Brussels, 22/05/2014 (Agence Europe) - Too few countries are making proper use of the information they compile on higher education to improve the universities and the opportunities they provide to students, according to a report by the Eurydice network, published on 22 May. This report, Modernisation of Higher Education in Europe: Access, Retention and Employability, investigates what governments and higher education institutions are doing to widen access to higher education, increase the number of students who complete higher education (retention), and give guidance to students on entering the labour market (employability). More than 30 countries took part in the survey - all EU member states, with the exceptions of Luxembourg and the Netherlands, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, Norway and Turkey. “Higher education needs to do more to respond to areas of weakness… Universities need to attract more disadvantaged students, especially people from low-income backgrounds, with disabilities, of migrant status or different ethnicities. As well as inspiring greater diversity, relevant data can help us to better assess the impact of our policy priorities and to alter course where necessary”, said Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth. The report shows that:
1) although many countries collect information about their student populations, data analysis is often not linked to concrete objectives (such as ensuring access of disadvantaged students to higher education), and many countries are unaware if their student population is becoming more diverse;
2) very few countries ( Flanders in Belgium, Ireland, France, Lithuania, Malta, Finland and Scotland in the United Kingdom) have set targets for improving access to higher education for people from underrepresented groups, such as low-income backgrounds;
3) about half of European higher education systems have bridging programmes for entrants not coming directly from secondary education ( Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, France, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden, United Kingdom, Iceland and Croatia) and award higher education credits that recognise the value of students' prior learning (also Spain, Italy, Finland and Norway). A clear geographical divide is visible regarding measures to widen access to higher education, as they remain most prevalent in the north and the west of Europe;
4) a significant number of countries do not systematically calculate completion and/or drop-out rates. This includes countries that have policies addressing retention and completion, but clearly lack basic data to analyse the impact of these policies;
5) in most countries, higher education institutions have to submit information on employability (e.g. employment rates of their graduates, how they develop the skills necessary for their graduates to find a job) for quality assurance. However, graduate tracking information is, as yet, rarely used to develop higher education policies;
6) using quality assurance to promote crucial policy goals for wider access and better retention and completion rates can help in monitoring students' progress, and identify how higher education institutions (e.g. universities, colleges) use this information to feed back into a cycle of quality enhancement. (IL)