The Status Of Sociology As A Fundamental Social Science At Modern University

Abstract

The modern university is a subject to notable changes during three previous decades. The Bologna concept of higher education is primarily focused on market principles and thus has caused stagnation in the field of social sciences and humanities, because the principle is not in accordance with the principles of critical thinking, which is a base of these sciences. Nowadays university is expected to be organised according to the model of market business, and this model requires that the knowledge is a profitable category. Socail sciences and humanities have never been able to be successful within market and commercial framework because their nature and role in the society is quite different. Technical and specialist concept of higher educationis primarily is concerned with the necessity of acquiring of certain skills necessary for economy and neglects the concept of education of an individual and development of his/her critical and free thinking. In this paper we will consider the consequences this concept have had on social sceinces and humanities, especially regarding the position of Sociology as an academic discipline at two public universities in the Republic of Srpska: University of Banja Luka and Universityof East Sarajevo. We will analyze all study programs from these two universities in order to check how the Bologna reform of higher education in syllabi neglects general educational subjects like Sociology. The general tendency is that study programs, especially natural and technical sciences, do not offer disciplines from social sciences and humanities. It is illusory to expect that pragmaticalness, positivism and market principles without critical discourse of social sciences and humanities lead to advancementand development of the society. Social sciences, especially Sociology, should have a much better position in the system of higher education because it is the only science whose theoretical and methodological apparatus is able to detect causal connections of social processes and problems and to offer solution for them as well.