More resources: higher quality

There are some 4,000 universities in the EU, with over 19 million students, and yet “higher education fails to provide Europe with a sufficient number of persons with the right skills” to ensure the growth of the economy and contribute more effectively to social and cultural development. The Twenty-Seven, according to a recent document of the Commission, have a need to increase the number of graduates, and thus increase the overall quality of education. But to achieve this, the steps that need to be taken at the national and European level are numerous and require more resources that those allocated to the universities today.Numbers, quality. In fact, as the Commission points out in a document with the title “Modernisation of higher education in Europe: funding and the social dimension”, it’s not just a problem of numbers. “At the international level many competitors of Europe, in particular the emerging economies, are rapidly increasing investments in higher education”. Money well spent, according to Brussels. The Commission in fact starts out from these observations to propose to the Union and member states “a strategy of reform aimed at promoting the number of graduates, improving the quality of teaching, and maximising the contribution of higher education to ensure that the EU emerges stronger from the crisis”. The Executive’s proposals, which now pass to the scrutiny of the EU Council and Parliament, concern such fields as support for higher educational opportunities among youth, transnational training, public funding, and the reinforcement of the link between research and business.Training and work. In presenting the strategy, Commissioner for Education and Youth Androulla Vassiliou said: “We must reform higher education so as to furnish our youth with the skills they need to realize their own potential in terms of development and employability”. University education and post-university training are, according to the Commissioner, “a powerful factor of economic growth that opens the doors to better living conditions and creates opportunities. It also represents the best guarantee against unemployment”. Yet, as Androulla Vassiliou recognises, “too many graduates encounter difficulties in finding a quality job or employment”. So the strategy she described identifies the priority areas in which the EU countries must play a more active role and defines the ways in which the Union itself can support their modernization policies. EU measures, explains Vassiliou, will also comprise a multi-dimensional classification of universities, “aimed at informing students about the courses best tailored to their needs” and “the Erasmus system of guaranteed loans for Masters, designed for those who follow their whole graduate course abroad”.Priority areas. Europe is undoubtedly the cradle of universities and the very high number of universities would seem to demonstrate that the old continent is in pole position in this field. However, the fact is that the quality of university teaching and research is not always high; and not all the faculties respond to the educational needs of youth and of the labour market. Moreover, between one country and another different tendencies are ascertained, which variously privilege – in terms of number of graduate courses, matriculated students, and possible professional openings – economic or humanistic studies, medicine, engineering, political science, sociology, chemistry, information technology, and so on. The Commission proposes some “priority areas” in which reforms and changes are needed. For example, the number of graduates needs to be increased, “by attracting a wider cross-section of society to higher education” and by reducing the number of university drop-outs. Furthermore, “the quality and relevance of higher education need to be improved so that university courses satisfy the needs of individuals, the labour market and future careers”; incentives and prizes are also needed (but of what type?) to foster excellence in teaching and in research. The Executive urges that “students be offered greater opportunities to acquire added skills through studies or training abroad” and encourages cross-border collaboration between universities.A basis for comparison. It should be recalled that in presenting its own proposals for the next multiannual EU budget (2014-2020), the Commission asked for an increase in allocations for education and youth (+73%) and for research (+46%). In view of the difficulties that universities are now facing in many EU countries (without ignoring their many excellences), the Commission’s proposals seem unrealistic. Yet the educational deficit that the EU is accumulating in comparison with its international competitors is recognized by countless authorities. The strategy enunciated by the Commission at least has the merit of indicating points for a serious comparative analysis at the European level.