Academic Culture, Student Culture and the Idea of the University

Abstract

The article examines the relationship between academic culture and student culture, analyzing their connection to the idea of the university. Adopting a phenomenological approach, it seeks to describe the essential features of these interrelated phenomena and the idea of the university. The study aims to outline the theoretical and axiological foundations of university life, where academic and student cultures coexist. One of the objectives is to determine which concept of culture encompasses all three elements mentioned in the title. The author indicates that this is the concept of culture encapsulated by the German term Bildung, which denotes the intellectual and moral shaping or formation of a human being, also captured by the Greek concept of paideia. Understanding culture as the shaping (Bildung or paideia) of an individual’s humanity unites the idea of the university, academic culture and student culture. These elements share a foundational relationship: the idea of the university constitutes the axiological basis for academic culture, which, in turn, forms the axiological foundation for student culture. This foundational relationship attests to their structural unity, reflected in shared values such as truth, good and beauty – intellectual, moral and aesthetic ideals. These values are manifested by individuals whose humanity is shaped (or educated) – which is the axiological essence of a human being – through participation in university life, where academic culture and student cultures are cultivated in accordance with their essential nature. This structural and axiological unity is described in the article.