Topic: Competitiveness

One of the most visible changes since the 1998 WCHE is the more pronounced presence of competitiveness and attractiveness in higher education policies at the institutional, national and regional levels.

An important consideration for introduction, under the Bologna Process, of convergent structures of programmes and degrees, mutual recognition of academic qualifications and period of studies[1], together with an increase of study programmes in international languages [in particular English], was the strengthening of competitiveness and attractiveness of studies in European countries. This dimension of the Bologna Process is in line with much broader considerations of economic competitiveness such as that one for the European Union under the Lisbon Strategy as well as recognition of its reliance on research and innovation for which higher education plays a crucial role.[2]

The Forum discussed various ingredients that make higher educational in the Europe Region today competitive by focusing on topics such as the complexity of assessing excellence, the challenges of measuring excellence in diverse higher education systems where institutions have distinctive missions, structures and processes, and the relations between competitiveness and cooperation as well as sharing experience on good practices already implemented in various countries in the area of improving competitiveness of the respective higher education systems and institutions.

[1] The Council of Europe/UNESCO Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications concerning Higher Education in the European Region – the Lisbon Recognition Convention, for which UNESCO-CEPES and the Council of Europe assure a Co-Secretariat, provides a legal framework for this development in all countries which are signatories of this convention.

[2] The Lisbon Strategy, also known as the Lisbon Agenda or Lisbon Process, is an action and development plan which aim is to make the European Union "the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion, and respect for the environment by 2010". It was set out by the European Council in Lisbon in March 2000.