The Democratic Imperative for Higher Education: Empowering Students to Become Active Citizens

Democracy is under threat and those of us who work in education have a special responsibility to counteract these forces. One of the core social objectives of education is to prepare our children and young people to become active and responsible individuals, equipped with the competences that will enable them to have a full and productive life in society. To tackle this challenge the Council of Europe published the Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture (RFCDC) to strengthen the capacity of education institutions to underpin and sustain democracy in the wider society. In 2020, the council published a fourth volume of the RFCDC specifically for higher education. As a whole, the RFCDC provides a detailed description of the competences learners should acquire to become effective, engaged citizens, and thereby acts as a guide to educators as they plan curricula and systems for learning, teaching, and assessment.