Since 2019, the European Education Area’s ‘European Universities’ initiative (see EUROPE 12571/8) has produced both promising results and challenges. A study presented on Tuesday 24 January to the European Parliament’s Committee on Culture (CULT) highlighted funding and governance difficulties.
Thus, for the 44 University alliances grouping 340 institutions, created within the framework of this initiative, joining forces has enabled them to make their courses more attractive and in line with market expectations or to develop inclusive hybrid teaching methods.
However, as Erasmus+ funding is limited, they also depend on national funding and even on the resources of their partner Universities. For Barend van der Meulen, co-author of the study, the solution is not so much to increase European subsidies as to find co-financing mechanisms. “This could be reached by making the link between the European Education Area and the European Research Area or other EU policy areas clearer”, he recommended.
A Commission representative also recalled that funding has increased from €5 million over 3 years to €14.4 million over 4 years, with the aim of reaching a total of 60 alliances with 500 partners by mid-2024.
Furthermore, the alliances face administrative obstacles, both in terms of recognition of diplomas and in terms of obtaining a legal status allowing them to have autonomous and appropriate governance. These are obstacles linked to divergent national regulatory frameworks, despite the Bologna Process, and which the Commission has promised to address.
Finally, MEPs deplored a selection process that favours large, established Universities, with an over-representation of institutions in southern and northern Europe. The report considers the selection process to be regionally inclusive. Mr van der Meulen pointed out that Universities can form their own bilateral alliances outside the initiative.
To read the study: https://aeur.eu/f/51q (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)