Promoting intercultural dialogue through lifelong learning policies

Abstract

A dominant phenomenon in the last decades of the past century and the first decades of the 21st century is that of globalisation. The European Union emphasises more and more the role of education as a real element of reducing the distances between the member states, while stimulating the economic, social and cultural development of the community states. At the European Unions’ policies, the universities are called to prepare the students for an independent life in a multicultural environment, to support the improvement of knowledge, skills and competences that are necessary for an efficient functioning in a pluralist and democratic society, to interact, negotiate and communicate with people from different groups in order to create a civil society functioning on moral principles and common values. The instrument, put at the disposal of the national education systems by the European Committee, is the initiation of action programmes in this domain. The actions that take place in these programmes are based on collaboration relationships between the member states of the European Union. They are also extended to non-community states or even to non-European ones. Among these programmes, emphasis is placed upon those designated to learning during one’s entire lifespan (LLP), the most popular being the Socrates-Erasmus Programme. In these 52 higher education institutions from Romania, which take part to this programme, the University of Oradea has constantly occupied, in the last five years, on the 7th place, and this is due to the number of mobilities put at the students’ and teachers’ disposal every academic year. The objectives proposed by the European Committee, once starting this programmes, were successfully accomplished, as conditions have been created for building a real intercultural dialogue between the 27 countries of the European Union and not only.