Table Of ContentEducational Governance Research 8
Karsten Krüger
Martí Parellada
Daniel Samoilovich
Andrée Sursock E ditors
Governance
Reforms in
European
University Systems
The Case of Austria, Denmark, Finland,
France, the Netherlands and Portugal
Educational Governance Research
Volume 8
Series Editors
Lejf Moos, Aarhus University, Copenhagen, Denmark
Stephen Carney, Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark
Editorial Advisory Board
Herbert Altrichter, University of Linz, Austria
Stephen J. Ball, Institute of Education, London, England
Y.C. Chen, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Hong Kong
Neil Dempster, Griffith University, Australia
Olof Johansson, Umeå University, Sweden
Gita Steiner Khamsi, Columbia University, USA
Klaus Kasper Kofod, Aarhus University, Denmark
Jan Merok Paulsen, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Science,
Oslo, Norway
James P. Spillane, Northwest University, Chicago, USA
Michael Uljens, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
Educational Governance Research
Aims and Scope
This series presents recent insights in educational governance gained from research
that focuses on the interplay between educational institutions and societies and
markets. Education is not an isolated sector. Educational institutions at all levels are
embedded in and connected to international, national and local societies and
markets. One needs to understand governance relations and the changes that occur
if one is to understand the frameworks, expectations, practice, room for manoeuvre,
and the relations between professionals, public, policy makers and market place
actors.
The aim of this series is to address issues related to structures and discourses by
which authority is exercised in an accessible manner. It will present findings on a
variety of types of educational governance: public, political and administrative, as
well as private, market place and self-governance. International and multidisci-
plinary in scope, the series will cover the subject area from both a worldwide and
local perspective and will describe educational governance as it is practised in all
parts of the world and in all sectors: state, market, and NGOs.
The series:
– Covers a broad range of topics and power domains
– Positions itself in a field between politics and management/leadership
– Provides a platform for the vivid field of educational governance research
– Looks into ways in which authority is transformed within chains of educational
governance
– Uncovers relations between state, private sector and market place influences on
education, professionals and students.
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13077
Karsten Krüger • Martí Parellada
Daniel Samoilovich • Andrée Sursock
Editors
Governance Reforms in
European University Systems
The Case of Austria, Denmark, Finland,
France, the Netherlands and Portugal
Editors
Karsten Krüger Martí Parellada
XREAP - Reference Network for Fundación CYD and University
Applied Economics (Bosch i Gimpera of Barcelona (Barcelona Institute
Foundation - University of Barcelona) of Economics)
Barcelona, Spain Barcelona, Spain
Daniel Samoilovich Andrée Sursock
Columbus Association European University Association
Geneva, Switzerland Brussels, Belgium
The study has been founded by Camara de Comercio de España, Conferencia de Consejos
Sociales de las universidades españolas y Fundación CYD.
ISSN 2365-9548 ISSN 2365-9556 (electronic)
Educational Governance Research
ISBN 978-3-319-72211-5 ISBN 978-3-319-72212-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72212-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018934212
© Springer International Publishing AG 2018
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Foreword
The huge growth of the tertiary education population which took place in Europe in
the last 60 years has changed the remit of the universities radically: they were selec-
tive, somewhat ivory tower institutions catering a small minority that offered a score
of disciplines and are now broadband, widely accessible, diverse institutions that
welcome in some countries 50% of the youth cohort offering hundreds or even
thousands of programmes. This sea change of the system was accompanied regu-
larly by gradual and on and off by radical changes in its legal frame, its organisation,
its funding, its goals and its governance, i.e. by reforms. This is what this book,
written collectively by a group of experienced and knowledgeable scholars, analy-
ses for six European countries, which went in the last 30 years through more or less
radical reforms. It also is a wink to the Spanish authorities in the hope that a long
overdue reform of the university system happens sooner rather than later.
Few institutions, if any, have the complexity of present-day universities. This is
due among other things to the fact that it is not easy to say in a few words what they
are there for. A company has to make benefits, as simple as that. Not so many years
ago universities were supposed to produce knowledge, i.e. perform research, and to
explain knowledge, i.e. teach. Today, a third mission, à la carte, is included. It might
be knowledge transfer to industry, outreach to society, development of procedures,
prototypes and inventions, innovation or lifelong learning. Even research and teach-
ing are not anymore unambiguous. Research can be blue sky, basic, applied, fron-
tier, interdisciplinary and targeted, and teaching might be one way, participative,
collegial, on line and blended and might aim at providing students with what they
need for the job market, i.e. skills, or with what they need to be a thinking, civilised
and cultivated human being, i.e. Bildung.
This complexity has led to an astonishing diversity, particularly in Europe, which
I see as an asset. But even the university systems are hugely different, not only
because the 46 countries represented by the members of the European University
Association are so different in size, wealth, government and academic tradition but
also because many do not have a uniform system, but being federal or decentralised
have within themselves a variety of systems.
v
vi Foreword
To cite but one example, take the Governing Board. My own personal experience
corresponds to the extremes of the spectrum. As vice-rector of the University of
Barcelona in the 1990s, with 70.000 students, I sat in a Governing Board of 100
elected people, all Spanish members of the institution, all representing the interests
of different bodies, while as president of the University of Luxembourg in this cen-
tury, with less than one tenth the number of students, I sat in the meetings of a
Governing Board of 7 people, all external, all appointed, half of them foreign aca-
demics and the other half members of the Luxembourgish society. Between these
extremes, there are hundreds of possible models for the Governing Board.
The book solves this excessive breadth of choice in an elegant and smart way: it
looks at some of those countries where clever people have been thinking and decid-
ing about these issues and allows you to learn from them. This is what the book
offers, and it is a lot. It is impossible not to be surprised by the eye-popping diversity
of how challenges have been tackled in the different countries, and it offers you the
possibility of picking quickly and with hindsight your menu, your portfolio, for
your country, for your university.
Enjoy reading it and then using it.
President, European University Association Rolf Tarrach
Brussels, Belgium
Preface
The Cámara de Comercio de España, the Conferencia de Consejos Sociales of the
Spanish universities and the Fundación CYD1 have jointly promoted a study about
governance reforms in European higher education systems. The intention is to con-
tribute to the European and Spanish debate about university governance by describ-
ing, analysing and evaluating reform processes in a number of European countries.
For this reason, experts that are or have been, also, practitioners from six European
countries were asked to explain the higher education reform process in their own
countries. Following on from the introduction, we present these six reports. They, in
turn, are followed by a summary of the results and a discussion that seeks to expand
on the experts’ narratives analysing the reform of higher education governance in
Europe.
The study has been carried out under the responsibility of a working team acting
as editors of the whole work. This working team is formed by Karsten Krueger,
Martí Parellada, Daniel Samoilovich and Andrée Sursock.2
Six European countries which have undergone significant governance reform
processes in recent decades were selected. This made an evaluation of the reform
processes possible. In the first instance, newer members of the EU in Eastern Europe
have been excluded because the historical evolution of their higher education sys-
tems would have made a coherent comparison of the reform processes more diffi-
cult. Germany has also been excluded as its Länder hold responsibility for higher
education, so that a national higher education system cannot be described as in other
countries. For similar reasons, the United Kingdom is also excluded. In this case, it
1 The Fundación Conocimiento y Desarrollo (CYD) has published two studies on higher education
governance in the last 10 years: Samoilovich (2007) and Salmi (2013).
2 The editors would like to thank the work of follow-up committee formed by representatives of the
three abovementioned entities: Antonio Abril and Pedro Alonso (both on behalf of the Cámara de
Comercio), Miguel Ángel Acosta and Santiago Iraburu (both on behalf of the Conferencia de
Consejos Sociales) and Francesc Solé Parellada and Martí Parellada (both from the Fundación
CYD).
vii
viii Preface
is also because there have been no substantial changes in the governance of higher
education institutions during recent decades.
The six countries selected are Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands
and Portugal. In some of these countries, a general reform was undertaken to radi-
cally change the higher education system (e.g. the 1993 reform in the Netherland).
Other countries underwent several waves of reforms focusing on specific aspects,
such as changes in the funding of the higher education systems, the management of
university staff and the incorporation of external stakeholders in institutional gover-
nance. In these stages, the reform of the governance structures is a fundamental
feature. All of these countries allow an evaluation of the reform process over a
period of time.
For the study, the working team looked for experts with a recognised reputation,
who could deliver insightful perspectives on the reform processes. This involved
identifying and achieving the collaboration of persons who have been actively
engaged in the reform process either as representatives of the universities or as part
of the respective ministries: Georg Winckler (Austria), Lauritz Holm-Nielsen
(Denmark), Ossi V. Lindqvist (Finland), Alain Abécassis (France), Sijbolt J. Noorda
(the Netherlands), Manuel Assunção and Pedro Nuno Teixeira (both for Portugal).
The work process started with a seminar with the experts, the working team of
the CYD Foundation, Juan Romo (rector of the University Carlos III) and Francesc
Solé Parellada (in representation of the Follow-up Committee). At this seminar,
European higher education governance reforms were discussed and a common lay-
out for the national reports was agreed.
We would especially like to thank the contribution of Francesc Solé Parellada,
first, by participating in the definition of the objective of this work; second, by help-
ing to form the consortium between the CYD Foundation, the Conference of Social
Councils of the Spanish Universities and the Chamber of Commerce of Spain; and,
third, by actively participating in the meetings of the follow-up committee.
In the following phase, the experts drew up national reports. The drafts and pre-
liminary conclusion reached by the working team were discussed at a second semi-
nar. This seminar was attended by the same group of people. Jaume Casals Pons
(rector of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra) and Santiago Iraburu (secretary of the
Social Council of the Public University of Navarra) also attended. After this second
seminar, the experts drew up the final version of their reports, which can be con-
sulted in this book. These reports were the starting point to prepare the comparative
reports presented in the following chapter. Additional review of literature was
undertaken.
The core of the study is the analysis of the reforms in these six selected countries
drawn up by the abovementioned experts. Their narratives were taken as a point of
reference but enriched with additional references such as legislation, articles in
international journals and reports by national agencies, for instance, research coun-
cils, for elaboration in Chap. 3 on the main topics in European higher education
reform.
The results of this aforementioned analysis begin with a description of the imple-
mentation process of the reforms in each country. This is an aspect of the reform
Preface ix
processes which is not usually covered in other studies and articles. However, higher
education and its governance is highly contested terrain, in which several stakehold-
ers with very different interests are involved in negotiating the shape of reforms.
It is hoped that this study will contribute to the Spanish and European debates
about higher education governance and its reform and that readers will learn as
much from the report as we have learnt from the experts.
We thank the experts for their contributions which you will find in this report. We
thank also the Cámara de Comercio de España, Conferencia de Consejos Sociales
and the Fundación Conocimiento y Desarrollo for making this study possible and
working with us in its preparation.
The editors
Barcelona, Spain Karsten Krüger
Barcelona, Spain Martí Parellada
Geneva, Switzerland Daniel Samoilovich
Brussels, Belgium Andrée Sursock
