Suchergebnisse

Preface -- Contents -- European Citizens at Risk -- 1 European Citizens at Risk -- 2 A Future with Less Growth -- 3 Europe of the (Border) Regions -- 4 A Vibrant Europe Is Possible -- 5 The Five Presidents Are Stuck -- 6 Challenge and Response: A Guide Through the Book -- References -- Halting Support for the EU -- 1 The Centrifugal Force of Increasing Euroscepticism -- 2 Euroscepticism Documented -- 3 The Losers of Globalisation -- 4 Explaining Euroscepticism -- 4.1 Theories -- 4.2 Before and After the Crisis -- 5 General Trends in Income Inequality and Financial Uncertainty -- 6 Euroscepticism and Financial Uncertainty -- 7 Referendums on the EU -- 8 Conclusions -- References -- A Vibrant European Model -- 1 The Need for a Vibrant Scenario -- 2 Europe´s Unbalanced Economic Performance -- 2.1 Labour Demand and Supply -- 2.2 Innovation -- 2.3 Wage Inequality, Income Inequality and Social Cohesion -- 2.4 Employment Protection, Minimum Wages and the Quality of Work -- 2.5 Greening -- 2.6 Happiness and the Labour Market -- 3 Europe 2017-2030: Muddling Through or a Vibrant Alternative -- 3.1 Innovation -- 3.2 Inequality -- 3.3 Mobility Policy -- 3.4 Jump-Starting Youth Employment -- 3.5 Vibrant Immigration (Treated in More Detail in Chapter ``A Sustainable Immigration Policy for the EU´´) -- 3.6 Sustainability -- 3.7 Happiness -- 4 Trade -- 5 Summary and Conclusions -- References -- In Europe We Trust -- 1 Introduction -- 1.1 Good Governance for Values, Growth and Happiness -- 1.2 The EU and Governance -- 2 Slipping Governance in the EU -- 3 Understanding the Rise and Fall of Governance -- 4 Governance and Trust in Institutions -- 5 What Can the EU Do? -- 6 Conclusions -- Appendix: How to Control Corruption (from: EU, European Commission First Anti-Corruption Report, 2009) -- References -- EU Mobility -- 1 Introduction

University autonomy and funding is an important aspect in university-level education due to its impact on graduates' competencies, and on the quality and quantity of research produced. Political factors influence the amount of autonomy allotted to public universities in specific countries. There is sufficient evidence to suggest that an increase in autonomy for universities would provide better educational outcomes and have a direct impact on labor market productivity. However, the debate on autonomy has been overshadowed by discussions on tuition fees and student aid in political circles.

The crisis slowed down the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy (for the EU to become the most competitive region in the world). The crisis has aggravated the divergence between the North West of Europe and Southern Europe in labor productivity imparted by the knowledge economy. At the same time, equality of opportunity for participation in higher education seems to have been well-preserved in the EU Member States. This is in contrast to the US with its substantial higher private costs for university education. The relative stagnations in university education and research during the crisis is similar in Europe as in the US. Asian countries may - as a result - have improved their position in innovation. The room for maneuver of Governments of EU Member States to deal with universities (as with other public expenditures) was severely limited by the agreed upon maximum levels of the budget deficit and Government debt. Political institutions appear to determine the "code" for higher education expenditures. The quality of the minister responsible for higher education and the level of "trust" in the country may also the room for maneuver in setting university policy.

Higher education is in the position to save Europe by rendering a substantial contribution to sustainable economic growth. For that purpose higher education must strengthen its innovative power in entrepreneurship education and by focusing research more on societal problems, while being better empowered and enabled by Governments. Universities must show leadership in resolving or channeling the major societal questions. More European competition between universities in education and research would be helpful. Universities can contribute to recreating hope and optimism through more innovation in the economy.

In diesem Referat wird eine Analyse einer Einwanderungspolitik durchgeführt, welche insofern selektiv ist, als entweder nur nicht ausgebildete oder nur junge, hoch ausgebildete Personen für die Immigration zugelassen werden. Es ist eine Analyse der langfristigen Folgen einer solchen Einwanderungspolitik. Die Konsequenzen werden sowohl für das Immigrationsland als auch für das Auswanderungsland untersucht. (SH2)

Numeracy skills of adults within and across 12 different countries in 2011 are strongly associated with the accumulated public investments in education received by these adults during their schooling. This paper confirms existing evidence that the timing of educational investments is important, with early investments playing the most fundamental role. Investment in primary education is associated with higher numeracy scores for those who went on to continue their education. Higher investments in tertiary education are needed in order to fully realize the benefit of the investments in primary school. Family background is a decisive factor in relation to numeracy skills of these adults, in line with all available evidence. Adults who received higher public investment in primary education were more likely to complete secondary school and attain tertiary education. This refutes earlier studies indicating that the amount of financial resources available for education may not be that important for the development of competences.

A sustainable EU Immigration Policy aims to contribute to a vibrant European society through more effectively and selectively managed immigration from outside the EU, more attention to integration of immigrants, more rooting out of discrimination, more asylum centres close to areas of conflict, and more attention to education and training in areas where refugees have settled. Immigration from outside the EU is often opposed, mainly because of sluggish integration combined with tensions in actual and perceived values between immigrants and native populations. These divisions affect not only the first generation of immigrants, but also those that follow. We propose a sustainable, win-win policy fostering the benefits of immigration and in line with the preferences of EU citizens holding not only positive but also more sceptical views on immigration while relying on adherence to human rights. The proposed policy is directed towards more effectively and selectively managed immigration based on the employability potential of the immigrant, combined with more attention to integration and stricter measures to fight discrimination. We also acknowledge the need for a robust policy framework to cope with asylum and abrupt large-scale waves of refugees wanting to enter the EU, resulting from conflicts, natural catastrophes, and other sudden or violent events. We propose screening schemes for refugee camps surrounding countries they have fled to determine migrants' refugee status, channelling them either as economic migrants, selected on their employability, or through a humanitarian scheme that respects the EU's multilateral and bilateral commitments. Such a humanitarian scheme would be embedded into education-cooperation policies, to provide better opportunities to qualify for admission and substantially greater support for refugees.

All explorations of the future of the Euro show serious risks for its survival in the present form. The road map of the Five EU Presidents presented in 2015 is far from sufficient to reduce the risks of the Euro zone falling apart by Brexit type developments or new economic shocks. The EU Presidents rely too much on high international economic growth smoothing the convergence in labor productivity between EU member states, while the more likely low growth scenario shows a serious risk of the Euro-area falling apart in a chaotic way, through further divergence in labor productivity, through new Banking crises or through the popular vote in response to fiscal and labor market reform. The Presidents argue for strengthening the Banking union with an independent watchdog, with a single resolution mechanism for Bank defaults and for a European credit deposit insurance system. The support for these proposals is overwhelming. They also argue for more transfer of sovereignty on financial policy and for debt mutualisation (sharing of the risks of country debt among all EU countries). This is unlikely to happen, while at the same time the urgency for dealing with the drag imposed by the high debt levels of many EU countries on economic growth is high. We propose that the EU negotiates a New Deal between the highly indebted Euro countries and the other Euro countries. In this deal the trust is built that the richer countries agree on debt mutualization against the assurance of an automatic exit from the Euro area at non-compliance with the agreed (and simplified) rules.

Following its newly won independence, Lithuania at first experienced a substantial decline in the per capita GDP. However, from there on Lithuania has been part of the "convergence" machine of the European Union, meaning that its economic growth rates are much higher than those of the richer European countries. However, if Lithuania wants a convergence to continue, then a serious overhaul of the system of higher education is required. It should focus on the employability of graduates. Universities can only engage in this overhaul if they are empowered – financially and managerially.The labour market has drastically changed over recent decades in all countries. The supply of graduates increased markedly, yet the demand increased faster, with the result that in most countries graduates have had a larger wage increase and a lower relative unemployment than those with less education. Under the cloak of increased demand for graduates, there is also a shift in the types of traits graduates need in order to function well in society. So how best to reinvent universities, to take on board the principle of graduates with the twenty-first-century skills as their prime output? Lithuania should have its own strategy, and it will not be easy to get it implemented, because educational change is perhaps among the most difficult to achieve.Continental European higher education is for the most part publicly provided and financed. The role of government in determining the organisation and performance of universities has been the focus of the NGO Empower European Universities, which has compared thirty-two European countries. The study found that in 2008, in comparison with the other countries, Lithuanian universities had much less financial autonomy, a slightly lower level of policy autonomy, and higher than average organisational autonomy. Funding in the Lithuanian higher education is currently insufficient to retain qualified teachers and to provide sufficient room for student–teacher interaction. Research funding as a percentage of GDP is low when compared internationally. Lithuanian rates of participation in higher education, and of graduation, are above the European average, but the percentage of foreign students is low (1.3 per cent with a European average of 5.9 per cent). Some 84.8 percent of graduates were employed within three years of graduation in 2010. This is above the European average of 82.9 per cent. 22.4 per cent of the enrolled students graduated in 2010 (above the European average of 21.2 per cent). On these measures Lithuania does well. This is a marked contrast to its academic research, which is far below the European average according to all parameters we have introduced. These include the presence of Lithuanian universities among the top five hundred in the Jiao Tong ranking, the number of publications in top journals, the number of Marie Curie fellows, cooperation with the private sector, and ERC awards. Lithuania has a low level of labour productivity (a little more than half the average European level), a low percentage of knowledge workers and a corresponding low GDP per capita. This is likely to be in part due to the low level of university research.Our policy recommendation is that the ties between the ministries of education and science and of economic affairs should be strengthened. A serious attempt should be made to bring Lithuanian research up to world standards. The latter may require a considerable increase in investment. The challenge for Lithuanian higher education is to be more focused not only on what society needs in terms of graduate skills and in research but also on how this can be done with the limited resources available. The Lithuanian system of higher education should be diversified so as to match students' potential talents with the university offerings. In Europe, almost eighty per cent of graduates feel that they work in an international environment. This calls for English to be used at least in Masters programmes, as well as for some internationally oriented Bachelor studies. Rather than spend money in political and economic cooperation on translators, we need to produce graduates who are fluent in English next to their mother tongue. A wider usage of the English language in university studies will create more favourable conditions for teacher and student exchange and will encourage young people from abroad to enter Lithuanian universities. ; Professorial Fellow of International Economics of Science,Technology and Higher EducationUnited Nations University Maastricht Economicand Social Research Institute on Innovation and TechnologyAddress: Keizer Kareplein 19, 6211 TC Maastricht, the NetherlandsTel. (31) 043 3884439E-mail: Ritzen@merit.unu.eduProfesorius socialinių mokslų (edukologijos) habilituotas daktarasVilniaus universiteto Edukologijos katedraUniversiteto g. 9/1, tel. (370) 5 266 76 26El. paštas: rimantas.zelvys@f.vu.ltStraipsnyje nagrinėjami Lietuvos universitetinio aukštojo mokslo politikai iškylantys iššūkiai ir kintamas universitetų vaidmuo, formuojant XXI amžiuje absolventams būtinas kompetencijas. Aptariamos šiuolaikinių absolventų įsitvirtinimo darbo rinkoje galimybės ir studijų pertvarkymas, siekiant formuoti reikiamas kompetencijas. Tam būtina suteikti universitetams didesnių finansinių ir vadybinių galių. Nevyriausybinė organizacija "Didesnių galių suteikimas Europos universitetams" analizuoja valstybės vaidmenį, lemiant universitetų struktūrą ir veiklą. Pagal šios organizacijos 2008 metais atliktą vertinimą, Lietuvos universitetai, palyginti su kitomis Europos šalimis, turėjo daug mažiau finansinės autonomijos, šiek tiek mažiau politinės autonomijos ir kiek daugiau nei vidutiniškai organizacinės autonomijos. Palyginti su kitomis šalimis, Lietuvos mokslui skiriama BVP dalis yra maža. Moksliniai tyrimai nėra koncentruojami tose srityse, kur Lietuva galėtų būti sąlygiškai konkurencinga. Studijuojančiųjų aukštosiose mokyklose ir įgijusių aukštojo mokslo diplomą procentas Lietuvoje yra aukštesnis už Europos vidurkį. Kita vertus, užsieniečių, studijuojančių Lietuvoje, procentas yra nedidelis. Lietuva taip pat pasižymi mažu darbo produktyvumu (šiek tiek daugiau negu 50 proc. vidurkio), mažas yra intelektinės veiklos darbuotojų procentas, ir atitinkamai mažas BVP, sukuriamo vienam gyventojui, procentas (maždaug trečdalis vidurkio). Straipsnio pabaigoje pateikiama Lietuvos universitetinio aukštojo mokslo politikos tobulinimo siūlymų.

The Lithuanian system of higher education should be diversified so as to match students' potential talents with the university offerings. In Europe, almost eighty per cent of graduates feel that they work in an international environment. This calls for English to be used at least in Masters programmes, as well as for some internationally oriented Bachelor studies. Rather than spend money in political and economic cooperation on translators, we need to produce graduates who are fluent in English next to their mother tongue. A wider usage of the English language in university studies will create more favourable conditions for teacher and student exchange and will encourage young people from abroad to enter Lithuanian universities.

The Lithuanian system of higher education should be diversified so as to match students' potential talents with the university offerings. In Europe, almost eighty per cent of graduates feel that they work in an international environment. This calls for English to be used at least in Masters programmes, as well as for some internationally oriented Bachelor studies. Rather than spend money in political and economic cooperation on translators, we need to produce graduates who are fluent in English next to their mother tongue. A wider usage of the English language in university studies will create more favourable conditions for teacher and student exchange and will encourage young people from abroad to enter Lithuanian universities.