What are the main tasks of universities: to offer students knowledge and skills essential for their future career, or to provide students with access to knowledge itself? What do you think university education should contain?

Universities around the world are now facing the problem of how to efficiently use their resources to serve a larger population of students that are more culturally and socially diversified. To solve the problem, universities should be perfectly aware of their main tasks: providing students with easy access to knowledge and, at the same time, encour­aging them to make active contribution to the advancement of human knowledge. Universities should, first of all, be learning communities where knowledge is not only disseminated but also advanced. As full-fledged members of this community, students should not be information recipients who learn the knowledge in a passive way. Instead, they should be challenged to achieve their potential and, indeed, to excel. Therefore, rather than focus merely on knowledge dissemination and transfer, universities should contrive to provide learning conditions that encourage students to remain curious, to value diversity in opinions and perspectives, and to think critically and communicate effectively. In this way, students can gain problem-solving experience and confidence. Furthermore, universities will never attain their goals if they tailor all their courses or programmes to meet the needs of specific employers or occupational sectors. Today’s social environment is more dynamic and turbulent than ever before. Only those gradu­ates who possess certain personality traits and can do well in diversified situations can distinguish themselves from other job applicants. In short, in order to fulfil the main tasks of universities, university education should contain ample opportunities for independent learning which can cultivate students who are more likely to adapt to the changing society. Students can also learn to exercise their autonomy more effectively, and they may clarify their own professional interests while learning in an independent way.