Abstract:

The historic events at the end of the 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century marked everyday life and the lives of many societies in a special way. The consistent change of the status in the progress of societies favours the process of emergence and development of modern information society, based on knowledge. This has resulted in a radical change in the mentality of people,as well as to the overall reorganization of the political, economic, educational and cultural consolidation of a number of countries.
The effect of this change was most strongly felt with the shift of percepting economics as a manufacturing process of goods, including the existing knowledge on the use of labour, machinery, tools and various technologies. The perception of production as a process of reproducing a finished product has changed and evolved into the idea of producing new knowledge, or rather modern production includes all intermediary processes and operations, necessary for the production of new knowledge. A consequence of this change is the modern notion of economy as "knowledge economy", which focuses on knowledge and skills and promotes them as the most valuable economic qualities of a personality.
Universities have changed significantly over the years. However, they have preserved their original purpose as educational and cultural centres, where an average person can obtain important knowledge and skills for life. Today, educational institutions are facing new challenges and problems, related, on the one hand, to the access and quality of services offered and, on the other hand, to the issues concerning the motivation of young people in acquiring new knowledge.
A good example in this regard is the International Southeast Summer University, organized by the University of Library Studies and Information Technologies (SULSIT) - Sofia, Bulgaria, in its role of a modern university alternative educational model. Thanks to it, different opportunities are created for young people to organize their scientific and educational activities in accordance with university syllabi. In their fieldwork, they successfully apply a methodology that is based on the architectural approach, which provides wide opportunities for structuring a set of knowledge to successfully implement changes such as initiatives, ventures, missions, activities, product creation, and services. The interpretations and implementation of this approach are carried out in the context of an intensive and qualitatively new transfer of scientific knowledge. In other words, the architectural approach is suited to exploring dynamic and complex objects that are described with the help of a large amount of data. Its matrix provides different perspectives on the researched object and thus allows the creation of a holistic model. This methodology of change includes: an analysis of what has been achieved in the particular field; indication of unresolved tasks; determining the necessary apparatus for solving them; researching good practices; analysis of the results and approbation. On the other hand, the presence of quantitative and qualitative results from field work is a motivation for students to participate in various scientific conferences, seminars, forums, interviews, etc. At these events, using new technologies, students successfully and interactively present their views and opinions on issues related to their professional and personal development.

Keywords:

modern information society, knowledge economy, university, experience, learning by doing, architectural approach, methodology of change;