EU educators: We want to work with business

Commissioner Figel: “We need better and more investment.”

Europe’s ivory tower is falling. A series of new studies by the European Commission finds most academics support educational reforms to encourage more collaboration with industry, greater private funding of education, and streamlined curricula.

A Eurobarometer survey, released on the eve of a London conference 17 May on the so-called Bologna Process of education reform, found surprisingly strong support among European educators for big change in the system. About 73 per cent across the 27 EU member states agreed that more private funding would help universities gain income and perform better, and the same percentage agreed that “partnerships with business will reinforce universities”.  

Anti-business attitudes in parts of European academia had long been one of the obstacles to greater collaborative research and training with industry – and so the Eurobarometer report indicates a big shift is underway. EU officials are urging greater business collaboration – and greater spending on education by both business and government, as a key to European competitiveness.

“We need better and more investment” in education, said EU Education Commission Ján Figel at a Brussels news briefing. While, on average, 70 per cent of university students across the EU are publicly funded, the pattern from country to country is a “mosaic,” he said. Given that spending per-student in the EU is well below the commission’s targeted 2 per cent of gross domestic product, he said, “we need to increase public support – and mobilize more private investment.”

‘Those who study more, get more’

Figel noted that people with university degrees earn, on average, 49 per cent more than people who only completed secondary education; and 18 per cent of people with university degrees continue some form of extra training after graduation – further raising their income. “Those who study more, get more – and they tend to study more later on,” he said, explaining the economic importance of better education.

The strength of educator support for private funding varies widely. While the EU average is 73 per cent in favour, support is sky-high in most new EU member states – for instance, 95 per cent in Romania, and 92 per cent in Malta and Cyprus. In some older, richer European countries, it’s a different story: 52 per cent of Danish educators and 51 per cent in Norway oppose greater private funding.

Generally speaking, support for private funding is highest among older and higher-ranking teachers, and in departments of engineering, economics, law, medicine and other “hard” sciences. It’s lowest in languages and the social sciences, and among lecturers and doctoral students who are also teaching.

A similar pattern appears among educators asked whether student fees are acceptable as one possible source of private funding – with an average of 68 per cent saying yes.

Reform now

The EC reports also showed a strong support for other reforms in university governance – such as the switch that universities across most of Europe are now making towards a standardized, three-part cycle of undergraduate, masters and doctoral degrees.

The change began in 1999, when countries began signing up to the Bologna Process of curricula reform – named after the university where the agreement was launched. Every two years since then, EU ministers have met to take stock of the progress in the conversion, and to push for more change. The next such stock-taking begins 17 May in at a London conference.

At the conference, the Commission is releasing a trove of new data on EU education. For instance:

• 17 European nations have now fully adopted the three-part degree cycle. Sweden, Andorra and the German-speaking region of Belgium have not  (though in Sweden, the change-over begins 1 July). Figel said the EU is on track to complete the process by 2010, as planned.
  
  
• Higher education is totally free to students in 12 European countries. In those countries that require student contributions, they typically range between €200 and €1,000 a year. In Latvia and in some Portuguese programmes, the cost can exceed €6,000 a student a year.
  
  
• Fewer than 2 per cent of students a year study outside their home countries – mostly men, and mostly doctoral students. Spanish, Polish and British students are the least mobile in Europe. Over a five-year cycle, the accumulated travel means that close to 10 per cent of all students have spent at least one semester studying abroad.