary, the Nexus Symposium 2019, ‘The Magic Mountain Revisited’, revolved around the themes and music from The Magic Mountain.

As if Settembrini and Naptha were alive today, Bernard-Henri Lévy and Aleksandr Dugin faced off on stage as defenders of the Enlightenment and anti-Enlightenment. In a second debate, prominent intellectuals and artists discussed life and death, culture and politics, followed by music from the Magic Mountain performed by the world-famous tenor Ian Bostridge. Finally, a panel of young artists and activists discussed what all of this means for their generation: what kind of Bildung are they getting, what choices can they make, what challenges lie ahead for the future?

For us, too, the question remains: what should be our view of humanity and the world? Which teacher should we follow? Should it be Lodovico Settembrini? This Italian freemason and humanist detests religion and metaphysics, but fully trusts in the goodness of human nature, the power of reason, and the power of literature, because, he believes, beautiful words lead to beautiful deeds or Naphta, a devoted communist Jesuit, who wishes to convert us to a completely different view of humanity and the world. For him liberalism, humanism, capitalism are nothing but empty intellectual notions that can do nothing to nourish the spiritual yearnings of human beings.

mobility between lower and higher education levels

	TO HIGHER EDUCATION
FROM LOWER

In order to improve understanding and quality of global justice through education and to promote mobility between lower and higher education levels, the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science undertook initiatives:

Students themselves started to improve mobility from lower to higher education during the Dutch ECS StudentLab there was cooperation for four months with other lower and higher students. They looked into the mind of the minister or school director.

Together they worked on concrete plans for better information, preparation, guidance and more study successes of lower graduates who pass on to the higher education. Early this year, student labs were organized throughout the Netherlands. Groups of advanced lower and higher graduates with a lower education backround worked together under professional guidance. The target? To reduce the loss of secondary school students in higher education!

European Education Area

Quality education and training for all

The question of what living is for is the most important question you can ask. Masterclass Nexus Institute

Lumosity; improve your brain health and performance

A UNIVERSITY

Fundamentals of the university: academic freedom, institutional autonomy, intertwining of education and research, responsibility towards society and being open to each other and to each other's cultures

Leiden University has celebrated on February 10 the official opening of Wijnhaven, the latest housing location in The Hague of Leiden University. During the festive occasion, the participants emphasized the value of a modern establishment in the heart of The Hague. Wijnhaven is one of the three locations of Leiden University on the campus of The Hague. Situated between the Ministries and near the Central Station building is an ideal base for students and researchers. Since January 30 follow college students in the brand new building. In the coming years Wijnhaven will become an academic center for about 4,500 students.

Metropolitan issues 'Leiden University has long been spread over two cities. The rector magnificus: "The branch in The Hague offers students and researchers much. It is after all the international city of peace, justice and security. Look for example at the housing of the meeting place of both houses of the States General of the Netherlands, as well as the Ministry of General Affairs and the office of the Prime Minister of the Netherlands and national and international courts of justice that are of great interest to our political scientists, political scientists and lawyers. And the Hague is also a nice base to study urban issues."

Leiden University, founded in 1575, is one of Europe's foremost international research universities. The university has seven faculties in the alpha, beta and gamma domain, is headquartered in Leiden and The Hague and has over 6,500 employees and 26,900 students. Her motto is Praesidium Libertatis - Stronghold of Liberty.

Are universities political? October 1, 2024, the European University Institute raised this question because today's world.

This is the question that the heated debates of recent years on the authority of science, on the responsibility of universities, and on academic freedom have raised. Answering this question requires restating the role that universities should play in today’s world. Drawing on the history of these particular institutions and on contemporary developments, this lecture re-examines the paradoxical position of universities, which are both building blocks of the societies they serve while at the same time claiming a separate place, insulated from social pressures.

This perspective helps to clarify a number of misunderstandings regarding their autonomy. Weber’s famous principle of 'axiological neutrality' actually describes a tension between independence and involvement that structures the existence of universities. As a result, universities can be said to have two historical specificities.

First, while they do not have a monopoly on knowledge, they provide conditions that are uniquely conducive to the exercise of reflexivity. One of the most important of these is time – the time to take a step back from the world, which is essential for knowing how to act in it.

Second, universities are first and foremost communities. While these communities were originally made up of professors or students, they have diversified and expanded far beyond campus walls and conventions. We need to take a fresh look at these reconfigured academic communities and the way they act in the world. Only then can universities strengthen their role as a reflexive community at the critical intersection of academia, politics and society.

What a proud word universitas is, the whole, total, what program was already with Plato

‘Universitas?’ Part I. Read Steiner’s full lecture in Becoming Human Is an Art. In our times, there are still educational institutions which call themselves universities. But do they still have a claim to universitas, the all-encompassing ideal of knowledge which the West inherited from Athens and Rome? In an unequalled indictment of the spirit of our times, George Steiner, world-renowned literary scholar and cultural critic, lectures modern universities. His criticism contains an exhortation to us all.

educational benefits for European society

In terms of educational benefits for European society, “we must see Europe not only as an economic community but also a community of values”, Ms Schavan said. Values such as democracy, tolerance and respect for basic rights should be transmitted by adequate education. Informal meetings gather EU Ministers, but they are not Council sessions and cannot reach formal conclusions or decisions. The meetings are organised by the Member State holding the EU Presidency and enable the participants to engage in a free exchange of ideas.

EU education and training policies have gained impetus since the adoption of the Lisbon Strategy in 2000, the EU's overarching programme focusing on growth and jobs. The strategy recognised that knowledge, and the innovation it sparks, are the EU's most valuable assets, particularly in light of increasing global competition. EU Member States and the European Commission strengthened co-operation in 2009 with strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training ("ET 2020"). The approach recognises that high-quality pre-primary, primary, secondary, higher and vocational education and training are fundamental to Europe's success. However, in a rapidly changing world, lifelong learning needs to be a priority – it is the key to employment, economic success and allowing people to participate fully in society.

In 2014. the EU started the Erasmus+ programme aiming to boost skills and employability, as well as modernising Education, Training, and Youth work. Erasmus+ will provide opportunities for over 4 million Europeans to study, train, gain work experience and volunteer abroad. Erasmus+ will support transnational partnerships among Education, Training, and Youth institutions and organisations to foster cooperation and bridge the worlds of Education and work in order to tackle the skills gaps we are facing in Europe. With each EU Member State responsible for its own education and training systems, Union- level policies are designed to support national actions and help address common challenges such as: ageing societies, skills deficits among the workforce, and global competition. These areas demand joint responses and countries can benefit from sharing experiences.

on EU to keep a competitive edge in the talent game

June 2014, the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) launched a task force report on Human Capital, intended to keep a competitive edge in the talent game. At the same time was debated the most recent university rankings, the impact of private and public funding as well as the potential effect of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) on higher education performance. The report aims to draw salient lessons from the successes and failures in higher education practices in the EU, the US and China by comparing key education indicators and policy trends.

Against the background of the profound tectonic shifts affecting the talent distribution around the world, which is fundamentally changing the global ‘brain game’, the authors argue that it is important that the EU as a whole creates ‘virtuous circles’ of talent and innovation to sustain prosperity and growth, as well as to secure the long-term well-being and quality of life in Europe.

Business, ngo's, representatives from EU institutions, universities and from national level participated the meeting, where in respect of tertiary education a comparison was made between the EU and China, supply and demand side aspects were discussed, as funding issues, game changing factors on innovation were brought to the attention and relation between education and labor market was put

To prevent STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics)-skill depletion and to let grow talent, creation of smart incentives is a condition. There was a general consensus that the EU can learn further from the US with regard to establishing and tapping into alumni networks and from China on its commitment to invest 4% of its GDP on education.

European-wide cooperation among civil society organisations is also promoted by the European Civil Society Platform on Lifelong Learning (EUCIS-LLL). It is made up of 24 European networks active in education and training in order to build a citizen's voice on lifelong learning issues and to propose concrete solutions based on the expertise, the competencies and the experience of its networks' experts and practitioners.

The platform fosters a vision of lifelong learning that promotes equity, social cohesion (for which the project BeLL is looking for benefits) and active citizenship. It believes that the objectives of education and training should not only be described in terms of employability or economic growth but also as a framework for personal development. It is essential to raise awareness on the fact that lifelong learning should include a large range of learning settings and create more complementarity and continuity between formal, non-formal and informal learning.

workshop The opportunities of intergenerational learning in lifelong learning

FINANCIAL LITERACY

What is the state of education? And how do we bring the economy education to a higher level? Royal Society for Political Economy organized an event in December 2016 to discuss Pre-advices 2016 on ECONOMY-EDUCATION, where top economists (Heertje († 4 April 2020), Teulings, Jacobs, Boot, Van Damme explained their works. Attention was paid to programs, business education, classroom experiments in secondary education; operating economics, entrepreneurship in business and market failure and old fashioned economy in higher education.

Transforming the system

An interview with Michelle Rhee: you make everybody deeper

Innovations in education: 'Transforming the system', an interview with Michelle Rhee during the Aspen Ideas Festival 2009. Public education is in crisis. Many of the children are ill-prepared to meet the demands of high school education, much less the needs of the global economy.

And our democratic institutions? Absent a citizenry that can read, write or think critically, these are at risk too. Statistics citing declining literacy rates, achievement in science and math and basic graduation rates are daunting.

But there is hope. Ideas and strategies were explored that are working with today's most passionate innovators, determined policymakers and dedicated educators.

ONLINE EDUCA, the largest global eLearning conference for the corporate, education and public service sectors.

What is an Educated Man?

In September 2007 the NEXUS Institute organised a conference "New Notes Towards the Definition of Western culture part II " What is an Educated Man?" NEXUS Institute started 2006 her first conference "ART and KITSCH" in the so called series "New Notes Towards the Definition of Western Culture". Sunday 9 September 2007 "WHAT IS AN EDUCATED MAN" came in for turn.

Next to a sparkling, surprising and interactive performance by the classical Magogo Chamber Orchestra and a filmed conversation about "What is Truth", also the keynote lecture and essential themes as "What is an educated man in the knowledge society?", "A school of Civilization"and "What's the matter with the university?" were very valuable. The sharp and briljant keynote lecture by Prof. Shamuel Eisenstadt († September 2, 2010), delivered more than enough impulses for the next themes of and discussions during the conference. After the break the theme `What is an educated man` came in for turn.

The panel, including Prof Eisenstadt, made statements and suggestions. Some of them:"I know I know nothing", "the interest to learn more", "on our deepest level of intuition", "unfiltered information", "lack of tradition". The second theme `A School of Civilization´ gave, amoung other things, the statements, views and thoughts: "there is always a relation between religion and education", "mankind needs a basic survival kit for knowledge". "Teaching how to think". "Reject any ideology that can control human lives". Concerning the final theme ´What is the matter of the university´ is worth to mention that it was said that "it is not the aim of the university to teach how to live". During this session a former Dutch Minister of Education made his point that general education is not a university-subject

THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR
( Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1803-1882)

"The American Scholar" is an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson that was first delivered as a lecture in 1837. In this work, Emerson reflects on the role and responsibilities of the American scholar in society. He argues that the American scholar should strive to be independent, self-reliant, and guided by their own intuition and judgment. He also notes that the American scholar should reject the European tradition of blindly accepting authority and instead seek to embrace new ideas and perspectives.

JOHN ADAMS WRITES TO ABIGAIL: ‘I MUST STUDY POLITICS AND WAR’

"I could fill Volumes with Descriptions of Temples and Palaces, Paintings, Sculptures, Tapestry, Porcelaine, &c. &c. &c. — if I could have time. But I could not do this without neglecting my duty. The Science of Government it is my Duty to study, more than all other Sciences: the Art of Legislation and Administration and Negotiation, ought to take Place, indeed to exclude in a manner all other Arts.

I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study Mathematicks and Philosophy, Geography, natural History, Naval Architecture, navigation, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry, Musick, Architecture, Statuary, Tapestry and Porcelaine." (John Adams in a letter May 12, 1780 posted from Paris to his wife Abigail)