Shape up, Commission tells universities

The Berlaymont, Brussels: home of the European Commission. Picture courtesy www.berlaymont.
2000.com

Institutional “rigidities” mean that currently much of the potential of the continent’s universities goes untapped. Immediate, fundamental and coordinated change is needed to free up the reservoir of knowledge, talent and energy, says the Commission

“Although they train and teach millions of people each year, Europe’s higher education systems remain hampered by a number of obstacles, many of which are decades old,” said Jan Figel, Commissioner for Education and Training.

The Commission’s plan identifies nine areas where changes are needed, saying each institution needs to find the right balance of education, research and innovation that is best suited to its role in its region or country.

The Commission says it will support the modernisation process by identifying and sharing best practice, and through its various funding programmes for education and research.  The proposals build on various other pronouncements on higher education that the Commission has made in support of the Lisbon Agenda.

With more than 4,000 institutions, 17 million students and 435,000 researchers the potential contribution of European universities to Lisbon is enormous.  

“[Universities] need to adapt to the demands of a global, knowledge-base economy, just as other sectors of society and the economy have to adapt,” said Janez Potocnik, Science and Research Commissioner. “The ideas we are putting forward today should help kick-start a debate among member states, and also within universities themselves.”

So what is the problem with Europe’s universities? According to the Commission, higher education is fragmented into small national systems and subsystems, without effective links and bridges between them. On top of this the uniformity that these national systems imply leads to everyone achieving a good average, but limits access and does not generate world-class researchers.

In addition, national regulations are too detailed, and prevent universities responding to changing research and education needs. This means they are not prepared for the emerging competition for students, researchers and resources, unleashed by globalisation.

More importantly, universities “under use” the knowledge they produce because they inhabit a world that is separate from business.

Overall, funding for universities is too low compared to major competitors, both in education and research because of a lower contribution from private sources. Access rates to higher education are lower in Europe than other leading economies.

Proposals put forward by the commission to deal with these problems include:

• Increasing the number of students that spend at least one semester abroad or in industry
  
  
• Allowing students to use national loans and grants to study anywhere in Europe
  
  
• Merge recognition procedures for academic qualifications and make European degrees more acceptable outside Europe
  
  
• Make intellectual property management, communication, networking, entrepreneurship and team working part of the training for researchers
  
  
• Allow older people to attend university to address Europe’s skills needs and ensure universities adapt to working with an ageing population
  
  
• Review student support schemes to ensure the brightest students can participate, regardless of background
  
  
• Change the criteria for university funding, putting more emphasis on outputs and give universities more responsibility for their own financing, particularly in research.
  
  
• Allow universities greater autonomy and make them more accountable, so that they can respond to change. This would include revising curricula to reflect new developments and focusing on cross-disciplinary research areas such as renewable energy or nanotechnology, rather than traditional disciplines.