Europe-wide ranking of university autonomy

Moving towards a Europe-wide ranking of university autonomy? University sector to publish European 'autonomy scorecard’.
EUA is pleased to announce that it is leading a project to develop a scorecard that will benchmark university autonomy (on the national level) across Europe.
The scorecard will be a major tool both at the national level and at the individual institutional level, serving as a reference for national governments wishing to benchmark their progress on governance reforms vis-à-vis other systems, whilst also helping to raise awareness among universities of the differences that exist in Europe. The scorecard will also help record trends and progress on a regular basis, thus effectively contributing to the consolidation of the European Higher Education Area by improving comparability and promoting modernisation of the sector.
The starting point for the scorecard will be the findings of the forthcoming EUA autonomy study, an in-depth comparative study of university autonomy across 34 countries based on more than 30 different indicators and focussing on four main areas of institutional autonomy (organisational, financial, academic and staffing autonomy). This study and the scorecard project will be officially launched in Brussels on the evening of 30 November at a special event at the Swedish representation to the EU. To find out more about the event, please email: autonomy@remove-this.eua.be.
While it is generally accepted by universities and indeed many governments that increased autonomy is necessary for universities to modernise and respond to new demands being placed on higher education, perceptions and terminology regarding institutional autonomy vary greatly in Europe. The autonomy scorecard will establish a reliable European benchmark of university autonomy and accountability. The two-year project, supported by the EC Lifelong Learning Programme, will be carried out in conjunction with EUA project partners: The German Rectors’ Conference, Universities Denmark, the Conference of Rectors of Academic Schools in Poland (CRASP), and the University of Surrey. The launch of the scorecard is due to take place at the end of the project in the winter of 2011.