Artes Liberales as a Prototype for Academic Education of 21st Century

Abstract

An increasingly globalised world of the new millennium with its technological, socio-economic, and political challenges requires such type of a university that could guarantee an effective educational space for the academic training of professionals for those disciplines that are and will be crucial for the very existence and progress of the state, the preservation and development of its potential for full participation and competitiveness in global markets. To this end, academic institutions need to take into account, as part of their educational and research process, the latest technological and socio-economic trends in global developments in the industrial and scientific sectors. One possibility to meet institutionally these criteria is a liberal university with its potential to contribute a qualification basis for, e.g. the so-called global managers, top performers, creators of technical and social innovation, and for the enhancement of globalising science. This paper aims to present and highlight, via synthesis, descriptive, analytical and historical methods, how a liberal university can contribute to increasing the political and economic openness of the European Union within its own space, as well as to its openness to the outside world in global educational and socio-economic space.