An Agenda for Reforming European Universities

André SapirSenior Fellow, Bruegel

Professor of Economics, Université Libre de Bruxelles

Joint work with

Philippe Aghion, Harvard University

Mathias Dewatripont, Université Libre de Bruxelles

Caroline Hoxby, Stanford University

Andreu Mas-Colell, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

European Space of Higher Education

European universities are often dysfunctional in their two functions: teaching & research

The Bologna process is breaking down some barriers and structures higher education in 3 cycles:

– Bachelor

– Master

– Doctorate

Bologna focuses on undergraduate education. We focus on graduate education: where Bologna meets Lisbon

Graduate education

Undergraduate education

The undergraduate level

Little mobility: proximity matters

Hence different systems of selection and fees can more or less continue to co-exist:

– Selection prior to entry & no fees

– Selection prior to entry & moderate fees

– Selection prior to entry & high fees

– Selection after entry & moderate fees

The graduate level

The EU produces as many doctorates, even in science and engineering, as the US.

But too many universities produce doctorates. Hence the level of excellence is too low.

The graduate level is where Bologna meets Lisbon:– Advanced professional Masters provide high-skilled human capital for

technology-based enterprises (engineers)

– Research Masters and Doctorates provide the human capital for research in universities and the private sector

University research performance

The Shanghai ranking

– >0: it exists and it is objective

– <0: it has various defects

Country performance index

– Sum of Shanghai scores

– Divided by population

Country performance index (US=100)

Top 50 100 200 500

EU 15 13 26 41 67

EU 25 10 21 32 54

Italy 0 0 11 34

Spain 0 0 0 14

France 3 15 29 45

Germany 0 17 37 67

Belgium 0 0 61 122

Netherlands 20 51 76 131

Sweden 7 117 179 217

Switzerland 97 166 229 230

UK 72 86 99 124

California 234 199 163 103

Explaining country performance HE funding HE funding

(as % of GDP) (€0,000 per student)

public private total public private total

Italy 0.8 0.2 1.0 5.6 1.4 7.0

Spain 1.0 0.3 1.3 4.0 1.2 5.2

France 1.0 0.2 1.2 7.5 1.2 8.7

Germany 1.1 0.1 1.2 11.5 0.9 12.4

Belgium 1.4 0.2 1.6 10.6 1.6 12.2

Netherlands 1.3 0.3 1.6 10.6 1.6 12.2

Sweden 2.1 0.2 2.3 18.9 1.8 20.7

UK 1.4 0.2 1.6 8.4 3.1 11.5

EU 25 1.1 0.2 1.2 7.3 1.4 8.7

US 1.5 1.8 3.1 16.6 19.9 36.5

Explaining university performance

Bruegel survey of 200 European universities in S-500

– 71 responses

– 66 useful responses

Sample: 66 universities in 10 countries

– 17/43 UK - 5/11 SW

– 11/40 DE - 4/12 NL

– 9/23 IT - 4/7 BE

– 6/9 ES - 2/5 DK

– 6/8 CH - 2/3 IE

Explaining university performance

Student Budget Public Autonomy

number student status Budget Hiring Wage

Italy 44.9 10.1 1.0 0.9 0.4 0.0

Spain 44.8 7.0 1.0 0.5 0.5 0.0

Germany 26.2 9.6 0.9 0.0 0.9 0.0

Belgium 21.7 11.3 0.5 0.4 1.0 0.0

Netherlands 21.4 20.5 0.8 0.8 0.8 0.2

Sweden 27.1 16.2 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.0

Switzerland 12.8 26.2 0.8 0.1 0.8 0.0

UK 14.6 24.5 0.5 0.9 1.0 0.9

Explaining university performance

Characteristics Correlation coefficient

Budget per student + 0.61

University governance

Public status - 0.35

Budget autonomy + 0.16

Hiring autonomy + 0.20

Wage-setting autonomy + 0.27

Explaining university performance

Variable Effect on research performance

Size of the university +

Age of the university +

Budget per student +

Budget autonomy +

Interaction between budget and autonomy +

Need to control for size and age of the university Main explanatory variable is budget per student But budget autonomy (not the other governance variables) is also

important Interaction between money and autonomy: having budget autonomy

doubles the effect of additional funding on university research performance

What to do?

1. Increase university funding

2. Increase university autonomy

3. Increase competition and mobility

4. Connect Bologna and Lisbon

Funding

Level of funding: increase by 1% of GDP

Private vs. public: agnostic

Fees: undergraduate vs. graduate: professional vs. research

Student aid

Gifts and endowments

Autonomy

Every university should be autonomous: legal standing, hiring policy, pay scale, etc.

(Self-) governance: find a balance between external and internal constituencies, between efficiency and cohesion

Competition and EU mobility

General principle: fostering excellence

Competition for and mobility of students: need for standardized European tests

Competition for and mobility of faculty: portability of pension rights. Also: no-endogamy principle.

Competition for research funds: the ERC example

Competition fosters specialization and excellence

Connecting Bologna and Lisbon

Graduate fellowships: for starting graduate studies

Graduate programs

The European dimension

Universities are and should remain the primary responsibility of MS or regions.

However Europe has an important role to play:

– In fostering mobility of students and faculty

– In fostering excellence through the allocation of budgetary resources

– In benchmarking institutions and MS/regions

– In helping MS taking commitments to reform their systems