European universities criticise EIT proposal 

According to the Commission's current proposal, the European Institute of Technology (EIT) would consist of knowledge communities, which would bring together departments of universities, companies and research institutes to perform research, education and innovation activities in inter-disciplinary strategic areas. 

These departments and their staff would be transferred to the EIT for 10-15 years and cease to be part of their home organisations for that period. Universities, companies and research centres would thus not be members of the EIT as entities, only their specific R&D, innovation or education departments and the teams of these divisions.

The European University Association (EUA ), which represents over 700 individual universities and a number of other higher education stakeholders across Europe, says that the legal structure currently proposed for the European Institute of Technology (EIT) is "the wrong mechanism for reaching the goals set for the EIT".  

The unanimously adopted EUA policy position on the Commission's communication on the EIT states that presently defined 'modus operandi' of these communities "will not achieve the synergetic effects intended but rather contribute to the institutional and intellectual fragmentation of Europe's universities at a time when strong, autonomous and accountable institutions are crucial if universities are to play their role as the 'locus where education, research and innovation meet'".

According to the League of European Research Universities (Leru ), the models proposed for the EIT "militate against competition, will be unable to deliver the short and medium term benefits sought, are narrow and unimaginative in scope and are of doubtful sustainability." 

As to the Coimbra Group universities, an association of long-established European multidisciplinary universities, it states that "it is doubtful that the creation of an EIT will be directly beneficial to the creation of a European knowledge-based economy and the Lisbon strategy." These universities think that "the purpose assigned to a potential EIT can be better achieved through the European Research Council."