Preparing for new horizons
ByLauritz Holm-Nielsen, President of EuroScience
Anders Borchorst Gårdhus, International Advisor, Aarhus University Introduction
The sustainability of world societies is challenged. Most of these challenges are the result of increasing globalisation, and as a consequence, societies are becoming interdependent. They share and compete for natural resources and territory and for influence within common legal and financial frameworks. And we all share the climate and the environment.
Two complementary tendencies compete within this reality. On the one hand, countries are acting to making their own knowledge systems more effective, and on the other hand, they have strong incentives to work together in close partnership because the challenges they face are complex and transnational. In Europe one example of this trend is the European Research Area (ERA).
The three pillars of Europe’s Horizon 2020 program are Excellent Science, Industrial Leadership and Societal Challenges, all of which aim at making Europe’s knowledge system effective vis-à-vis the competition and partnership with other regions. There can be no advanced knowledge system without leading universities, research institutions and industries. The knowledge pool and advanced human capital are becoming global common goods which we must turn into societal innovation in order to meet these challenges.
Quality in this regard is sine qua non. However, quality is quality in demand as well as in supply. Industries must employ advanced human capital (excellent graduates, who are not necessarily the cheapest) and universities must educate flexible, knowledgeable, and versatile graduates with deep academic insight. In order to deliver graduates who match these demands, universities have to think beyond the classical Humboldtian university as a model. This process of reconceptualization is leading to reforms of the
university and research sector in many countries. The Danish government, for example, has implemented a series of reforms within the higher education and research sector over a period of 25 years. As it now stands, the sector is highly competitive and modernised.
What is excellence – and why focus on it?
Europe and the world at large face a number of daunting societal challenges. More than ever, decision-makers and academic communities are turning to research to find new ways to tackle these major global challenges. However, this itself creates challenges. One of the most important of these challenges is the concept of excellence in research. The Aarhus Declaration on Excellence from 2012, which has been adopted by both the ERC and European Commission, states that: “The history of research, innovation and higher education demonstrates how major breakthroughs time and again have changed our lives and our way of thinking. The passion to understand was the driving force behind a number of these breakthroughs; not a particular application.
This calls for a research policy that strongly integrates the concept of excellence, prepares for the unexpected and is sufficiently dynamic and adaptable, which will foster ambitious and ingenious breakthroughs that will help Europe tackle challenges of today and those not yet imagined.” 1
The prevailing focus on supporting incremental research of high productivity can certainly produce research that can be defined as excellent’ which may be defined as excellent. But there is an even higher level of excellence to aim for: new knowledge that changes paradigms, invents new fields, and gives insights into the challenges we face as a society. These are the kind of breakthroughs that form the foundation for new products and processes that bring benefit to people in their everyday lives. To reach this level of excellence we need to foster scientific research with an ambition to challenge accepted views and knowledge that can result in real breakthroughs. This kind of ambition is much more risky; it requires a longer time perspective. But it has a higher probability of making a real difference. At its very best, research also serves a wider purpose. The capability to perform excellent research as well as the results yielded are public goods to be utilised for the good of all on a local, national, regional and global scale. Access to research results, infrastructures and funding should be ensured, making it possible for researchers across fields and disciplines, students and society to share and learn.
Excellent research should be identified by careful evaluation of research proposals and applicants carried out in an open competition by internationally acclaimed experts. The evaluation should follow
internationally acknowledged standards and criteria in a fair and transparent assessment procedure that prevents national, social or gender bias. Such a process makes it possible to identify and support the very best people with the most ambitious ideas.
Excellence is the essential foundation that secures the development and availability of human capital to meet the needs of the future.
Denmark’s reforms: how were they rolled out?
Over a number of years, the Danish government has implemented a number of reforms as a response to the increased demands on universities and research institutions. Any analysis of these reforms must consider the specificities of the respective national context. The Danish changes were based on a “grand vision” responding to challenges within the Danish sector. The reforms described below are comparable to changes in other higher education systems; however the Danish reforms have been characterised by their complementarity and by their internal consistency.
The foundation of the reform of the Danish higher education sector was laid in the mid 1980s, when reforms were introduced aiming at intensifiying focus on output in higher education and research.
The first Danish reform wave was a complete reform of doctoral education. This was a clever decision, because Denmark has since been endowed with a young and highly skilled population of researchers who have been in a position to benefit from and contribute to implementing the massive changes of the sector that followed. Through the 1980s and 1990s Denmark successfully implemented new PhD programs, increased the number of doctoral graduates tenfold and introduced an effective market for postdoctoral researchers. All indicators show an exceptional increase in quality research output.
The second series of reforms involved the financing of the sector and of research funding. The government
adopted a so-called globalisation strategy that was based on a comprehensive analysis of Danish strengths and weaknesses in a global context. The reforms that followed restructured funding for universities and increased public investments in research to one percent of GDP. An increasing amount of the funding for public research is now allocated based on competitive grants, and the parameters of quality and quantity of research, as well as educational activity, are now used as to determine the amount of core funding each
institution receives. The most recent change in this regard is Denmark’s new Innovation Foundation2, which changes the funding system for research and innovation, so public funding will focus on contributing to solving the societal challenges and towards growth and employment. This new foundation is independent and has an annual budget of EUR 200 million, and it is open for applications as of January 2014. It will complement the Danish National Research Foundation, which has a focus on elite research, and the Independent Research Council, which funds bottom-up independent research.
The third reform focused on university governance and was introduced in 2003. It established the
institutional autonomy of each university while at the same time ensuring accountability towards society. The universities became independent organisations in the public sector, governed by university boards with a majority of external stakeholders. The rector was now appointed by the board, ensuring additional degrees of freedom and the adoption of a professional leadership model intended to enhance the capacity for decision-making and the development of distinct institutional profiles. The current university
governance system is managerial and similar to what is known from from private-sector companies/corporations.
The fourth major reform was a major change of the institutional landscape. Danish universities and government research institutions went through a quick and comprehensive wave of mergers launched by the government as a voluntary process in 2006 and largely completed in 2007. Institutions were
encouraged, but not required, to merge in order to increase international visibility, concentrate elite research and unleash the educational potential of government research institutes. The university mergers resulted in the integration of government research institutions into the university sector as well as mergers of existing universities. Denmark went from 12 to eight universities in this process as well as the integration of nine government research institutions. In addition more than 90 colleges of higher education were merged, eventually becoming eight university colleges.
The fifth reform wave is ongoing and should result in a cohesive education sector for all, from 1st grade to doctoral level. For higher education the goal is that more than 60 per cent of a given year group will attend higher education, and of these, that about half will take research-based university degrees. At the same time, efforts are being made to increase internal and external efficiency and to stimulate even more effective lifelong learning than the current world-leading LLL system does.
Elements of this reform of higher eductaion will most likely include reforms of study and student aid finance, and bridging programs towards the labor market and society at large. This reform is scheduled to be negotiated and decided in the Danish Parliament in 2014.
The quadruple helix: a combination of mass and elite university
One of Denmark’s universities, Aarhus University (AU), has undergone significant changes during this period of reforms and mergers. The university had already integrated Aarhus School of Dentistry and Herning School of Engineering Commerce, and in 2007, the university integrated two formerly independent universities (Aarhus School of Business and the Danish School of Education) as well as the two national government research institutions, one for environment and the other for agriculture. Recently, the process culminated with the merger with the former Engineering College of Aarhus, now the Aarhus University School of Engineering (ASE). With these mergers, Aarhus University doubled its enrolment to more than 43,000 students in just over a year and was transformed from a one-campus institution to a university with several locations nationwide and a wide range of research and degree programmes. The annual budget more than doubled, from EUR 350 million in 2006 to EUR 833 million in 2013.
The quadruple helix is AU’s response to the needs of a modern knowledge economy. It is a
combination of classical humboldtian university activities, the third mission (Klein 2002, Soeiro 2012), and the triple helix university (Etzkowitz, 1993). It combines four core activities: education, research and knowledge exchange, and talent development whereby AU ensures equal focus on mass and elite students.
As a consequence of the mergers, Aarhus University has since undergone an internal change process which has resulted in a modernised and more integrated institution, and just as importantly, an institution that is aligned with the demands of the global society.
All European countries must modernise their higher education, research and innovation systems in order to make ERA strong and thereby contribute to the goals of Horizon 2020. That is how Europe will maintain a position of strength among competing regions who all face the same challenges.
Further reading
• Holm-Nielsen, L. , 2012: in Wang, Q et al. Building World Class Universities, (the change process at Aarhus University)
• Holm-Nielsen, L. et al, 2013: in OECD, Higher Education Management and Policy 24/2 (Quadruple helix)
• Milthers, P. M., 2011: in OECD, Higher Education Management and Policy 23/1 (Danish reforms) • Klein, Jeremy, 2002, THE: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/170988.article
• Soeiro, Alfredo, 2014, http://www.evolllution.com/program_planning/defining-and-delivering-the-universitys-third-mission/
