[Late] Call for european debate @ Sorbonne (Paris)

What is the future of education and higher learning? This issue is now at the very core of the debate our societies face today. For years, European students have demonstrated their will to take part in decision-making on these fundamental matters. And this year, even more so, since in various European countries, a number of nefarious measures have prompted the academic world to fight back. Now that 27 countries are assembled within the European Union, it is our belief that a truly European debate must take place. Although Europe is essentially based upon economic and political principles, it needs to create its unity through other means too. While the Treaty of Lisbon’s aim is to make Europe the world’s top player in the economy of culture, it is high time for Europe’s youth and for its academic world to redefine the issue and put forth its own vision of a genuine ‘Europe of culture’: one of intellectual exchange, debates and in-depth analysis, in order to start building the world of tomorrow. We all have the means to get to know each other better, to share our experience and unite (through the internet, through associations, and public events) but, so far, no single unifying force has emerged. We need to come together to share our theoretical approaches, bring our contributions to the debate, and act together on a European scale. We have reached a point in time when we think of ourselves more and more in terms of ‘Humanity’ and less and less in terms of ‘Nations’, and education is a quintessentially human question, whatever the country, and one the people must reclaim. Who can honestly claim that THEIR education system is the best, and that THIS is the way tomorrow’s citizens should be educated?

In view of all of these issues,

The Theoria-Praxis association, with Sorbonne’s Student Board, will be organizing a great debate on the issue of education on a European scale.

This project calls for the participation of the entire academic community throughout Europe. Since all of the governmental “reforms” concerning the future of education are to be understood within the process of the European harmonization of higher education, it is absolutely necessary that the debate not be limited to each national framework. We propose to set a new phase in motion, and to unite in order to collectively debate and propose a European project for higher education.
Continue to read the text...This is why we invite the entire academic community to come to the Sorbonne (Amphitheater Richelieu, i.e., Richelieu Lecture Hall) on February 11th, 2010, from 8 PM to 11 PM. We hope that this great European meeting will give us, as citizens, the opportunity to launch a thorough reflection on issues such as studying, teaching, the social conditions of students throughout Europe, and our ability to react and fight against the present ‘reforms’.

Our political philosophy, rooted in our grassroots work in local associations, encourages us to believe that cultural agents can raise consciousness, which in turn can generate change in our societies. This is why members of associations, performing artists, photographs and filmmakers – all of them students – have worked together to make this event happen, and for us to exchange ideas, within a cultural framework, on the education we want for ourselves and the generation to come. The debate will be preceded by a public meeting at the foot of the Sorbonne (Place de la Sorbonne), from 3PM to 8PM, so as to share the event with the Parisian population. The artists will bring a festive touch to the meeting, but will also show that the academic community knows how to mobilize in creative and fulfilling ways.

After the debate, an interactive website will be created, to publicize our proposals and to get citizens to vote on them: the aim is to collect 1 million signatures through this popular referendum.

According to our Constitution, if we reach this figure, we will be able to present the European Parliament with a new project for education in Europe.

The petition will come with an interactive page, on which each citizen will be able to offer ideas to pave the way for a new education system. If this event reaches the magnitude we hope, we shall attempt, with the help of the entire European academic world, to devise a new bill for education and higher learning in Europe.

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