The mission of the university and information capitalism

The university is a unique phenomenon of society. Being a humanitarian and cultural institution, it provides prerequisites for the development of non-humanitarian - natural-science, technocratic -achievements of society. Being part of society, it provides its renewal in general through its product -knowledge. The aim of the paper is to assess the mission of a National University from all-philosophical positions in the conditions of the dominant of information capitalism. The university was founded in the Middle Ages as an institution of humanitarian technologies for formatting the individual and society. As a specific institution of science and education it was formed as a corporation on the basis of social inquiry of new city layers. The classical university was founded in response to the economic, technological, social and cultural requirements of capital and industrialism. As a project of the Enlightenment it has innovative, educational, common cultural and world outlook functions. It is a subsystem of society and the state providing it with its world outlook and scientific knowledge. It promotes time progress and stability of society at the same time. The classical university had general cultural functions in society and was supported by the state. It was a self-organized system on the basis of rules of a scientific society. According to Humboldt's model the classical university provided development and broadcast of the universal system of knowledge integrated by philosophy. The most important task was the formation of public consciousness on the basis of a certain world outlook. The Soviet system kept the principles of this model; however, politicization, interference of the state and retaliatory bodies led to a deformation of the optimum model of the university. The modern national university is put in the conditions of state support and, at the same time, of commercial competition and of aims to get financial benefit. Effective mechanisms for solving this contradiction do not exist due to the inefficient model of informational capitalism in modern Russia. Insufficient funding and bureaucratization of higher education lead to a deadlock, at least, for social and humanitarian sciences. The external environment of university existence has changed, as well as its function. In many respects, it is caused by tendencies of informational capitalism. Professors and scholars are subject to super-exploitation in informational capitalism. The mission of the modern university is not sufficiently implemented, and its structure and functions are insufficiently adapted to the conditions of informational civilization. It is supposed that the main functions of the classical university have to be preserved, however, adapted to the conditions of the modern structure of knowledge, modern communications and requirements of the future.

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