Dr. J.M.M. Ritzen

Conference Leading Russian Universities within the context of European tendencies of high school development, Moscow, June 28, 2011

European universities have a chance!

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance

Challenge for Europe

• Vibrant continent• Attractive for talentRequires vibrant universities which

attract talent world wide

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance

Context of Europe

• Slow economic growth (crisis)• Ageing and only 6% of world

population in 2030• Cohesion contested with strong

linguistic barriers

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance

Context of Europe

• Exemplified: growth

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance

European Universities Challenge

• Contribute to growth• Contribute to demography (brain

circulation)• Contribute to sustainability

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance

European Universities PerformanceThe Public Eye • Too few peaks in the European university landscape, losing top

talent to the rest of the world• Succesful enrolment of students from socially disadvantaged

groups is too low• Overall drop-out rates are too high• University research contributes too little to innovation• University education is not sufficiently related to the demands

of the labour market• Percentage of female full professors is often no more than 10

to 20% on average• The attention for efficient and effective learning of students is

virtually absent and innovations in learning methods occur too rarely

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance

European universitiesPerformanceInternational Ranking

• Underrepresented in top 50 (UK as exception)• As a whole underrepresented in top 200, with

exceptions: UK, Netherlands, Switserland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland

limited attraction for non EU-studentsbrain drain to US

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance

Performance: European universities are national while we need globalized leadership• Globalized leadership: the ability to function effectively on

the international labour market in advanced positions where strategic decisions are taken in the private and in the public sector.

• Universities are not providing the basis for a strong and viable Europe, in a cultural, social and economic sense.• Nationalness of university systems versus internationalisation efforts of European universities and globalised labour market of its alumni• National markets less competition

less innovation less excellence.

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance

Demography: the graduate supply-demand gap

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance

Brain circulation as a solution

• Attract foreign talent• European track record:

reasonable (22% of all foreign students, exclusive at internal EU migration)

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance

A European HE space

• To create European citizen• International leadership• Intra European mobility of 20% (?)

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance

HE space implies

• Same legislation• Same finance• Same accreditation• Same quality controlErasmus BolognaErasmus Mundus

o European Statute?o EU compensation for net inflow of foreign EU students?

P.S. Bologna hijacked by nation states

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance

Some observations on funding

• EU University education is seriously underfunded• From ’75-’05 expenditure per student halved• Limited compensation via tuition fees or private

funding• No tradition of philanthropy. In US 0.5 trillion USD.• US spend 2.6 times more per student

Recall: there is a simple direct relationship betweenmoney and performance

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance

Finance

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance

Europe needs to take its tuition feephobia to the therapist and start practising tuition fee policies and social loan systems.

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance

Governance

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance

“Time has come for creating a differentiated world class system of higher education within the context of the European Higher Education and Research Area.” (Manifesto Empower European Universities)

Four ingredients:- Autonomy- Diversity- Internationalization- Funding

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance

A difficult political process• Distance between the

informed opinion of experts and the instinctive feelings of society

• Politics worked alone for decades: now we need involvement of stakeholders

• The Bologna process fell into the trap of nationalness• No political movements, NGOs or pressure groups to advance

the notion of bringing education under the wings of the European Union

• EEU: Bringing stakeholders on board

Maastricht Graduate School of Governance

The garden of Europe: Diverse, international,

empowered and thoughtfully nourished universities

in an open space