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Universities are constantly working on the transformation of their operating models, structures, processes, estates and facilities. Indeed, within the last decade, several university governance reforms have taken place, both within national systems and inside the institutions themselves, regarding the relationship between universities and public authorities and internal university organisation.
While acknowledging that there are different models for these reforms, the dialogue developed through EUA’s comparative approach outlines the basic principles and conditions that universities need to have in order to best fulfil their missions and tasks.
Universities require:
Universities are facing big transformation challenges, over various timescales. Profound changes such as the green transition, evolving transnational collaboration (including the European university alliances), digital transformation (including artificial intelligence), and many others, call for skilled leadership and appropriate governance models, structures and processes.
Promoting institutional autonomy as a core principle continues to be highly relevant and important, as it supports university values. In a tense political environment, attempts to limit or undermine autonomy can take many forms. Through its work and tools, including the Autonomy Scorecard, EUA supports a structured, fact-based dialogue on governance, autonomy and efficiency, in partnership with the sector and public authorities.
The EUA Autonomy Scorecard features extensive information on the current state of university autonomy and governance reforms in Europe. In 2023, the Scorecard was updated, taking stock of university autonomy and its evolution in the past five years.
Consult the latest edition of the Autonomy Scorecard
By gathering, comparing and weighing data from higher education institutions across the continent, EUA provides in-depth benchmarking of national policies with regard to university autonomy and the exchange of good practices. Since its creation, the Scorecard has become a reference point in discussions about university autonomy in Europe and beyond.
The Autonomy Scorecard is made up of a comparative summary report and individual country profiles.
EUA explores efficiency and effectiveness in university management by examining the measures that are in place in universities across Europe and analysing national system policies that support universities in their efforts to operate more efficiently and effectively. The goal is to identify good practices and develop recommendations for further development.
More specifically, EUA focuses on three main areas:
The “University Efficiency Hub” is an online portal that allows university practitioners and policy makers across Europe to share knowledge and hands-on experience in efficiency, effectiveness and value for money in the field of higher education. It provides information on national frameworks as well as institutional good practices and a self-evaluation tool for universities to move forward in their strategy.
Discover the University Efficiency Hub
Mergers and concentration processes are increasingly frequent as the higher education sector is faced with the double impetus of more competition and stronger cooperation. Collaboration frameworks cover a wide array of activities and can become quite complex. In order to succeed, merger processes need the right conditions.
EUA has analysed this in the report “Designing strategies for efficient funding of universities in Europe” and has developed a tool to map institutional mergers in the university sector across Europe.
Explore EUA’s university mergers tool
EUA's Autonomy Scorecard country profiles delve into in-depth system analyses, offering insights into recent developments and presenting the sector's perspective. ...
The 2023 edition of the European University Association’s Autonomy Scorecard, the most comprehensive yet, provides a full comparative analysis of the state of play of university autonomy in 35 highe ...
This report presents the key findings and recommendations of the NEWLEAD project’s efforts to build the capacity of university leaders across Europe in steering change and addressing new prior ...
This NEWLEAD guide offers recommendations and reflections for university leaders, university sector representatives and policy makers interested in setting up a leadership development programme (LDP). ...
The Scorecard 2023 provides a full comparative analysis of the state of play of university autonomy in 35 higher education systems in Europe. ...
As the European Universities Initiative moves into a new phase, EUA has taken stock of its impact thus far, notably in how it may further policy reforms that benefit transnational university cooperati ...
Today, more than ever before, universities are expected to fulfil multiple and increasingly challenging roles. Invariably, university leaders are walking a tightrope, caught between long-term strategy ...
Given their education, research and societal missions, universities are important actors in the transition towards carbon neutrality, sustainable societies and economies. They are well placed to play ...
Given the rapid and intense change taking place in our societies and, invariably, at our universities, institutional leadership has become a game-changer in the capacity to adapt. This is even more so ...
This is the first briefing in a new EUA series focused on evolving university governance. The present publication explores the governance set-up of the European University Alliances formed under the E ...
EU Commissioner Mariya Gabriel, during the European Research and Innovation Days in September 2020, stated that excellence and inclusiveness are two sides of the same coin in the new European Research ...
Over the last decade, policy makers and universities in Europe have been paying greater attention to efficiency and effectiveness in a more demanding higher education context. This study has been publ ...
University mergers are a widely spread phenomenon in Europe. This briefing analyses the features of close to 130 cases of university mergers and clusters (since 2000) recorded in the EUA University Me ...
This report is a milestone of the EU-supported project “Transition to University Autonomy in Kazakhstan” (2017-2020) and focuses on the state of play of university governance and recommend ...
Many European universities are initiating strategic transformation programmes that either seek a step change in institutional efficiency, respond to drastic shifts in higher education policy and finan ...
This report provides examples of government-led initiatives implemented in response to national policy objectives and university-led collaborative initiatives and partnerships pursued by the Irish hig ...
This report provides a summary of the input, discussions and findings from the first USTREAM peer learning seminar on policy frameworks for efficiency and effectiveness in the higher education co ...
The Scorecard 2017 provides a full comparative analysis of the state of play of university autonomy in 29 higher education systems in Europe. The report complements the presentation of the main outc ...
The EUA Autonomy Scorecard offers a methodology to collect, compare and weight data on university autonomy. A core set of autonomy indicators was developed to offer an institutional perspective on ins ...
With the series “Leaders’ Perspectives”, EUA gives the floor to the executive heads of its member universities on the essential issues connected to governance and funding. Th ...
“University mergers in Europe” is the second thematic report published by EUA as part of the DEFINE project. DEFINE explores strategies for efficient funding of universities in Europe, lookin ...
Le projet de Tableau de bord sur l’autonomie dresse un bilan détaillé et précis du degré d’autonomie institutionnelle dans 26 pays européens. Ce projet se concentre sur les cadres législatif ...
The Autonomy Scorecard project provides a detailed and accurate picture of the status of institutional autonomy in 26 different European countries. The project focuses on the legislativ ...
Institutional diversity is becoming more central to higher education policy as higher education institutions are moving to the centre stage of political and public attention, with ...
Changing expectations of universities’ contributions to a knowledge-based economy and society over the last decade have transformed the relationship between the state and higher educa ...
Sound governance, competent and accountable management, transparent and coherent institutional quality processes are rising to the top of the work agenda of European university leaders today. The ...
Following the Management Seminar organised in Istanbul in 2000 for its members, EUA invited the two seminar facilitators to turn their presentations into articles. In addition to t ...
The European University Association condemns the recent decision by the Swedish government to shorten the mandate of external members of university boards from three years to 17 months. ...
The NEWLEAD project consortium published a new workbook focused on Leading change in diversity and cross-cutting challenges. ...
In accordance with a December 2022 Council of the European Union decision to protect “the Union budget against breaches of the principles of the rule of law in Hungary”, the European Commission ha ...
The European University Association (EUA), the European Students’ Union (ESU) and Scholars at Risk (SAR) join together to condemn the criminalisation of students and academics in Belarus. They call ...
Scholars at Risk – Ireland and ALLEA, the European Federation of Academies of Sciences and Humanities, organise the online conference “Academic freedom and intellectual dissent” on 8 June, from ...
On 14 February, Frédérique Vidal, French Minister for Higher Education, Research and Innovation, announced plans to order the French research agency (CNRS) to conduct an enquiry into French universi ...
In Turkey, the practice of appointments of university rectors by the President of the Republic is generating a new wave of criticism. The recent nomination of a new rector at Bogaziçi University in I ...
Following the recent news of further infringements on university autonomy and academic freedom reflected in two decrees (675 and 676) published in the Turkish Official Journal on 29 October 2016, the ...
Click below to see more photos of the event! What will be financed tomorrow, and how, depends largely on what expectations society and policy makers have of universities. What competing visions of ...
How can we foster the capacity of university leaders to effectively steer change and address new transformational priorities? Josep M. Garrell and Thomas Estermann reflect on the results of the NEWLEA ...
Despite a proliferation of initiatives to promote Open Science, many obstacles persist. Here, Jean-Pierre Finance examines the progress that this movement has made and looks to the next steps, includi ...
If we want universities to make a leap in transnational cooperation, policymakers must take their own leap in implementing reforms that work towards creating the necessary framework conditions. In Res ...
The growing participation of women in higher education is not yet reflected in university leadership. Here, Kerstin Mey examines barriers to reaching a critical mass of female leaders in higher educat ...
Leaders must respond to the unprecedented challenges facing the higher education system. In these times of uncertainty, hope is the fundamental leadership driver that will help our institutions to rem ...
All universities need more autonomy to be innovative, not only those engaged in the European Universities Initiative. EUA expert Anna-Lena Claeys-Kulik writes that limiting flexible collaboration opti ...
The Academic Freedom Index provides a robust assessment of academic freedom levels worldwide that can inform and guide advocacy and policy efforts. Co-developers Janika Spannagel and Ilyas Saliba from ...
On the occasion of EUA’s 20th anniversary, President Michael Murphy and long-time senior expert and Director Michael Gaebel look back at two decades of global university collaboration. Offering a br ...
As the mid-term evaluation of the first European University Alliances comes up, stakeholders must keep a balanced approach and look at the future of the initiative in a holistic way. As EUA expert Ann ...
As the European University Initiative nears its mid-term review, it is time to think seriously about how the alliances are governed. Complex setups must retain their fitness for purpose and benefit th ...
While the fundamental principles of academic freedom and institutional autonomy have not changed in the last 30 years, their context has. EUA’s Monika Steinel analyses the panorama and reflects on w ...
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the European University Association, Andrée Sursock analyses two decades of transformation and renewal in Europe’s higher education landscape, and charts ...
In Europe, there is little provision of leadership development schemes in higher education. Given the pace and intensity of transformations in our societies and invariably in our universities, institu ...
The important upsurge in statements of support for academic freedom at the intergovernmental level in Europe points to the urgent need for meaningful implementation. Civil society and higher education ...
EUA President Michael Murphy assesses the challenges and opportunities brought by the coronavirus pandemic to Europe’s universities, in particular in relation to funding, digital tools, Open Science ...
University autonomy and academic freedom should be more than topics of proclamation and celebration. Sijbolt Noorda, President of the Magna Charta Observatory, discusses why they should be lived in th ...
Universities are changing. Strategy expert Claudia Nuss reflects on what it takes to successfully lead the transformation process. ...
Innovation is increasingly important for universities – as it is for society. Universities are one of the strands of the so-called “triple helix”, providing impactful research to sustain competi ...
Academic freedom is the latest of the many victims on Hungary’s path towards an illiberal state, argues Lesley Wilson. This editorial was first published on The Parliament Magazine on 7 September 20 ...
The Hungarian government’s clampdown on gender studies and research into migration sets a dangerous precedent. This editorial was first published on The Guardian on 6 September 2018. Universities i ...
The implications of the political, economic and societal landscape in Europe are becoming ever more complex for Europe’s universities. The Old Continent faces prolonged financial and economic crises ...
20 January 2016 The European University Association (EUA) would like to express its concern for the academics in Turkey being investigated for expressing their views, under the petition “We Will no ...
The STAND project aims to improve the processes and mechanisms of university autonomy by increasing the management capacities, accountability and transparency of universities in the Western Balkans in ...
Today, higher education institutions are tasked with multiple and challenging roles. ...
Today, higher education institutions are tasked with multiple and challenging roles. They accommodate evolving student expectations, address changing labour market needs and sustainability pressures, ...
The EUA Autonomy Scorecard is a comprehensive tool that gathers, monitors, and compares system-level data regarding university autonomy across Europe since 2011. ...
