Universiteto idėjos transformacija: koks vaidmuo tenka Artes liberales studijoms?

Abstract

The Forum was organised to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the restoration of Vytautas Magnus University (VMU): the idea of restoring the University was launched on 26-28 April 1989. The reconstituted VMU became the first university in Lithuania to introduce the concept of studies based on the model of Harvard University (USA) and the principles of Artes Liberales (liberal arts): it emphasises the freedom of students to choose, to make their own schedule and to acquire a broad education, not limited to the subjects of their chosen specialty. At the International Forum, academic experts, partners, decision-makers and other guests from the US, Hong Kong, Taiwan and other countries discussed the changing idea of the university from various perspectives, including Artes Liberales' encounter with bureaucratic obstacles and the importance of the development of Artificial Intelligence for the promotion of human creativity and entrepreneurship. Among the speakers of the forum are internationally renowned artists, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and visiting professors Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas from VMU. They discussed pragmatic fictions - ever-changing infrastructures that support collaborative experiments in design, pedagogy, science and artistic intelligence. The first plenary discussion of the Forum focused on the diversity and transformation of higher education studies. "Representatives of VMU and partner universities explored the Artes Liberales and other models of higher education studies: how they are being adjusted and modified in the light of societal changes triggered by the advances in artificial intelligence or geopolitical and natural challenges", - the topic of the discussion was introduced by the Vice-Rector of Communication of VMU Assoc.Prof. Dr. Vilma Bijeikienė. The discussion was moderated by Dr. Shalendra Sharma, Vice President of Lingnan University in Hong Kong, Mr. Joddy Murray, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, USA, Mr. Tsai-Yen Li, President of National Chengchi University, Taiwan, and other panellists. In the second plenary discussion, VMU alumni and other panellists explored how Artes Liberales education contributes to the development of expertise and professionalism: how university studies reflect current social, business and cultural realities. The panellists included Simonas Krėpšta, Member of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania, Linas Vaitulevičius, co-founder of Rubeda and member of the Board of the MedIT cluster, Rasa Ostrauskaitė, Permanent Representative of the EU to the OSCE, Miglė Razgūnaitė, medical biotechnologist at the laboratory Medicina practica, and others.