Universities to spell out their vision at Liège

Date: 22/04/04

WHAT role for the universities in the Europe of knowledge? This was the question posed by the European Commission in 2002. Prompted - or so it seemed to universities - by the uncoordinated construction of the European Research Area (ERA) and the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), it was a welcome acknowledgement of the need for an injection of synergy.

Certainly, policy lacked coherence. The ERA was an EU initiative driven by the muscular budget and legal base of the research directorate-general (DG), but the EHEA was an intergovernmental process (the "Bologna process") in which lowly funded DG Education and Culture had no obvious steer. The Bologna process, which takes its name from the 1999 Bologna declaration, aims to establish a European Higher Education Area by 2010, in which teachers and students can move easily and receive fair recognition of their qualifications.

Were these parallel developments ever to meet? Would they meet at the appointed time - 2010 - to support the completion of the Lisbon Agenda, aiming to transform Europe into the most dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010? And if so, what would it mean for universities?

Since 2002, the issues have become clearer, clear enough at least for the consultation's follow-up conference (to be held on 25-28 April) to plot ways forward. Simultaneously, the context has become sufficiently bleak to ring alarm bells and concentrate minds. Under-performing economies, political divisions, the demands of the enlargement process - all these have slowed progress towards the Lisbon targets and forced a renewed sense of urgency in a range of associated policy areas: lifelong learning, the stimulation of the innovation chain, the funding of research and the mobility of researchers.

All is not gloom, however. Halfway to 2010 and some useful ground has been covered. DG Education and Culture has a stronger role in the Bologna process, while universities and students, represented by the European University Association (EUA) and ESIB (National Unions of Students in Europe), enjoy high-level stakeholder involvement.

The open method of coordination has allowed national governments a clearer view of how far the Lisbon Agenda depends on effective education and training policies.

DG Education and Culture and DG Research are working with other actors to bring doctoral qualifications within the Bologna framework. This should bode well for the articulation of the seventh framework research programme and the new generation of programmes replacing SOCRATES and LEONARDO after 2006.

Even so, the upcoming conference in Liège, fiefdom of Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin, looks very much a DG Research affair; speakers have been drawn from industry and academia, with variable coverage of the policy areas worked by DGs such as education, enterprise and regions. As for DG Employment, de facto guardian of the European social model, there is little sign of involvement. But the pressing issue remains not so much inter-service cooperation, as the possibility of carving out some scope for action from the mismatch of strong (research) and weak (education) legal bases.

Here other factors will no doubt prove telling. Framework legislation on higher education may become more feasible if and when the draft constitutional treaty is ratified. The Bologna process will surely be absorbed into the internal market in services, pulled by entrepreneurial public sector institutions and pushed by the increased private sector participation brought by the accession countries. The Commission wants to direct 3% of EU gross domestic product into research; the Stability and Growth Pact could be renegotiated to remove penalties from research-related public spending. Until 2013, at least one third of the EU budget will be mortgaged to the Common Agricultural Policy, but after that date a more balanced higher education policy could be adequately funded.

But these are long-term perspectives, which is why the conference has claimed an extra decade. The vision to take shape in Liège will be that of the "Europe of Knowledge 2020".

What will universities want from the conference? They will be looking for policy outcomes that bring greater financial security in exchange for an accountable role in delivering the European social model. Their intent, formulated at the EUA's Graz conference, in Austria, is clear: they wish to promote individual fulfilment, social cohesion and economic growth.

Equally important, they will want confirmation that in this triple context teaching is inseparable from research. To seek such reassurance may seem a perverse harking back to the Humboldtian ivory tower.

Yet, paradoxically, the stimulus to entrepreneurship and the likelihood of rapid job creation in the digital sectors will favour universities that aspire to become regional or transnational hubs of diversified innovation chains.

These universities will be versatile - differentiated in terms of mission and constituency, but bound by no rigid and vertical division of labour. They will want to be the locus of knowledge production and of inward and onward knowledge transfer, deploying teaching and research to the best advantage of diverse client groups.

At EU level, the question will be how to boost added value by minimizing the tendency of national governments to invest in research, which offers no benefits in synergy. And to do this, while respecting subsidiarity and cultural diversity, as well as the legitimate aspirations of universities.

• Howard Davies is head of European development at London Metropolitan University.

Preview of a conference held in Liège, Belgium, on 22-28 April 2004, 'The Europe of Knowledge 2020: A vision for University-based research and innovation'.

http://ec.europa.eu/comm/research/conferences/2004/univ/index_en.html http://ec.europa.eu/comm/research/conferences/2004/univ/index_en.html

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