Pierre Ducrey
Professor, President, UNICA Network
University of Lausanne, Switzerland
E-mail: Pierre.Ducrey@iaha.unil.ch
Universities have always strived to work together. For this purpose, they have created associations such as the CRE (Association of European Universities), regional networks such as the CLUSE, CURA-CUSO, EUCOR and consortiums such as the UNICA, Coimbra, Utrecht, Compostelle, etc.
These networks help to develop contacts between academics and to join intellectual forces and experiences. They further help to accelerate the diffusion of information and to make maximum use of time and effort. Thus Universities are striving to create the best possible conditions for the international development of teaching and research. Continuing education represents one of the means used to ensure the transmission of their expertise to the professional world.
Biography
Professor of Ancient History, University of Lausanne, since 1974
Dean, Faculty of Arts, 1980-1982
Vice-Rector, University of Lausanne, 1983-1987
Rector, University of Lausanne, 1987-1995
Director, Swiss School of Archaeology in Greece, since 1983
President, UNICA Network, 1. 1. 1997
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As a speaker I have two roles this morning. I represent the president of the CRE, formerly known as the 'Permanent Conference of Deans, Presidents and Vice-chancellors of European Universities' and now known as the 'Association of European Universities'. Since 1989, I have had the pleasure of being on the committee of this organization. There are currently more than 500 member-institutions. As you are no doubt aware, EUCEN, the European Universities' Continuing Education Network, is an associated member of the CRE. I would also like to transmit wishes for a successful conference from Professor Josep Bricall, President of the CRE. I also bring messages from UNICA, the network of universities of European capitals, the other university network which I have been involved in since January 1st of this year. These two organizations are following your work with interest.
Conforming to the wishes of the organisers and as an introduction to the session, I will briefly deal with four main points concerning continuing education. However, before even following this path, I would like to draw your attention to the two terms which describe your activities, that is to say 'continuing or continuous education' and 'life-long learning'. Actually, I prefer the second term because life-long learning seems to me more explicit than 'continuing education'. As we are talking about the definition of concepts, I would also like to draw your attention to the various levels of learning offered after the first university degree, for example, the doctoral thesis path, with its succession of intermediary diplomas, and the post-graduate path. These are both usually distinct from continuing education or life-long learning, although in certain ways and in certain institutions they are grouped together.
It is often said that human life changed less during the 8500 years which separate 7000 B.C., date of the start of the neolithic period, from the Renaissance than during the 400 years which separate the 16th century from the 20th century. The neolithic way of life, dominated by agriculture and some notable inventions such as the wheel, pottery, rearing livestock and weaving, continued, in a certain fashion, almost unchanged until the 16th century. The 19th century saw the start of industrialization, then came electricity and finally the atom and electronics.
This acceleration of knowledge implies a corresponding adaptation in learning. Contrary to that which was the case during the greater part of the history of humanity, knowledge received during childhood and adolescence has a strong possibility of being outdated when one reaches adulthood. Even the sentence which I have just spoken, a relatively new idea 20 years ago, probably appears obsolete today. Where can we find the necessary knowledge? I should not hesitate to say "At university". Because, and this is the second major truth, the mission of universities is to create and diffuse knowledge. That is to say, in principle, every active person should be able to dip into the well of university education and find there the knowledge which will allow them to better adapt to the evolution of learning and thus be able to perform more efficiently in their professional capacity.
An observation, even superficial, shows only too well that this description is idealized or does not correspond to reality. For one thing, the renewal of professional knowledge is often assured by companies themselves, at least the most important ones, notably the multinationals and the large service companies such as banks and insurance companies. Furthermore, universities are far from accepting all the clientele in question, or, to use a more neutral term, all the potential users.
Therefore as a conclusion to this first part, we can say that university life-long learning should be an eminently buoyant area today and in the future, for the simple reason that universities possess knowledge in almost every domain and they are highly equipped to diffuse it. However, confronting these assertions with the facts of university life shows that the daily reality is something else. Let us ask ourselves why life-long learning in universities does not have the place today, and perhaps for many years to come, that it rightly deserves.
The main reason is surely that universities have to compete with companies which organize their own required courses. However, in France, where life-long education is to a certain degree obligatory and subsidized by the government, universities play a more important role than in other countries. Multinationals frequently prefer to pay considerable sums to train their executives, not only paying for their course fees in prestigious institutions but also generously subsidizing the institutes which provide these courses and which are not part of the university system. This is the case of Swiss companies, and also European, Japanese and American companies, which financially support schools such as INSEAD in Fontainebleau, or nearer to us, IMD. The fees for a Masters are well over SFr. 30'000, excluding food and accommodation. IMD receives 10 applications for every place available, that is to say nearly 800 candidates for the 80 places available in a Masters programme.
It should also be noted that competition often exists between university institutions. Many faculties, departments or institutes which are highly effective and orientated towards the public offer courses and conferences, sometimes fee-paying, aside from the official continuing education programmes of their establishments. The latter are sometimes confronted with difficult management problems for the less remunerative sectors, while the best positions are occupied by competitors who have a 'product' which is easier to commercialize.
How to deal with the competition? Pooling resources between several universities is without a doubt one of the ways to raise the level of courses offered by an isolated establishment. But competition does not explain everything. We have to face the truth that life-long learning is far from figuring at the top of the list of priorities of most university directors. The same can be said of the teachers, preoccupied as they are by their main mission which is teaching their students and research. In order to put pressure on universities, certain governments, convinced of the benefits of continuing university education, have decided to grant often generous subsidies to establishments in their countries in order to encourage them to follow this new direction. This was the case in Switzerland for several years and also in Holland. However, this support is of a rather artificial nature and nobody can say tomorrow, once government subsidies are reduced or even done away with, if continuing university education can be maintained at the present level.
Everything which precedes this casts a bit of a shadow on your activities. Does the future depend on recourse to new technologies in order to ensure the transmission of knowledge? Those among us who have used the Internet a little know it is certainly an amazing tool, but terribly 'time-consuming' as our Anglo-Saxon friends say. If the electronic mail is a widespread means of communication in academic and research areas, it only represents a tiny percentage of the 'net' activities. However, the use of multi-media as a teaching tool still remains marginal today, even in a university which is extremely well-equipped in the computer field as is the case of Lausanne University. Having said that, the future of life-long learning resides, perhaps, in recourse to electronics. However, the speaker is not entirely convinced of this, being persuaded that personal contact with even the most awful teacher in the world is still more 'human' than dialoguing with a screen.
Finally, what place will life-long learning have tomorrow in a traditional university? Probably that which its promoters are able to give it. Nobody would deny society's need for life-long learning and by that I mean for both basic university education and continuing education. How can we convey their importance in this sector in a credible and lasting way? One incentive could be financial contributions. For life-long learning is often seen as a source of revenue. In France and certain universities in Britain, for example Warwick University, life-long learning offers a sizeable contribution to the finances of the whole establishment. But as long as a university does not have to fight for the slightest financial contribution, life-long learning will not be considered as a source of profit and, therefore will only stir a mild interest.
Pierre Ducrey
10th April 1997
Created: August 15th, 1997.
Last updated: September 3rd, 1997.