“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, looking in particular at excellence initiatives, university mergers and performance-based funding mechanisms.
University mergers in Europe - Introduction
Today higher education institutions across Europe face demanding and complex settings and circumstances. Globalisation, internationalisation, the drive for quality, expectations surrounding new modes of teaching, rankings, the growing importance of research and innovation within the economic development agenda and above all the difficult economic environment have induced many reform processes in higher education...
The present report focuses on mergers and concentration processes. These have been identified as a key issue for DEFINE because of their function in potentially increasing efficiency for higher education at both institutional and system level. The view that, by gaining mass, universities can find economies of scale and rationalise the use of resources, enabling them to function more cost-effectively, has been an important driver for merger and concentration processes. However, because of the scale and nature of the process, there is a lack of comprehensive evaluation at system and institutional level.
This report intends to provide a Europe-wide analysis of trends in merger processes. It begins with a comprehensive overview of the main trends in the development of merger and concentration processes from both a system-level and institutional perspective (see part 1). It then proceeds to consider these trends from the angle of ‘efficiency’ (part 2) and the different ways in which the process may be managed to achieve positive results (part 3). Download the report “University mergers in Europe”. More...

The European University Association published a new report on mergers in the university sector. The report maps and analyses merger and concentration processes in twenty higher education systems.
“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, looking in particular at excellence initiatives, university mergers and performance-based funding mechanisms. The third thematic report focusing on performance-based funding will be published by summer. More...

Further details of events that EUA is organising/co-organising are available through our Events page, but please find below a list of events that are coming up:

European MOOCs Stakeholders Summit
Hosted by Université Catholique de Louvain, Mons, Belgium 
18-20 May 2015 

8th EUA-CDE Annual Meeting
The Future of Doctoral Education – where do we go from here?
Hosted by Technical University Munich/TUM Graduate School, Munich, Germany 
18-19 June 2015

Frindoc tool launch event
Hosted by Imperial College, London, UK 
24-25 September 2015 

AECHE Thematic Conference 
The networked university: Opportunities and challenges for higher education between the Arab world and Europe 
El Gouna Egypt, hosted by the Technical University of Berlin
10-11 October 
(Registration details will follow soon) 

10th European Quality Assurance Forum 
Taking stock and looking forward
Hosted by the Quality Assurance Agency / UCL Institute of Education, London, United Kingdom 
19-21 November 2015
(Registrations will open in early July). More...

On 20 April the Committees of the European Parliament responsible for Economic and Monetary Affairs and for Budgets adopted their joint report on the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). The report removes any reference to Horizon 2020 as a source to support the fund.
Indeed the Committees propose to fill the fund gradually in the annual budgetary procedure until it reaches €8 billion by 2022. More...

As part of its energy-focused project ‘UNI-SET’, EUA has launched a survey to identify and gather information on university research and education programmes at Master and Doctorate level in the field of energy.
The survey, which was launched this week and will be open until 30 June 2015, calls for energy-related programmes covering the entire spectrum of academic fields – from the ‘hard’ sciences to social sciences, arts and humanities – whose graduates and researchers can help move towards a low-carbon society based on the skills and competences acquired through their studies and other university activities. More...

The 17th Annual EUA General Assembly will be held at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, on Thursday 16 April 2015, from 10:00 to 13:00.
As every year, the General Assembly will precede EUA’s Annual Conference, which will focus on ‘European Universities in Research and Innovation – People, Policies and Partnerships’. More...

EUA this week launched the ‘Open Access checklist for universities: A practical guide on implementation’, a concise document to support universities in developing institutional policies on Open Access to research publications.
The Open Access checklist is addressed to higher education and research institutions that are developing, or planning to develop, a policy on Open Access to research publications. It is intended as a general guide in the development of institutional policies on Open Access and can be useful for different stakeholders, including the leadership, administration, librarians and researchers. More...

The registration period for the 2015-2016 round of EUA’s Institutional Evaluation Programme (IEP) is now open until 3 July 2015.
IEP offers higher education institutions the opportunity to take part in a comprehensive, improvement-oriented institutional evaluation conducted by a team of experienced higher education leaders. The evaluation process and the report delivered by the team aim to support universities in developing their institutional strategic leadership and capacity to manage change.
IEP is a full member of the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) and is listed in the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR). For further information on the Programme and how to register, please visit the IEP website. More...

The 8th EUA-CDE Annual Meeting, entitled ‘The future of Doctoral Education – where do we go from here’ will take place on 18-19 June at the Technische Universität München/TUM Graduate School, Munich, Germany.
The meeting is the largest gathering of all stakeholders in the field of doctoral education in Europe and provides a platform for open discussions on the challenges and opportunities facing the sector across Europe and beyond.
Registration for the event is open until 5 June. To register, view the programme and find out more, please see the event page. More...

As part of the project The Shape of Things to Come, the EUA Council for Doctoral Education (EUA-CDE) held a focus group meeting on research ethics in doctoral education on 20 March hosted by the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Research ethics will also be a major theme of the EUA-CDE Annual Meeting at the Technische Universität München in Munich, Germany on 18-19 June. Registration for the event and further information can be found here.
For information on the project The Shape of Things to Come click here. More...