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European universities urged to seek 'world's best'

As the EU's top official in charge of education and culture, Jan Figel has few illusions about the many challenges facing Europe's universities.

Europe's centers of higher learning have fallen behind the US in research and innovation, and many are either under-funded or insulated from market needs, Figel warned recently.

An even more difficult challenge is to make European universities more attractive to foreign students, says Figel, who is from Slovakia, which joined the EU in May 2004.

"Our universities should regain their status as reference points and attract the best scholars, scientists, students and researchers from the world over," he said.

The aim, he added, should be to ensure that when a "bright student from Sao Paolo" surfs the Internet to choose a university, his or her shortlist should include universities not only in the US and Australia but also in Europe.

Attracting more foreign students would certainly be good for Europe's cash-strapped universities. But Figel and others in the EU also believe that since countries and corporations compete for the best talents to get a competitive advantage, intellectual input from top-class foreign students would boost Europe's efforts to rival the more dynamic US and Japanese economies.

Europe's success so far in grabbing the attention of Asian, Latin American or African students looking for a foreign university has been limited, however. It's US schools rather than European ones which seem to be winning the increasingly fierce global competition for what EU officials call the "world's best brains."

In 2002 -- the latest year for which such figures are available -- 1.9 million students were enrolled outside their country of origin worldwide.

Of the total, the US received 30 percent of foreign students, followed by Britain and Germany (12 percent each), France (9 percent), Spain, Belgium, Austria, Sweden and Italy (2 percent each) and the Netherlands (1 percent).

But the EU figures also include students from within the bloc studying outside their country of origin, according to the European Commission.

The quest to attend US universities is not surprising. Teaching in English is one clear advantage that US universities have over their European rivals. But as Figel pointed out recently, a 2004 survey by the Shanghai University also showed that over half the world's best universities were in the US.

To catch up, Figel said, European universities must ensure that their academic degrees are recognized throughout Europe and the rest of the world and courses should become more relevant to the job market. Ties with industry should not be shunned.

Hoping to meet these objectives, EU governments agreed at a meeting in Bologna, Italy, in 1999 to create a so-called "European Area of Higher Education" by 2010, ensuring greater cooperation between European universities, including the mutual recognition of degrees.

An ambitious program of scholarships known as "Erasmus Mundus" was launched in 2004 in a bid to attract more Asian and other foreign students.

Named after the 15th century Dutch humanist and theologian, the Erasmus program for foreigners is an offshoot of a long-running scheme under which EU students get funding for studying in universities outside their home nations.

About a thousand foreign students from Asia, Latin America and Africa are taking part in the masters program which includes a scholarship's component and is also open to foreign scholars.

Those applying for Erasmus Mundus must have a "first higher-education degree" allowing them to study for a masters or doctorate.

The scheme, worth US$280 million, is set to run until 2008 when it will be extended, officials in Brussels say. It covers all 25 EU states, as well as candidate countries Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania. By 2008, about 8,000 people will have received an Erasmus Mundus scholarship, they say.

Subjects covered include law, economics, engineering, mathematics, physics, information technology and languages. Applications have to be made to the European Commission in Brussels.

The program's aim, officials say, is to provide foreign students with a "quality offer in higher education with a distinct European added value" and to encourage and enable "highly qualified graduates and scholars from all over the world to obtain qualifications and experience in the EU."

It's a win-win game, EU officials say. Foreign students get a chance of studying in an exciting new environment, and the EU secures a higher global profile and gains in visibility abroad.

But Figel is also hoping that once they go home, thanks to their "unique knowledge of Europe," foreign students in the Erasmus program will become Europe's goodwill ambassadors in the world.
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