Study calls for universities to be safeguarded

The EU’s higher education reform agenda and the growing tendency to consider universities as mere producers of public and private goods is 
undermining their fundamental educational role, a 
group of European universities has warned
.

A paper from the League of European Research Universities published on 18 September calls on universities to clearly articulate what they stand for and to uphold their freedom and autonomy. Similarly, it urges governments to recognise these as crucial values of universities. 

“It is in their creative, free-thinking mode that universities are such a vital resource for the future,” summed up Geoffrey Boulton, co-author of the paper. 

The call comes as governments have started to invest heavily in universities to steer them towards outcomes which respond to short-term policy priorities. The paper highlights the EU’s modernisation agenda for universities and the creation of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology as prime examples of this development. 

Governments have come to regard universities as crucial national assets due to the success of the ‘Western university’ as a breeding ground for creative individuals as well as new knowledge and ideas. Globalisation has further added to the pressure to treat universities as producers of public and private goods, leading to misconceptions about the potential role of universities in society, argues the paper.

However, universities should not be seen as drivers of innovation, which is a process of business engagement with markets. Rather, they help create an environment encouraging innovation, the paper contends, adding that this potential can only be realised through universities’ commitment to education in the deepest sense. 

The paper follows two other recent studies on the changing role of universities. In a similar vein, a European Science Foundation report warned about the danger of mission overload for universities under pressure to raise their economic competitiveness and to live up to new societal responsibilities.

In contrast, a joint university-industry report argued that the role of higher education institutions was changing from a supply-driven to a demand-driven system, and identified ‘trust-based relationships’ between research and business as the key to turning more research results into marketable goods and services. 

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