Georg WINCKLER European University Association University of Vienna Prague, 18 October 2008 The Role of Research Universities

…2… 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

…3… 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

…4… 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 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

…5… 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)

…6… Research Institutions US: research universities 260 PhD granting institutions EU-27: 1000 PhD granting institutions Shanghai Ranking USEU-27 top top top Europe has a broad research base, but lacks excellence

…7… 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

…8… 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

…9… 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

…10… 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?