From: Education + Training, 48(6). [This Emerald publishers journal is superb. My university subscribes to Emerald journals as you should demand yours do too! Indeed Emerald has supported the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Academy</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Management</st1:placename></st1:place>'s Management Education and Development Division's Best paper in Management Development for more than 15 years in conjunction with its Journal of Management Development].
European news
Europe needs modernised universities, says European Commission
Much of the "enormous potential" of <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>'s universities is going untapped because of the ways in which they are regulated and managed, says the European Commission.
The Commission, responding to a request made by EU heads of state and government at the October 2005 Hampton Court summit under the British EU presidency, presented a report on how best to modernise <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>'s universities and help them to make their contribution to the EU's objective of become the leading knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010. The report covers universities' delivery of education, their research activities, and their potential as drivers of innovation.
The report says that freeing up the substantial reservoir of knowledge, talent and energy requires immediate, in-depth and co-ordinated change. The Commission's proposals include:
- boost the proportion of graduates spending at least one semester abroad or in industry;
- allow students to use national loans and grants wherever in the EU they decide to study or do research;
- introduce procedures for the recognition of academic qualifications in line with those for professional qualifications and make European degrees more easily recognized outside <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>;
- introduce training in intellectual-property management, communication, networking, entrepreneurship and team-working as part of a research career;
- refocus courses to allow greater participation at later stages of the life-cycle, thereby addressing the skill needs of Europe's workforce, and ensuring that universities are able to adapt to the needs of Europe's ageing population;
- review national student fee and support schemes so that the best students can participate in higher-education and further research careers, whatever their background;
- review systems for funding universities, to be more focused on outputs, and give universities more responsibility for their own long-term financial sustainability, particularly in research; and
- allow universities greater autonomy and accountability, so that they can respond quickly to change. This could include revising curricula to adapt to new developments, building closer links between disciplines and focusing on overall research areas (such as renewable energy or nanotechnology) rather than disciplines. It could also include more autonomy at individual institution level for choosing teaching and research staff.
The Commission recommends that each institution should find the balance of education, research and innovation that best suits its role in its region.
The Commission stands ready to support the modernisation of EU universities through a process of identifying and sharing good practice, and through its funding programmes for education, research and innovation: the Lifelong Learning programme; the seventh framework programme for research and development; the Competitiveness and Innovation programme; and the structural and cohesion funds.
Ján Figel, the European Commissioner for Education and Training, said:
There are 4,000 universities in <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>, with 7 million students, 1.5 million teachers and 1.5 million researchers, which represent an enormous potential. Although they train and teach millions of people each year, Europe's higher-education systems remain hampered by a number of obstacles, many of which are decades old. The communication adopted today is a contribution to the debate on the necessary modernisation of EU's universities.
"Universities are power-houses of knowledge generation," said the Science and Research Commissioner, Janez Potocnik:
They will need to adapt to the demands of a global, knowledge-based economy, just as other sectors of society and economy have to adapt. [...excerpted here....]