Towards a common framework for making the diversity of higher education in Europe more transparent
At a meeting in Namur on 13 and 14 September, in the presence of Minister of Higher Education for the French Community, Mr. Jean-Claude Marcourt and of organisations representing the chief actors of higher education in Europe, the Directors General for higher education of the Member States and Associated States, made the commitment to take action in order to promote greater transparency, particularly through the potential development of a common reference framework.
Thanks to the contribution of internationally renowned experts, the Directors General, the European Commission, as well as representatives of students, universities, academics and quality assurance agencies could conduct a wide-ranging debate on the need to make the the diversity of higher education in Europe more transparent.
The current tools for transparency, such as the « traditional » rankings, do not provide exhaustive, comparable and realistic information on higher education institutions, their missions, their strengths and weaknesses, etc. Alternatives have now been developed, with the support of the European Commission, in order to transcend the limits of the currently available tools. The « U-Map » and « U-Multirank » projects are certainly promising as they offer information on a large number of aspects of higher education, and especially because they are designed with the users in mind, including students, parents, academics, etc. The Directors General are supporting the development of these new tools because only multidimensional and user-oriented tools can effectively provide complete and comparable information on higher education.
However, the issue of transparency involves other dimensions of higher education. Although the actors in the field of higher education agree on the limitations of the worldwide rankings, it cannot be denied that these have a major influence on the policies of governments and higher education insitutions. The Directors General emphasized the need for taking into account the impact of these transparency tools, particularly regarding the governance, quality and internationalization of higher education institutions. They are therefore calling for government action that is more « voluntarist » in order to offer a general framework promoting transparency in higher education institutions.
The European organizations representing the chief actors in the field of higher education reiterated the fundamental need for them to be included in the development of transparency tools. Moreover, it is essential for all of the stakeholders, including governments, to encourage the complementarity of future tools with those already existing, particularly in terms of quality assurance, for the sake of promoting excellence in European higher education.
The meeting revealed a very clear willingness on the part of the Directors General to contribute proactively to the issue of transparency, particularly by expanding the scope of activity beyond rankings, and exploring the possibility of developing a common framework for the transparency and accountability of European higher education institutions.
