European Research and Higher Education Areas in a Global

Context CHEPS Summer School on Higher Education Research,

Twente University, Enschede, Holland, July 2004

Prof. Marek Kwiek

Center for Public Policy

Poznan University, Poznan, Poland

kwiekm@amu.edu.pl

www.policy.hu/kwiek

Introduction/Overview

• HE transformations: global• HE transformations: (old) EU• „Universal knowledge” and „knowledge societies”• European Research and Higher Education Areas• Two views on Bologna: protectionism, expansionism• Bologna and ERA: underlying assumptions• Transnational reform agendas vs. Bologna/ERA• The university: changing missions?• The university: dynamic processes• Conclusions

HE transformations: global (1)

• HE more influential than ever before for the economic growth of nations and regions

• Passage from industrial (work-based) to postindustrial (knowledge-based) economies and societies (OECD)

• Consequently, knowledge viewed as the major driver of economic development

• Old and new challenges in HE. Old challenges include: – shifting from elite to mass (expanded) systems under severe

resource constraints

– inequality of access and opportunities

HE transformations: global (2)

– low quality and relevance of education to the labor market– rigid governance and administrative structures– inability (or unwillingness) of governments to finance expanding

public HE– inability (or unwilingness) of governments to finance ever-

expanding research in public sector institutions (partnerships)

• New challenges in HE:– crucial role of knowledge production, dissemination and

application for “knowledge-driven societies”– consequently, HE in the center of public scrutiny (nationally,

regionally, and globally) – EU, WB, OECD, IMF, WTO etc.– emergence of powerful market forces in HE and R&D

HE transformations: global (3)

– unprecedented growth of new for profit and virtual providers in HE (consortia, franchises, corporate universities; foreign/ borderless institutions)

– unprecedented differentiation of HE (from huge community colleges to small elite institutions)

– rapidly changing demographics („new” students)

– globalization of economies and cultures

– internationalization of academic disciplines and research communities

– rapid spread of the English language

– advent of new technologies (especially telecommunications)

HE transformations: global (4)

• New challenges for HE in more general terms mean:– new questions asked: „What is it that society needs from higher

education? - and no longer „What is it that higher education needs from society?”

– radical move away from the state, and more reliance on the market, for both teaching, research and service functions

– changing social status of the academic profession (from “Herr Professor” to „knowledge analyst”), changing working conditions (pioneers Altbach globally, Enders for EU)

– commodification of research, marketization of educational offer, corporatization of academic governance and management structures (collegiality vs. CEO/corporate models; managerialism)

– diversification - growth of the private sector (globally)

HE transformations: global (5)

– research - increasingly goes to the corporate sector (EU goal - 3% of GDP for research - but increase from private funds, and considerably for the private R&D)

– students - increasingly „consumers”, HE institutons – increasingly „providers” of services (major shifts in vocabulary)

– tighter links between university/corporations/military

(Note: the transition countries today face both old and new challenges at the same time! Western European countries faced old challenges 20-30 years ago, when they moved towards mass systems of HE. HE in transition economies is working increasingly under both types of pressures).

HE transformations: (old) EU (1)

• Majority of aspects of global transformations present - but in much softened versions (with exceptions, e.g. UK)

• Majority of aspects of global transformations confirmed in the „Lisbon strategy” (2000): to make Europe by 2010 „the most competitive economy in the world”

• Consequently, emergent „European Research Area” (ERA) and, increasingly, Bologna - directed to economic goals

• „European Welfare Model” in conflict with the global market orientation of HE

• Bologna process for EU countries - to make EHEA compe-

HE transformations: (old) EU (2)

• titive to American and Australasian HE, to have bigger share in global market of international students (or to protect itself agains global challenges – see later)

• current transformations of HE supposed to mean: highly skilled professional workforce for the new „knowledge-economy”; comparability of educational outputs and diplomas across Europe; mobility of graduates and workforce; growing employability of graduates

• next moves? Possibly pan-European - accreditation schemes, quality assurance, framework of qualifications, and descriptions of „educational outputs” and „competencies”

„Universal knowledge” and „knowledge societies” (1)

• European Commission, World Bank, and Magna Charta Universitatum quoted and compared

• „The knowledge society depends for its growth on the producton of new knowledge, its transmission through education and training, its dissemination through information and communication technologies, and on its use through new industrial processes or services”

(The Role of Universities in the Europe of

Knowledge, 2003, p. 2)

„Universal knowledge” and „knowledge societies” (2)

• „The ability of a society to produce, select, adapt, commercialize, and use knowledge is critical for sustained economic growth and improved living standards”

(Constructing Knowledge Societies: New Challenges

for Tertiary Education, World Bank, 2003, p. 7)

„Universal knowledge” and „knowledge societies” (3)

• Magna Charta Universitatum (Bologna, 1988): „constant care to attain universal knowledge”, university as a „trustee of the European humanist tradition” etc.

• No continuation in current ERA (and little in Bologna) documents, in global accounts of HE by OECD, WB, in discussions on the „knowledge society” and the „Europe of knowledge”

• Conclusion: the working vocabulary used for debates about the future of the university has changed substantially – since its German (or Napoleonic) origins (von Humboldt,

„Universal knowledge” and „knowledge societies” (4)

• Schelling, Fichte, Schleiermacher) – but also since 1980s

• The shift in vocabulary accompanies the shift in seeing the roles, tasks and missions of our educational institutions

• Universities no more: detached from society and attached to the state; attached to the nation-state; building national identity and constructing nationhoods. Increasingly seen as part of the public sector – or the corporate sector, with a task to „construct knowledge societies” (rather than „invent Germanneness” etc)

European Research and Higher Education Areas (1)

• Bologna nad ERA – two sides of the same coin: that of ongoing redefinition of roles, missions, tasks of the University in changing, market-driven and knowledge-based European societies and economies (gradual, simultaneous emergence)

• Convergence between intergovernmental Bologna and EU ERA: supranational, intergovernmental and inter-institutional (universities) levels get increasingly mixed

• Universities may not be able to avoid a substantial transformation of their functioning, in both T and R

European Research and Higher Education Areas (2)

• Inward-looking Bologna: while the impact of global transformations on HE widely acknowledged – no mention in all Bologna documents since its inception (1998)

• But outward-looking ERA: the impact of globalization on Europe (competition with USA and Australasia) repeatedly acknowledged; and at the foundations of the overall EU „Lisbon Strategy” (2000)

• Bologna seems to be closed to global developments in HE, regional problems and regional solutions: limited references to global changes and to huge political and economic transformations underlying them

European Research and Higher Education Areas (3)

• But globalization (globally) is one of the main driving forces behind current transformations of the public sector, current welfare state models and changes in educational policies worldwide

• It is an analytical mistake to forget about it within Bologna process

Two views on Bologna (1)

• Anyway, in general, two simplified contrasting views on Bologna (Dirk van Damme):- as an introduction to a much deeper integration of national

educational systems, resulting from competitive pressures and global liberalization of operations of HEIs (expansionism)

- as a large-scale defensive mechanism to avoid the pitfalls of globalization and to stay together in Europe against the global odds (protectionism)

- 1st may imply convergence Bologna/globalization processes on a regional scale in the future

- 2nd may imply an attempt to make HE systems stronger against the forces of glob. (with their emphasis privatization, commercialization, marketization, commodification etc)

Two views on Bologna (2)

• Which adequate? Both „protectionist” and „expansionist” themes present in Bologna documents; ERA – mostly expansionist views. Expansionism requires attracting foreign students and talents – as opposed to protectionism which emphasizes „public good”, responsibility, and consequently public funding

Bologna and ERA: underlying assumptions (1)

• Europe and the world entering a new era of knowledge-based and market-driven and competing economies (more ERA)

• Europe has to compete with USA and Japan in HE (Bologna) and R&D (ERA)

• The underlying goal behind current transformations of HE and R&D policies (explicitely in ERA, indirectly in Bologna with its „social dimension”): to be the most „competitive” and „dynamic” knowledge-based economy by 2010. Goal - (mostly) economic!

• But higher competitiveness needs to be combined with social cohesion• To reach the goal, knowledge, from universities or elsewhere, is a clue• Consequently, neither in ERA nor in Bologna, the University is seen in

a traditional way (which was dominant before the advent of globalizat.,

Bologna and ERA: underlying assumptions (2)

before speeding up of the European integration, and the passage from the industrial and service societies – to the postindustrial, global, aknowledge and information societies

Transnational reform agendas and ERA/Bologna (1)

As set by the WB and OECD, HE reforms seen within wider reforms of the state – the minimal state: provides only an „enabling framework” for

functioning of the market forces and competition between (mostly private) providers

– privatization (in the long run) of major welfare services: healthcare, pensions, (higher) education

– to take the burden off the state’s shoulders (and to users of services)

– to keep national budget deficits as low as possible, lower taxes etc– to downsize („rightsize”) the public sector– HE seen more as a private good, not a public good (also a tradable

good: see WTO)

Transnational reform agendas and ERA/Bologna (2)

• EU reform agendas for new EU countries similar to the transnational agendas in general

• traditional EU’s concerns about the „European welfare model” under threat - generally irrelevant for new EU-countries (no Keynesian welfare state to dismantle; more Anglo-Saxon attitude)

Transnational reform agendas and ERA/Bologna (3)

• Necessity in new EU: to combine transnational views of downsizing the public sector (no resources available soon, growing other social and economic needs; low taxation) with European views of HE as crucial for economic growth (for future common European labor market)

• HE is competing strongly with other sectors for shrinking public funds. Private funds for HE grew faster than public funds in all major OECD economies

• Consequently, Bologna might go together with transnational reform agendas for HE but mostly in new EU; ERA may converge with WB/OECD views on R&D

The University: changing missions

• In ERA and Bologna documents, the current role for universities is to be:

- engines for economic growth of countries and regions

- contributors to economic competitiveness of nations and regions

- suppliers of highly-qualified and well-trained workers for the new knowledge-driven economy (but - quote „Berlin Communique”)

- Without much discussons about principles („Idea of the University” of Idealists, Newman, Jaspers, y Gasset etc), the university in the European context may be entering a new era of its history

The University: dynamic processes

• Some major factors implying a transformation of the institution:

- the globalization pressures on nation-states and their public services- The questionig of the foundations of the WS and the public sector in general - The end of the „Golden age” of the KWS (with its lavish support for

national public research and for strong national HE systems – 3 decades)- The emergence of knowledge societies (and economies) in affluent West;

funding, funding, funding...

Processes of transformations more generally are:- Gradual individualization (and recommodification) of our societies- Denationalization (and desocialization) of our economies- Universalization of HE and commodification and marketization of

research (50-70%; „leased Ivory Tower”, „corporate takeover” etc

Conclusions

• Bologna and ERA complementary: two sides of the same coin, redefining roles and tasks of HEIs

• Bologna and ERA converge - increasingly for economic purposes, for knowledge production on a regional scale

• Will be increasingly affected by global transformations if the idea is to „globally competitive”

• Will lead to pan-„European” (EU) accreditation, quality assurance schemes; harmonisation of curricula in the long run

• Still changes depend largely on effective legislation, and on the academic profession

Conclusions

• Bologna and ERA - as well as global transformations in HE and R&D - undermine the idea of the traditional modern university

• Consumer-driven T, market-driven R; huge competition with „new providers” of both T and R

• The academic profession under new pressures, hugely diversified, massified academics for almost universal studies

Thank you very much for your attention, let us remember that:

• „Changing a university is difficult. It is like moving a cemetary; hard work and there is no internal support”, Clark Kerr