Tag: higher education

Following last month’s Bologna Process Ministerial Conference, Professor Helena Nazaré writes that expenditure in higher education should be deemed an investment rather than a cost, and exhorts governments not to ignore higher education as a by-product of the wider financial crisis.

Britain stood up against the European Commission at a meeting of education ministers in Brussels yesterday (14 February), refusing to cooperate with the EU in setting national targets on early school leavers and higher education.

Poland is one of the leading member states when it comes to the EU's 2020 education goals and has set itself high targets. Yet it is lagging behind in other areas, such as kindergarten attendance rates and lifelong learning for adults. EurActiv Poland reports.

The growing trend of allowing industry groups to influence university curricula threatens academic independence, Luca Scarpiello, a bureau member at the European Youth Forum (YFJ), told EurActiv in an interview.

With a large number of teachers approaching retirement, European schools might suffer teacher shortages in the near future, according to a study presented on Thursday (16 July) by the Eurydice network on behalf of the European Commission. The report found declining student numbers, longer compulsory schooling, and a significant rise in higher education participation among the most pertinent trends.

The European Commission is to publish a communication urging universities to strengthen links with businesses. But some in the education sector have expressed reservations about the level of industry input in designing curricula.

EU countries must increase spending and start demanding better value for the money if they are to succeed in meeting the growing demand for higher degrees and better quality education, argues the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

The French Senate has proposed developing a new European university ranking system to counter the powerful Shanghai world ranking, which is said to favour English-language institutions. With France holding the EU's six-month rotating presidency, the issue is likely to be discussed by EU education ministers in November.

French proposals to reform the country's university funding by introducing a more performance-oriented approach have attracted renewed opposition among students.

The EU research commissioner has urged EU member states to follow the French example of university reform and implement the EU executive's recommendations on modernising the European higher education system.

Governments should stop promoting average universities in the name of egalitarianism and start rewarding true excellence even if that means creating unpopular differences between the very best and average professors and students, argues Žiga Turk, the Slovenian minister for growth, in an interview with EurActiv.com. 

A lack of autonomy and diversity in the European higher education system is harming the competitiveness and quality of European universities and driving EU industry and business to make R&D investments outside the EU rather than within the bloc, businesses and universities have warned.

France's national student union has called for a nationwide movement against the country's planned university reform, claiming that state disengagement could lead to excessive private sector influence over higher education curricula, while the EU is calling on member states to give universities more autonomy to work with business.

The government has suceeded in passing a bill that opens university funding and human resources to business, following EU recommendations last year to give researchers and students more financial autonomy and boost entrepreneurial spirit. The reform was introduced amid strong opposition from students' and teachers' unions.

Young parents who have not yet finished their studies need the support of society at large, in order to realise their potential, contribute to economic growth and sustain birth-rates, a report from the European Parliament suggests.

European governments are only implementing the higher education reforms that fit their national agenda, according to student unions. They urge implementation of commitments including the social dimension of the Bologna process, to create a European Area of Higher Education by 2010. 

The Commission has launched legal action against Austria and Belgium as their legislations restrict foreign students' access to national higher-education institutions.

Germany prepares to relaunch the EU's Lisbon Agenda without highlighting the key role that education must play to reach the Lisbon objectives.

For historical reasons, the science-business gap won't be bridged overnight. Political pressure and tax incentives are needed to push the business community to take an interest in working with universities, argues Professor Sylvain Kahn in an interview with EurActiv.com.

The Commission's new communication on the European Institute of Technology (EIT) changes the staffing arrangements of the 'knowledge communities'.  Mandatory long-term secondment is no longer an issue.

OECD study shows that many developed countries are failing to help children of immigrants integrate through education. Germany and Belgium get a particularly bad score.

The Bologna Process aims to establish a European Area of Higher Education by 2010. The objectives include higher education reform and the elimination of remaining barriers to the mobility of students and teachers.

An independent study on the situation of the EU's education system argues that lack of openness of the education system to students from all social backgrounds is a major problem.

Proposing tax incentives as a way to bring universities closer to industry, the Commission also wants European education ministers to acknowledge that closing the severe funding shortfall in higher education is essential for the Lisbon strategy.