Transcript The Role of Research Universities

The Role of Research Universities
Georg WINCKLER
European University Association
University of Vienna
Prague, 18 October 2008
The grand history I
Long tradition of European universities (Bologna 1088,
Paris 1150), incorporating the idea of the “Greek
academia”, “universitas magistrorum et scholarium”
In the early 17th century the European concept of the
university reached North America, in the late 19th
century East Asia
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The grand history II
French revolution: “écoles spéciales” (grandes écoles;
Talleyrand, 1791), universities serve purpose of the
nation/state
Humboldt‘s response to this radical and utilitarian
challenge: the birth of the idea of the research
university (“universitas litterarum”), universities in the
quest for truth, concentration on doctoral programmes
only
The university system in the US converted to an
hybrid one: on top of the medieval, still British college
education came Humboldtian Ph.D. programmes
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Painful realities I
Neither the French, nor the German, nor the British,
but the US “hybrid” system proved to be highly
successful in the 20th century: it allowed a massive
expansion of student numbers (“massification”), a
research intensification in the 200-300 research
universities and thus a diversification of missions and
profiles.
Dr. Ward: “Elitist at the top, democratic at the base”
This diversification was driven by autonomous
public/private universities with (nearly) no planning at
the federal level but with mobility of students and
staff, NSF, NIH
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Painful realities II
Reasons for falling behind:
- emigration of the 1930s, dominance of English
- US: positive scale effects; Europe: national
fragmentations, ministerial bureaucracies, lack of
diversification (only “one” university idea)
- cooperative governance models in the post-1968
era which resulted in having too many committees
and inner recruitment policies
- lack of independence of early stage researchers
- too long and intransparent study programmes (to
be overcome by the Bologna Process)
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Research Institutions
US:
70-100 research universities
260 PhD granting institutions
EU-27: 1000 PhD granting institutions
Shanghai Ranking
US
top 20
17
top 200
90
top 500
170
EU-27
2
76
183
Europe has a broad research base, but lacks excellence
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Critical mass in research (US view)
(a) faculty > 1000
(b) multidisciplinary research institutions
(c) flexible staff regulation
(d) entry selection at master + PhD level
(e) budget > 1000 million USD
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Association of American Universities
(62 universities)
Set of membership indicators
- Phase I indicators
(institutional breadth and quality in research and education)
(1) Competitively funded federal research support
(2) Membership in the National Academies
(3) National Research Council faculty quality ratings
(4) Faculty arts and humanities awards,
fellowship, and membership
(5) Citations
- Phase II indicators (additional indicators)
(1) USDA, state, and industrial research funding
(2) Doctoral education (number of PhDs granted annually)
(3) Number of postdoctoral appointees
(4) commitment to undergraduate education
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The importance of EHEA and ERA for the emergence of
European quality standards
(1) Bologna study architecture, Bologna 1999
(2) ESG on quality assurance, Bergen 2005
(3) Doctoral education: Salzburg principles 2005,
Nice conference 2006, London 2007,
CDE of EUA 2008
(4) ERC: SIRG, Advanced Researchers Grants
(5) Classifications and rankings
(6) AHELO – OECD
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Open Issues
(1) Battle for brains? How mobile are brains?
(2) How many research universities for EU+:200
(3) Countries without top universities? Which country
will be the “Massachusetts” of Europe?
(4) How ready are national governments to prepare
(some of) their universities to become a European
research university?
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