Session Information
23 SES 07 C, Education Policies and Development (Part 1)
Paper Session to be continued in 23 SES 08 C
Contribution
This paper addresses the European University Project in the context of the first initiatives in the field of higher education at European level. The received view dictates that before the 1970s the European Community was not involved in university affairs (Corbett, 2005; Field, 1998). With a lack of provision specifically for education in the Treaty of Rome, the general assumption accepted is that the first activity in the field of education, hosted in the framework of the European Community, is that of vocational training and the education of migrant workers' children. However, if we consider the discourse and proposed initiatives of pro-European movements, this consensus is thrown into question. In particular, we can recognise the vision to develop a European University, which was in fact woven into the European idea from early discussions on European integration at the European Movement’s Congress of Europe in The Hague in May 1948.
Taking into consideration these postwar discussions, the 1970s actually constitute a third phase in policy development (Corbett. 2005). The work of an Interim Committee on the European University not only advanced the establishment of the European University, but also made provisions for development in other areas of higher education. The Report of the Interim Committee on the European University (April, 1960) stated an aim to strengthen the common heritage of European cultures and civilisations, and high-level institutions and universities. Its strategy was to bind the European University, the European institutes for higher education and research, and the university exchanges between existing universities (Corbett, 2005).
The European University project is therefore used as a case study for a concrete initiative demonstrating collaboration within the field of higher education at the European level at the beginning of European integration. The project provides evidence that higher education was not absent from discourse on European integration and the construction of Europe, and the presence of discussions and actions within the framework of the European University project were neither short-lived. They spanned the period of 1945-1976, from early discussions on European integration to the point when education began to find its feet as a recognised area of Community competence. Ultimately, the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, was created.
This historical analysis of the development of education policy at the European level can be framed within the traditional integration-theory debate between intergovernmentalism and neofunctionalism. Intergovernmentalists maintain the view that European integration takes place through cooperation between Member States as rational actors, in which their authority is not reduced, but rather strengthened (Saurruger, 2014), whereas Neofunctionalists propose that when two political actors agree to shift their loyalty in one sector, this will cause ‘spillover’ into other sectors in order to fulfill integration in the first sector (Haas, 1958). In this case, integration is not controlled. This study proposes that activities in education at the European level, specifically the European University project, can be explained using an intergovernmental approach.
The research questions that this study seeks to answer begin with defining the European Movement’s aim for the creation of a European University. Given the lengthy process in establishing the institution, it then questions the obstacles encountered during the European University project and seeks to identify the compromises that were made and why. To what extent were the goals of the project achieved and more importantly, what was not achieved and why? Finally, the study aims to propose elements of the European University project that can serve as lessons learnt for modern policy-making in the field of education and provide an understanding as to why education has not been established as a fully-fledged area of EU competence.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Corbett, A. (2005), Universities and the Europe of Knowledge: Ideas, Institutions and Policy Entrepreneurship in European Union Higher Education Policy, 1955-2005, Palgrave Macmillan, Hampshire (UK) and New York (USA) Brugmans, H. (1969), 'The "European University" - Where to Go?', Comparative Education, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp.17-23 Field, J. (1998), European Dimensions: Education, Training and the European Union, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London (UK) and Philadelphia (USA) Haas, Ernst B. (1958), The uniting of Europe: Political, social and economic forces 1950-1957, Stanford University Press, Stanford (USA) Lambert, J. R. (1962), 'The European University: A European Communities Project', The World Today, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp.77-88 Palayret, J-M. (1995), A University for Europe: A Pre-history of the European University Institute in Florence (1948-1967), Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Department of Information and Publishing, Rome (Italy) Saurruger, S. (2014), Theoretical Approaches to European Integration, Palgrave MacMillen, Hampshire (UK)
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