by Paul Kellermann, 2007
No clear distinction was made between study in general and preparation for a professional activity at the universities of the Middle Ages. Theology and philosophy provided the basis for law and medicine. A clearer distinction was made by Friedrich Schiller and his idealistic colleagues between the “philosophical head”, i.e. the thinker for enlightenment, and the “bread scholar”, i.e. the striver for money. Nonetheless, studying, learning, researching and teaching at a university continued to be considered ends in themselves. Even the symposium “The Development of a Taxonomy of Educational Objectives” in Chicago/Illinois in 1951 had an idealistic basis. The turning point of perspectives towards higher education as preparation for employment might have been the OECD conference on “Economic Growth and Investment in Education” in 1961. In the “Sector W orking Paper ‘Education'” published by the World Bank in 1974, Robert S. McNamarra wrote in the foreword: “While millions of people from among the educated are unemployed, millians of jobs are waiting to be done because people with the right education, training and skills cannot be found.” (World Bank, 1974: I)
The Sorbonne declaration of May 25, 1998, stressed the universities’ role for promoting the mobility and employability of graduates. The joint declaration of the European Ministers of Education convened in Bologna on the 19th of June 1999 emphasised the “achievement of greater compatibility and comparability of the systems of higher education” in order to increase “the international competitiveness of the European system of higher
education”. Whether or not these political purposes are met depends crucially on how graduates manage to acquire competencies.