Engaged universities shaping Europe

Key points

• The future of Europe depends on the availability of state-of-the-art knowledge and talented people in an open and knowledge-driven society. Universities have a key role to play in this process.
• National and EU competences should be shared and fine-tuned in order to create a European Higher Education Area. The concept of a civic and entrepreneurial university can also be very helpful in fostering the quality of HE.
• The state of play shows that despite progress being made, there are still many obstacles and restraints that also hamper effective EU involvement.
• The EESC is of the opinion that the European institutions must act as a stimulus and speed up the process of modernising European HE, in terms of education as well as research and innovation.
• The European Commission should stimulate and push forward the agenda for the process of transforming European universities into co-drivers for growth and social cohesion and for the well-being of society.
• Strategic consultations at EU level should add to discussions and projects in and between countries and universities in order to boost any quality of European universities.
• The EESC underlines the need for HE institutions to develop real autonomy, accountability and transparency as essential prerequisites for modernisation.
• Universities need to develop an open attitude to society's needs, and must include outreach to other stakeholders.
• The level of teaching and adequate preparedness for subsequent jobs should remain a priority whatever the specialisation of a (top) university.
• The Commission should play a stimulating role in cross-border cross-fertilisation projects between universities, lecturers and students as well as in promoting openness to the world.

Background

It is highly desirable that the new Commission plays an active role in contributing to establish better framework conditions for universities. A third EESC opinion on Universities for Europe will build on the conclusions of the two former ones and on factual developments in the university landscape. It will discuss desirable progress in the Union’s endeavours to engage universities in shaping Europe and in the goals of Europe 2020 as well as set objectives for stakeholders. There is growing awareness that universities, despite the special position of education as an explicit national competence, can benefit from and yield positive fruits to European integration.

To that end, increasing autonomy and accountability of universities as well as an open mind and cross-border mechanisms should be accepted and promoted. Funding and co-funding require specific attention. The triple helix – universities, governments, businesses – should develop as a quadruple helix, including other stakeholders (e.g. business, social partners, civil society, regions and cities). A point in case is the rapid change in both lower and higher segments of the labour market. The overall trend of closer relationship between universities and their societal environment must be used to improve engagement and output of universities. This was confirmed in two meetings the EESC held in 2014 with the participation of Commission officials and university representatives. The EESC was urged to take a position.