Commission outlines challenges facing universities in Europe

Citation

(2005), "Commission outlines challenges facing universities in Europe", Education + Training, Vol. 47 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2005.00447fab.008

Commission outlines challenges facing universities in Europe

Important weaknesses exist in the performance of European higher education institutions compared to those of the EU’s main competitors, says the European Commission.

“Although the average quality of European universities is rather good, they are not in a position to deliver their full potential to boost economic growth, social cohesion and more and better jobs,” said Jan Figel, European Commissioner for Education and Training. “The Commission invites national decision makers to set out measures that would enable universities to play a full role in the Lisbon strategy to make Europe the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010.”

The European Commission communication on Mobilising the Brainpower of Europe: Enabling Universities to Make their Full Contribution to the Lisbon Strategy shows that, with only 21 per cent of the EU’s working-age population attaining tertiary education, the EU does not compare well with the USA (38 per cent), Canada (43 per cent) or Japan (36 per cent). Furthermore, access to tertiary education is now stabilising in Europe at a comparatively low level, except in a few countries. The Commission finds that this reflects a lack of responsiveness of higher education to changes in society and the need for lifelong learning.

Europe’s lower performance is also related to a huge funding gap. EU countries spend, on average, 1.1 per cent of national wealth (gross domestic product) on higher education. This is on a par with Japan but much less than Canada (2.5 per cent) and the USA (2.7 per cent). If Europe were to match the total US figure, it would need to spend an additional €150 billion a year on higher education. This situation has affected European universities’ performance in world-class research, with a lower share of scientific publications, patents and Nobel prizes than the USA. A major difference is that while European higher education continues to rely almost exclusively on (limited) public funds, much stronger and lasting expansion has been possible in competitor countries thanks to a greater diversity of funding sources, with much higher contributions from industry and households.

The communication shows that almost a quarter of all students in the EU (more than 700,000 in 2003) graduate in mathematics, science and technology, key areas for the knowledge-based economy. This proportion is much higher than the proportion in the USA. However, the USA has more researchers in the labour market (the business sector employs four-fifths of the US researchers in comparison with half in the EU), partly a result of a “brain gain” from Europe and Asia but also because of the vast financial resources available to research in the USA.

Despite the robust growth in mathematics, science and technology graduates in Europe in recent years, China, with its rapidly developing knowledge society, overtook Europe in the total number of graduates in these subjects in 2003. However, when it comes to new PhDs, Europe still clearly leads the world.

The Communication identifies three priority areas for reform of European universities:

1. 1.

   enhancing the quality and attractiveness of Europe’s universities;

2. 2.

   improving their governance and systems; and

3. 3.

   increasing and diversifying their funding, with or without a substantial contribution from students.