GLOBAL CHALLENGES TO THE EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY

Abstract

Universities around the world are taking on global dimensions and facing
increasingly difficult global challenges. These challenges may even be more
daunting in Europe, where long cultural traditions and the association of
higher education institutions with national identity may be harder to break
down. This paper examines how European universities have responded to six
major challenges: (1) How has the Bologna process internationalized universities by lowering barriers to student mobility and standardizing degree structures? (2) While European universities have numbers of students from other
European nations, how much have they internationalized in other ways? (3)
How effective have European universities been at recruiting top students from
around the world? (4) How has Europe responded to its relatively poor showing in the world rankings that have emerged in the last few years? (5) Are the
low world rankings a result of inadequate investment? If more investment is
needed, where will the money come from? (6) Do antiquated bureaucracies
and the lack of autonomy of universities handicap European universities in
meeting global competition? The paper concludes that on many dimensions,
European universities have responded effectively to global challenges, but
competitiveness is threatened by under-funding, a lack of institutional autonomy, and the lack of access for international candidates to the European professoriate.