EUA report finds university policies shift steadily even while facing global health and geopolitical crises
Global crises are driving steady change in universities, according to a European University Association report based on a major international survey, which highlights flexible learning and the purpose of internationalisation as key areas where institutions and policymakers should focus.
The EUA released Trends 2024, the latest in its long-running series, on 25 July. The report is based on a survey of 480 higher education institutions in 46 European higher education systems, analysed in depth to reveal trends across Europe since the last report was published in 2018.
The survey shows that institutions are “evolving rather than radically transforming, with relatively common horizons and resulting in the adoption of concrete policies and measures”.
Key areas
The report sets out three key areas for policymakers and universities to focus on: the need to avoid “mission overload”; to have “urgent and proper reflection on the education offer” and consider “what flexible learning would mean and entail for each institution”, plus “the role of HEIs in lifelong learning”; and to consider the “state and purpose(s) of internationalisation in the higher education sector”.
The report comes at the end of a working cycle of the 25-year-old Bologna Process, the initiative to harmonise degree recognition and quality assurance across the European Higher Education Area (EHEA).
Amanda Crowfoot, secretary-general of the EUA, writes in the introduction to the report that “while many key commitments of the Bologna Process, such as quality assurance, degree cycles and recognition, remain on the agenda and still require attention, this is also a moment to set priorities for the future”.
Issues that have profoundly affected universities, she adds, include the pandemic, which “challenged existing practices yet at the same time provided invaluable opportunities to mainstream the use of digital tools”, alongside geopolitical challenges such as the war in Ukraine, accompanied by subsequent energy and economic crises in Europe, which “brought to the forefront questions related not only to economic and technological sovereignty but also to integrity, solidarity and inclusiveness”.
However, the report finds that higher education institutions and the EHEA are merely “evolving rather than radically transforming”. It suggests that moving forward, policymakers and institutions should focus more on the central mission of universities to avoid demanding too much with too few resources; re-evaluate their education in accordance with a changing student body and learning environment; and be more strategic around internationalisation.
Degrees
The report highlights that the pandemic resulted in policy changes around teaching practices at most universities in the EU. However, 79 per cent of students still exclusively receive campus-based teaching, although there is now greater diversity in what that looks like, and it often includes more video elements.
There has also been an increase in non-degree education, and microcredentials are seen as a positive addition by 75 per cent of institutions.
However, the report finds that most institutions also identify a lack of framework for establishing microcredentials as a problem.
The EHEA is facilitating better credit mobility between institutions but still faces structural challenges, the findings suggest. The report says “the Bologna Process benchmark of 20 per cent of graduates having a mobility experience is still in the far distance” due to issues such as “lack of funding, the lack of sufficient fellowships in both number and cost coverage, but also the rising costs and the shortages of affordable accommodation”.
The EUA calls for a better implementation of the Bologna Process and stricter adherence to the rules of Erasmus+, the EU’s student exchange programme.
Mobility
The report also finds that while there is a growing demand for staff mobility to be prioritised, there is no systematic approach to the issue.
However, collaboration leading to joint degrees is of high priority for policymakers and for institutions, which “are quite positive regarding joint programmes and degrees, despite the complexity of the matter and the effort it entails for institutions”.