Trends in European Higher Education
Since 1999, EUA has been publishing the Trends reports, with a view to feeding an institutional perspective into European higher education policy discussions, and improving exchange and networking among European universities and support for them. The principal method is a questionnaire sent to European higher education institutions, which is complemented by other research methods, including focus groups, visits to universities, interviews, and questionnaires to other stakeholders. The resulting reports are designed to present reliable, longitudinal information about how the European Higher Education and Research Areas are being developed across the continent. Over time, EUA’s Trends reports have become crucial sources of information and reference works for policy makers and the higher education community alike.
The Trends 2015 Report is currently under preparation, and will be published in time for the Bologna Ministerial meeting in Yerevan, Armenia, in spring 2015. Compared to previous Trends reports, it places greater focus on learning and teaching, including e-learning and MOOCs.
The institutional questionnaire was launched in January 2014. If you think your institution may be interested in participating in the Trends 2015 survey, please contact trends@eua.be for additional information. Please note that the questionnaire is aimed at the institutional leadership of higher education institutions.
More information on the Trends 2015 survey can also be downloaded here.
The Trends Series
The first Trends report, produced for the Ministerial meeting in Bologna in 1999, described the state of European higher education, and provided a rationale for the development of a European Higher Education Area. The second report, produced for the Prague Ministerial Conference in 2001, was an update of national developments and extended the geographical coverage in Europe.
Trends III, prepared in 2003 for EUA’s Higher Education Convention in Graz and for the Berlin Ministerial Conference, was the first report to introduce the perspective of higher education institutions in the analysis, based on a questionnaire that gathered over 800 institutional replies. This report raised several questions and challenges regarding the nature of institutional implementation, many of which were explored in greater depth through a series of institutional site visits undertaken for both the Trends IV and the Trends V reports (with additional focus group discussions).
The same methodology – combining a survey questionnaire, institutional site visits and focus group discussions – was used again for the Trends VI (2010) report, which examined a decade of Bologna reforms in the context of other changes that have affected higher education, whether through international, European or national developments.
For more information on and links to past Trends reports, please click here.