Reforming social sciences, humanities and higher education in Eastern Europe and CIS after 1991

Abstract

This volume consists of articles prepared after two conferences organized by the European Humanities University in Vilnius, Lithuania in 2011 and in 2012. The focus of both conferences was concentrated on the development of reforms and changes in higher education in the social sciences and humanities in Eastern Europe during the last two decades. The collapse of the communist system in Eastern Europe was followed by the enormous expansion of institutions of higher learning, especially in the field of social sciences and humanities. While responding to the great need of society for the education of urgently needed specialists in this area, most of the old and the newly established universities were confronted with a lack of professionals in this field. As a consequence, the overproduction of alleged specialists especially in subjects like law, business, management, and economics, has contributed to discrediting not only knowledge in these field, but also the value of education, consequently putting at risk the processes of transformation of post-totalitarian reality. The book addresses itself to the issues of possible steps of reforming the educational and institutional space in the Eastern European Universities.