Both knowledge and expertise about democracy and capitalism are needed - and quickly. Unfortunately, cross-boundary excursions abroad by Belarussian faculty and students are currently economically out of reach, as is the importation of foreign faculty who would displace or augment native faculty. The processes of building an educational system that will prepare Belarussians for a different social system will require many decades. There are many levers that need to be pushed for change in higher education to take place in Belarus. A national faculty development program designed both to educate faculty as to new educational objectives, alternative modes of teaching, and new career paths.
Faculty seem at the heart of the change process in Belarus.
If the country is to develop into a democracy and free enterprise state, students must be enabled to grow and develop as unique individuals, not as tools of the state. The curriculum and extracurriculum must change accordingly. Moving from an objective of transmission of known truths through didactic means to an open, inquiring, questioning perspective will require much adjustment - and considerable faculty development. In the United States, new models of education are now finding their way into the design of institutions. These new models suggest that students must learn to develop a sense of self-identity, become more expressive, better able to relate to others, more willing to take risks, etc.