Global reflections on the crises in the higher education area Jens Vraa-Jensen Chair of Higher Education and Research Standing Committee European Trade.

Global reflections on the crises in the higher education area

Jens Vraa-JensenChair of Higher Education and Research Standing

CommitteeEuropean Trade Union Committee for Education

National conference of higher educationBrdo, 11 September 2013

[email protected]

ETUCE: Teachers’ and Researchers’ Voice in Europe• ETUCE = European Trade Union Committee for Education• European umbrella organisation of education and research

trade unions• Represents 135 trade unions, 12.8 million teachers and

researchers in Europe; • European Region of the world-wide organisation Education

International (EI)• European level social partner in education and research

and professional organisation of teachers and researchers

What is the mission of Universities/HEIs?Magna Charta Universitatum:

Fundamental principles1. The university is an autonomous institution at the heart of societies differently organized because of geography and historical heritage; it produces, examines, appraises and hands down culture by research and teaching. To meet the needs of the world around it, its research and teaching must be morally and intellectually independent of all political authority and economic power.2. Teaching and research in universities must be inseparable if their tuition is not to lag behind changing needs, the demands of society, and advances in scientific knowledge.

Magna Charta Universitatum, cont.3. Freedom in research and training is the fundamental principle of university life, and governments and universities, each as far as in them lies, must ensure respect for this fundamental requirement.Rejecting intolerance and always open to dialogue, a university is an ideal meeting-ground for teachers capable of imparting their knowledge and well equipped to develop it by research and innovation and students entitled, able and willing to enrich their minds with that knowledge.4. A university is the trustee of the European humanist tradition; its constant care is to attain universal knowledge to fulfil its vocation it transcends geographical and political frontiers, and affirms the vital need for different cultures to know and influence each other.

Council of Europe – Recommendation 1762

4. In accordance with the Magna Charta Universitatum, the Assembly reaffirms the right to academic freedom and university autonomy which comprises the following principles:

4.1. academic freedom in research and in training should guarantee freedom of expression and of action, freedom to disseminate information and freedom to conduct research and distribute knowledge and truth without restriction;

4.2. the institutional autonomy of universities should be a manifestation of an independent commitment to the traditional and still essential cultural and social mission of the university, in terms of intellectually beneficial policy, good governance and efficient management;

Council of Europe – Recommendation 1762

4.3. history has proven that violations of academic freedom and university autonomy have always resulted in intellectual relapse, and consequently in social and economic stagnation;

4.4. high costs and losses, however, could also ensue if universities moved towards the isolation of an “ivory tower” and did not react to the changing needs of societies that they should serve and help educate and develop; universities need to be close enough to society to be able to contribute to solving fundamental problems, yet sufficiently detached to maintain a critical distance and to take a longer-term view.

Council of Europe –Recommendation 1762

5. In the course of history, universities have been confronted with profound changes and challenges arising from transformations of societies and the institutions themselves. They have mostly proved capable of simultaneously answering necessary external and internal demands to meet their historic role of the pursuit of free and universal knowledge.

6. With the advent of the knowledge society, it has become obvious that a new contract has to be reached between university and society to reflect and recognise new developments. In such an understanding, the social and cultural responsibility and accountability of universities to the public and to their mission are to be considered as the unavoidable other side of academic liberties.

Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel” UNESCO, 1997

Principles of:individual academic freedom,institutional autonomy,collegial governanceworking conditions (tenure or its functional equivalent) and fair

pay

Recommendation concerning the Status of Higher Education Teaching Personnel” UNESCO, 199718. Autonomy is the institutional form of academic freedom and a

necessary precondition to guarantee the proper fulfillment of the functions entrusted to higher-education teaching personnel and institutions.

19. Member States are under an obligation to protect higher education institutions from threats to their autonomy coming from any source.

20. Autonomy should not be used by higher education institutions as a pretext to limit the rights of higher-education teaching personnel provided for in this Recommendation or in other international standards.

21. Self-governance, collegiality and appropriate academic leadership are essential components of meaningful autonomy for institutions of higher education.

Supporting growth and jobs – modernisation of Europe's HE systems, Commission 2011

Education, and in particular higher education and its links with research and innovation, plays a crucial role in individual and societal advancement, and in providing the highly skilled human capital and the articulate citizens that Europe needs to create jobs, economic growth and prosperity. Higher education institutions1 are thus crucial partners in delivering the European Union's strategy to drive forward and maintain growth.

The potential of European higher education institutions to fulfil their role in society and contribute to Europe's prosperity remains underexploited

Production to thenational innovation system

Global markets

Academic Core

Applied knowledge production

Streams of knowledge

Streams of Funding

BridgingOrganizations/Interfaces

“The Academic Core”• Basic research – long perspectives• Developing quality education, including focus on intellectual

development of students and research requires institutional autonomy and individual academic freedom

• Connection between teaching and research• Research-based teaching• Teaching-based research

• Collegial governance is a safeguard against undue outside influence based on political or economic interests

Governance of institutions

Connection between the purpose of any enterprise and the way it is governed

Academic or economic rationales?

Collegiality vs. managerialism and how to protect academic freedom

Summary on the missionDevelop future generations for:

critical thinking and intellectual capacity,basic research,teaching in “all” subjects – also those which aren’t of

immediately relevance to the private sector,connection between teaching and research to maintain

and develop the quality and relevance in both areasIn balance with on-going demands for participating in economic development and training of the labour force

Funding and employment conditionsPublic investment as the main cornerstone of funding

universities – EUA calculations: app. 75% at the moment

Only public funding can preserve autonomy and independence

Permanent employment conditions (“Tenure or its functional equivalent”, UNESCO, 1997) necessary for safeguarding the mission

Private enterprises vs. public institutionsPrivate Public

Purpose Profit Serving community

Management Efficiency and cost reduction – sometimes high quality

Accountable spending and highest possible quality

Teaching Immediately useful skills in the labour-marketNot necessary link between teaching and research

Intellectual development of students and knowledge of the subject. Teaching and research close linked

Research Dominated by applied research and fast outcome

Dominated by basic research and long term perspective

Tuition fees and student loansOutstanding student loan debt has more than tripled in the

past decade, reaching almost $1 trillion in the USA.It now comprises the second-largest share of household debt,

right behind mortgagesThe concern is that younger workers, especially, are less

able to save for a downpayment on a house or a new car if they have high student loan payments. A New York Fed study shows 43 percent of 25-year-olds now have student debt

In Slovenian HE 15,6% is private investment, compared to the OECD average on 31,6% (Education at a Glace, 2013)

Tuition fees and student loansUnited Nations declaration of human rights:

Article 26.Everyone has the right to education. (…) Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

Additionally, research proves that higher education is one of the most profitable public investments with fastest pay-back to society

Multiple crisesNot only economy and funding crisis

Staffing crisis, Huge and growing number of fixed term contracts – guest-

researchers

Ideological crisisattacks on/reduction of academic freedom and the academic core

Changes in public funding, EUA calculations

ET

Staffing crisis,the dilemma of the ”Excellence Generation”

The work accomplished by the academics is expected to display excellence …,

… but their career prospects and conditions of work and employment are in many cases fare away from excellence.

Assessment of researchResearch ranking and ratingIncreasing external fundigDecreasing institutional fundingTougher competition

More and more fixed-term contracts …

… with decreasingly short contract periods

Lack of longterm career prospectsUnequal opportunities for female

and male academics

Recommendations and solutionsExcellence of research and teaching requires …

… attractive working places in higher education and research and …… excellent working conditions and career prospects, …

… thus:“Stability and permanence of employment” *“Working conditions which allow both women and men researchers to combine family and work, children and career” *“Gender balance at all levels of staff” *“Portability of both grants and security provisions” *“L0ng-term career prospects” **“Open, transparent and merit-based recruitment” ***

*) European Charter for Researchers (2005) **) Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers (2005)

***) ERA Communication from the European Commission (2012)

EU recommendations – Rethinking EducationWhile the Slovenian education system performs well, there are shortcomings with matching the skills obtained in the education system to the needs of the labour market. Skills mismatch is a challenge both for the low-skilled but also for the high-skilled tertiary graduates. The current context of consolidation of public expenditure in Slovenia, with an impact on teacher pay inter alia, risks leading to a less favourable situation in the field of education in the near future. In the context of growth-friendly fiscal consolidation there is a clear need to preserve expenditure in education and training while increasing its efficiency.

ConclusionEducation – including higher education – is a human right and a

public good, including responsibility for fundingEducation – in particular higher education – is one of the best

investments for the future development of the entire societyA balance need to be established for the purpose of not throwing

the academic baby out with the entrepreneurial bathwater“Skills mismatches” can also be caused by conservatism in the

labour marketThere is a lot of talk about knowledge – but what happened to

wisdom?

Thank youfor your attention!

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