Four elements of higher education as student self-formation

The essential character of higher education is the reflexive self-formation of students. Students work on themselves, to a varying extent, in relation to their evolution, goals and projects. The essential elements of higher education as self-formation are the autonomy of the learner, reflexive agency, the will to learn and immersion in knowledge. Immersion in collective knowledge distinguishes self-formation in higher education from other domains. Self-formation is both a researchable phenomenon and a norm to be achieved. The provision of opportunities and resources for self-formation is more fundamental to institutional higher education than is the fostering of employability, which partly depends on other social sectors, but student self-formation is foundational to graduate work and graduate social contributions in other spheres. Self-formation is enhanced by certain productive conditions, including pedagogy, communicative relations in higher education, student mobility including cross-border mobility, formative activities beyond the classroom and institution-based services.