Toward Integral Higher Education Study Programs in the European Higher Education Area: A Programmatic and Strategic View Markus Molz

Toward Integral Higher Education Study Programs in the European Higher Education Area: A Programmatic and Strategic View Markus Molz

http://integral-review.org/documents/Molz, Toward Integral Higher Education, Vol. 5, No. 2.pdf

 

INTEGRAL REVIEW    December 2009    Vol. 5, No. 2 

 

Abstract: This essay somehow arbitrarily freezes my ongoing attempt to grasp the 

present situation and future possibilities of higher education courses, programs, 

institutions and initiatives that are inspired by integral and likeminded approaches. The 

focus in this essay is on the European Higher Education Area and its specifics, whereas 

some implicit or explicit comparisons with the USA are made. My reflections are 

triggered by the recurrent observation that in Europe there seems to be i) more demand 

than offer of integrally oriented higher education programs, ii) an imbalance between 

overused but little successful and underused but potentially more promising strategies to 

implement such programs, iii) little or no learning from past failures, and iv) little mutual 

awareness, communication and collaboration between different activists and initiatives in 

this field. 

The context for this essay is i) the current societal macroshift, ii) the unfolding of 

academic level integral and likeminded research worldwide, and iii) the large scale 

reform of the European Higher Education systems brought about by the Bologna process, 

its (false) promises and the potential it nevertheless has for realizing examples of a more 

integral higher education. On this basis the consequences for attempts to overcome a 

relatively stagnant state of affairs in Europe are discussed. Given that; most past attempts 

to implement programs inspired by an integral worldview have failed from the start, or 

disappeared after a relatively short period, or are marginalised or becoming re- 

mainstreamed, this essay aims to devise a potentially more promising strategic corridor 

and describes the contours of the results that could be brought about when following a 

developmental trajectory within this corridor. This futurising exercise is inspired by 

principles shared by many integral and likeminded approaches, especially the 

reconsideration, integration and transcendence of premodern, modern and postmodern 

structures and practices of higher education. 

This essay is programmatic and thus deliberately combines facts and values, past and 

future, summaries of first person observations and third person factual information, 

without the burden of systematic referencing required by scholarly writing. It does not 

claim to replace empirical surveys which, however, are still lacking to date regarding the 

actual state of affairs of higher education inspired by integral and likeminded approaches 

in Europe. Accordingly, at this stage, the essay is an exercise of awareness-raising to 

stimulate more and better collaboration across streams, disciplines and countries between 

those scholars, students and activists who are already inspired by integral and likeminded

approaches and interested or already engaged in developing and sustaining higher 

education programs according to a more integral spirit.  

  

                                                 

1 

 University of Luxembourg (www.uni.lu), and Institute for Integral Studies (www.integral-studies.org) 

2 

 The author is indebted to Roland Benedikter, Mark Edwards and Wendelin Küpers for their valuable 

comments on the unpublished 2005/2006 version of this essay, and to Philippe Blanca for his feedback on 

a draft of this completely revised edition. All weaknesses, however, have to be attributed to me as the 

author alone. 

Molz: Toward Integral Higher Education 

 

 

Keywords: Andragogy, European Higher Education Area, higher education, 

implementation, integral and likeminded approaches, knotworking, learning 

communities, macroshift, project-based learning, service learning, strategy, study 

programs, transformation, vocation. 

 

Table of Contents 

 

Overview ......................................................................................................................................................... 154  

Contexts .......................................................................................................................................................... 156  

Transformation of Society and Rise of Integral Consciousness ............................................................ 157  

Evolution of Research Paradigms .......................................................................................................... 162  

European Higher Education Area .......................................................................................................... 167  

Strategies ......................................................................................................................................................... 174  

Strategic Options for Developing Higher Education ............................................................................. 174  

Strategic Corridor for Building Integral Higher Education ................................................................... 179  

Contours .......................................................................................................................................................... 186  

Principles ................................................................................................................................................ 187  

Integral Learning Communities ............................................................................................................. 188  

Integral Andragogies .............................................................................................................................. 195  

Integral Organisations ............................................................................................................................ 205  

Call .................................................................................................................................................................. 214  

References ....................................................................................................................................................... 217  

Appendix ......................................................................................................................................................... 222  

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http://integral-review.org/documents/Molz, Toward Integral Higher Education, Vol. 5, No. 2.pdf