Just a dream -
National interests impede the establishment of a European University
(July 10th 2007) Of course, it will still be called the "European Institute of Technology" (EIT), an analogy to the famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). But be nobody's fool, what the EU member states recently agreed is far from bearing affinity to the MIT. Instead of a university for the European research elite, which European Commission President José Manuel Barroso had dreamed of establishing, the EIT will become yet another network of national research units, as Brynja Adam-Radmanic reports.
The European Commission has been raising high expectations in recent years by expressing Europe's desire to become competitive with the major academia players worldwide. However, the plans to establish a new level of European institutions seem to present too great a threat to national interests within the European Union.
For the 27 European ministers of research it was clear that an EIT "bridging the innovation gap with its major competitors" overseas would become an even greater competitor to national institutions, outshining their performance. So the sheer idea of an EIT had to be harmless and innocent to avoid becoming a menace to national self-esteem.
Especially the larger EU countries feared losing their best researchers to an EIT in its original scale; an international institute with the rights of a university to confer academic titles but free from the historic constraints existing in the national educational systems and with enough money to be a "flagship for excellence".
So what's left of the high-flying plans after the Competitiveness Council met in Luxemburg are the so-called "Knowledge and Innovation Communities" (KICs). These are intended to become "partnerships of universities, research organisations, companies and other stakeholders" performing "innovation activities, cutting-edge and innovation-driven research, and postgraduate education and training activities."
The ministers for research agreed upon an investment of 308.7 million euros for this future EIT form. This is a lot less than the 2.4 billion euros first planned for an institution on a university scale. Given the downsized dimensions, however, it's nevertheless a significant sum to be spent mostly on things secondary to research itself. As the European Commission press release states, the money "will cover the costs of the EIT's governing structure and the European dimension of the project, notably the costs of coordination and mobility that are necessary to sustain the KICs."
That is to say, the original plans have crashed but millions will still be spent on bureaucracy and travel across Europe so that researchers may meet to discuss innovation. And just how much will it cost to translate the official EIT documents produced in this process into all the 23 European languages? Goodness only knows!
In the meantime, it is not even clear where these 308.7 million euros will actually come from. The money is not yet scheduled within the current finance plan up to 2013, so it will be necessary to rearrange the plan, which basically means that things will have to be cut from other people's budgets. Private investors ought to be sought as another source for financing the EIT.
OK, let's pause for a moment to reflect on the positive aspects. Many researchers in Europe were not too enthusiastic about the elite university idea in the first place. They would much rather support a better financing of their existing universities before agreeing to spend money on new ones. And without a doubt, excellence will still be advanced on a national scale, too.
It's a shame about the name, though. After all, the EIT isn't going to be a university; it won't really be an institute at all. Even critics have to admit that the name "European Institute of Technology" promises something it won't be able to deliver. What a pity!
