European Universities: no more lip service, time for action

When the European University Initiative was developed in 2018, universities across Europe have enthusiastically embraced it, even though they knew from the onset that their engagement would cost them much more than any funding would cover. The alliances that are funded in the framework of the Initiative are long-term, university-wide, intensive partnerships like none have ever existed before. Or at least, that is what they could become, if Member States, funding and time allow it.

Ministers for education, meeting early next week, will discuss and adopt Council Conclusions on the European University Initiative. It is unlikely that these Council Conclusions will be anything else than a repetition of mere lip service to the Initiative. However, if Member States truly want to contribute to the success of the European Universities, they will need to step up their game, putting their money and their actions where their mouths are.

Barriers

A crucial role for Member States to play in the success story of the European University Initiative is the removal of barriers that hamper cross-border collaboration, joint degrees and the setup of legal entities. LERU advocates that Member States use the decision on the full rollout to pro-actively engage with their universities and the European Commission, to identify and break down these barriers. If Member States do not play their part, the European Commission should take legal action, aiming at eliminating national obstacles. The universities and alliances can contribute, but they should be allowed to focus time and effort on the realisation of their own goals.

“The long-term success of the European Universities depends on the ability of national policy makers and actors to remove regulatory and administrative hurdles, which are most often obsolete rules resulting from the historical building of our national systems”, adds Prof. Jean Chambaz, President of Sorbonne University and Chair of LERU. “Cleaning up these obstacles is a necessity to build up this open area of higher education in Europe, which we all call for.”

Funding

Next to removing barriers, increased financial support is absolutely needed to reinforce the existing alliances. This funding should not only come from the European Commission but also from all Member States. Currently, the alliances are very much underfunded and the participating universities that do not get any additional national funding, are even more so, creating an imbalance between partners in one alliance.

LERU welcomes the future funding plans of the EC for the 41 existing alliances. Especially the idea of avoiding a funding gap by offering funding for 6 years is applaudable. Further and increased EU funding is absolutely a must, but it should not be a given. LERU believes granting funding on a competitive basis, along the principles of quality and excellence, would strengthen the position and credibility of the Initiative and of the alliances.

However, one part of the EC proposals leaves us puzzled, namely to financially incentivise an enlargement of the existing alliances to 9 members. LERU warns that a forced increase of partner universities in additional countries, before the above-mentioned barriers are removed, will simply be counterproductive, to say the least. Getting to know and start working with new partners at this stage, risks to make redundant all, or a large part of the effort put in by the alliances and their partner universities so far. Alliances that want to enlarge, should be able to do so, but it would be unwise of the European Commission to push this (financially).

Time

Building a partnership between universities across borders, that works and delivers, takes time. New partners and colleagues need to get to know each other, challenges in developing cross-border programmes need to be addressed and buy-in across the university communities needs to grow. The goals of the Initiative, and hence of the alliances, are far too ambitious and far reaching to be realised in a few years’ time. Both the European Commission and the European Council need to acknowledge this in their future approach to the alliances and be realistic in their demands and expectations in the short term. What the alliances now need, next to funding and support in removing barriers, is time.

Even though the European Commission is probably the biggest fan of the Initiative, they risk to drown the alliances with too many demands and a push towards enlargement. The alliances have been set up bottom-up and that is how they should be allowed to grow.

Prof. Jean Chambaz underlines this point: “We know that the political time and the media time are not the academic time. But the development of the European Universities is already a full success. An evaluation after the first 3 years can be a progress update, but it cannot require every aspect of the networks to be fully functional in such a short amount of time. Those who did not start should be stopped; the others have to be supported.”

UK and Swiss universities as full partners

Last but not least, LERU calls for a swift and pragmatic decision on the list of eligible countries for the full rollout of the Initiative. LERU strongly pleads for the option of including universities from the UK and Switzerland as full partners, even if these countries would not be an Erasmus programme country. Intense linkages have been existing for a very long time between universities in the EU and those in the UK and Switzerland. Already some UK universities are full partners in alliances. It would be of benefit to the EU to further strengthen the connections between its own universities and those in the UK and Switzerland, not only in R&I, but also in education.

Contact:
Prof. Kurt Deketelaere, LERU Secretary-General, or +32 499 80 89 99
Ms Laura Keustermans, LERU Senior Policy Officer Research & Education, or +32 476 97 73 04