On the opening of society: Towards a more open and flexible educational system

The concept of an open society is based on the idea that even with imperfec t information and knowledge people can still act. We find this preferable t o the more common presumption that leaders have special access to the truth and thus should lead. We instead look to the history of science to remind ourselves that, since no one is in possession of the actual truth, it seems better to at least distribute responsibility along with information so ind ividuals can seek their own truths. Standing in the way of this are long-st anding traditions, such as the very important one found in higher education . This tradition is where the faculty, administration and accreditation aut horities design curriculum structures for students and create learning envi ronments for universities with a presumption that there is truth, that they know what it is, and that it is sufficiently fixed to be institutionalized . This idea of truth supports and exists within a relatively closed system, and assumes that the actors can also behave as if they are closed. Unfortu nately, those that design and administer a university have the most to gain if they can keep the system fixed and closed, and those who are excluded f rom the management are those with the most to lose if the current managers are wrong. The current system operates with impunity. The administrative em phasis can be on finding and following educational standards that presume s tability, not in creating learning environments that can accommodate change . This is consistent with the long-accepted theory that there is a 'hidden curriculum' behind the explicit curriculum in higher education. It is set u p to give strong messages about power, authority, control, obedience, hiera rchy and related behaviors. Herein we are concerned with how this reflects upon our current and future society, and how we might experiment with alternative educational systems t hat can perform better. Within the pessimism there are significant opportun ities for creative improvement, but to realize such innovation educational systems need to be able to enhance cooperation and realignment between diff erent disciplines and stakeholders. It is widely accepted that a flexible, customized curriculum that can be dynamic and accept decision-making involv ement by students is desirable. Generally it gets rejected as being too exp ensive, requiring too much administration and 'being unfair to students'. T he tendency is to stay with the tradition of 'standardized and controlled' education. Major organizational changes will be needed within the formal un iversity to be able to address alternative agendas. Accreditation activitie s could be instrumental in setting the stage for these. They could address the limits in maintaining barriers between various stakeholders, and impedi ments for change, the ignoring of quality management and the distress of th ose who have the most to lose from participation in a defective educational system. Accreditation activities should, on the other hand, foster and enh ance developmental improvement in higher education. In this light, the pape r proposes two models of educational systems with empirical examples from t he Finnish higher education system. Copyright (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, L td.