Under the supervision of the European University Association, a comparative study to be launched on 30 November will map university autonomy in 34 European countries. The study will form the basis for a scorecard system to benchmark university autonomy after 2011.

Universities, and increasingly also the governments that still fund the bulk of European higher education, generally agree that increased autonomy offset by appropriate accountability is the only way higher education can develop the flexibility needed to cope with the breakneck speed of changes in demand from the societies in their catchment areas.

But what exactly university autonomy entails and how it can be measured in largely state-funded systems is not quite a consensual issue.

Since university autonomy and governance profoundly influence a host of parameters by which universities are ranked and compared, the EUA argued that clarity was urgently needed about perception, terminology and indicators.

"This links into earlier research into university autonomy which is a key element of our work at the EUA," says Thomas Estermann, head of the EUA's governance, autonomy and funding unit. "During an exploratory study we found that there is a widespread lack of understanding of concepts related to university autonomy."

It is a difficult area where the landscape changes continuously. Also, different stakeholders have different ideas about autonomy and the EUA will try to provide a view from the institutional perspective.

"We don't aim at finding an ideal scenario," Estermann says. "There isn't any. We'll try to find elements, such as financial autonomy, in which there is broad agreement. Many other elements, such as academic autonomy, will need much broader discussion, which this study may trigger."

The study will assess university autonomy on the basis of 30 indicators that cover the areas of organisational, academic, financial and staffing autonomy. It will provide the basis for a future scorecard system that is envisaged to measure, benchmark and monitor university autonomy across Europe from 2011, the year in which the final results of the study are expected.

ard.jongsma@uw-news.com

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