The Knowledge-competence tension in the context of the European university curriculum restructuring. The case of Lithuania

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Aukštojo mokslo sistema; Bolonijos procesas; Europos universitetų programos; Kompetencijomis grįsta mokymo programa; Universitetas; Bologna process; Competence based curriculum; European university curricula; Higher education system; Lithuania; University.

ENSince the inception of the Bologna process, there has been an ongoing wave of ambitious higher education reforms across Europe which have sought to shift the focus of the European university curricula away from the traditional academic knowledge towards practically applicable, market-oriented competences and skills. The broad purpose of the following chapter is to explore the emergent tensions between the recently introduced competence (outcome)-based conception of the curriculum and the traditional knowledgebased idea of the curriculum in the European higher education context. More specifically, I seek to analyze what kind of assumptions the European competence-based curriculum policies and approaches, as endorsed throughout the ongoing Bologna process, appear to make about the purpose and the nature of the university, its knowledge and curriculum. Then, I look at how these European assumptions are taken up at the national policy level and interpreted and responded to at the individual level by professional academics in the specific context of the post-soviet Lithuania. The inquiry into this subject seeks to contribute to the educational debates in the field of the sociology of higher education and curriculum studies. [Extract, p. 377]