Abstract:

As is stated by Merriam-Webster dictionary, higher education is education beyond the secondary level; especially education provided by a college or university. But the authors believe that higher education is a more comprehensive phenomenon than just a scope of knowledge, skills and competences developed at a level which would qualify someone to work in a professional field and in an environment which also includes advanced research activity. Higher education should not be seen as a narrow professional personality development but primarily, as comprehensive development of students’ personality at a higher level and in a wider perspective, and secondly, as a system creating and deepening one’s professionalism in a particular sphere in close interrelation with adjoining and sometimes, quite distant fields of theory and practice. The swiftly changing world requires interdisciplinarity in theory and practice and the tourism industry seems to be among the most multidisciplinary branches of the global economy and research.

The authors argue that one of major goals of higher education is to develop personalities (professional personalities included) so much that they could be able not just appreciate the achievement of previous civilizations and generations but also preserve and develop them, which is particulalry important today, in the era of creativity, with creative cities, creative industries and creative people competing with those sticking to the traditional approach and defeating them in all battles of comparison.

Keywords:

higher education, professional education, creative industries, tourism industry, experience industry, new approaches to tourism development.