Pr

1
FTA Seminar 2006 FUTURE OF THE EU
UNIVERSITYPreliminary design for a Foresight
ExerciseAntoine SCHOEN (JRC-IPTS)antoine.schoe
n_at_cec.eu.int
FTA Seminar Seville 28-29 September 2006
2
Exogenous trends

• Some of the changes that have the mightiest
  impacting on EU University system are largely
  exogenous
• Demographic changes university is no more a
  growth industry. The need for adaptation should
  be analysed in the context of a greying of
  European societies,
• A wide reform of the public sector universities,
  like hospitals, need to cope with the rise of new
  public management
• Newly reformulated role of scientific and
  technological research for helping shape a
  knowledge society.

FTA Seminar Seville 28-29 September 2006
3
Five thematic dimensions

• The analysis of the driving trends which are
  shaping five complementary and partially
  overlapping folds of the University fabric
• Funding patterns and costing structures
• Human resources
• Academic outcome
• Third mission.
• Governance and strategy 

FTA Seminar Seville 28-29 September 2006
4
Funding Trends

• 90s seem to have been a rather favourable
  period. Real increase in the total funds of all
  between 1995 and 2002 and a real increase of
  revenues per student.
• Stabilisation of the number of students due to
  demographics change and flattening of the
  enrolment rate is a core factor in the long term
  universities will lose a key mechanism for their
  growth
• Regarding the composition of funding, it can be
  stated that funding structures are diverse
  (national, regional budget subsidies EU,
  national, regional grants, fees) both across
  countries and inside countries (old and new
  mechanisms co-exist). But the composition of
  funds did not change dramatically either in the
  last 10 years.

FTA Seminar Seville 28-29 September 2006
5
Human Resources Trends

• marketisation the competitive to access to
  scarce resources - researchers, funds and
  students.
• managerialisation - academic work organisation is
  submitted to growing accountability requirements
  concerning the control of Universitys main
  resources academic work time.
• flexibilisation career paths are getting more
  diversified. Recruitment criteria is no more
  exclusively limited to academic visibility.
  Teaching excellence and knowledge transfer
  experience are already explicitly proposed as
  alternative criteria to fill position.
  internationalisation of higher education makes
  research more international as well. Attracting
  foreign students is crucial in order to make
  academic labour market international. Mobility is
  therefore a very important issue.

FTA Seminar Seville 28-29 September 2006
6
Academic Outcome Trends

• Differentiation is one strategic option for
  European universities facing an increasingly
  competitive environment an alternative option
  would be to develop homogenous curriculum and
  research portfolio all over European regions.
• Differentiation may be horizontal, alongside the
  vocational vs. academic dimension of
  institutions main mission.
• Differentiation may also be vertical, alongside a
  disciplinary specialisation vs. generalist
  orientation.
• A lack of horizontal and vertical differentiation
  prevails in the EU University.

FTA Seminar Seville 28-29 September 2006
7
Third Mission Trends

• Universities have social and economic roles they
  are economic and political forces.
• They are usually important employers in their
  region and are stakeholders for urban planning,
  collective transport.
• Transfer of knowledge has gained a stronger
  exposure among the Universities missions, adding
  without substitution a new techno-economical
  dimension in the set of requests for performance.
  Universities are also providers of services.
• Teaching outcome qualified brain workers is
  the bulk of Universitys third mission.

FTA Seminar Seville 28-29 September 2006
8
Governance Trends

• There is more monitoring of output and fulfilment
  of duties of academic staff.
• It is still regarded as difficult into intervene
  into the core of academic affairs and make them
  an object of management.
• Competition within universities, in particular
  among departments, has increased.
• Traditional collegial governance is reduced in
  favour of managerial and thus more hierarchical
  decision-making also including an increasing
  number of external stakeholders (through boards).

FTA Seminar Seville 28-29 September 2006
9
EU University a system of systems

• Two traits of the EU University raise specific
  difficulties for shaping a Foresight exercise.
• The EU University is a system of systems Each
  university should be analysed in the relevant
  national innovation system (NIS), which should be
  analysed as a systemic component of the European
  Research Area. University are therefore bound to
  evolve in a multiple layer system of governance.
• European universities face a double layer of
  public policies at the Member States and at the
  EU levels

FTA Seminar Seville 28-29 September 2006
10
Reducing the complexity

• Focus on institutions. The Foresight exercise
  will focus analytically on the intra
  institutional complexity of universities, and
  simplify the policy makers and stake holders
  scene, relying on experts to deal with multi
  level embeddedness of universities in NIS and
  in ERA.
• Start working on a set of ideal types of
  universities. In order to reflect the diversity
  of European universities, the Foresight exercise
  will use a virtual sample of stylised
  universities, with well specified
  characteristics, to develop scenarios according
  to the identified key trends which are shaping
  the EU University.

FTA Seminar Seville 28-29 September 2006