The structuring effect of the Thematic Networks initiative of the European Commission in Agricultural and Related Sciences Higher Education: an attempt at an initial evaluation

Abstract

The globalisation of Higher Education is set to be an essential trend of the 21st century. At European level, an open area for education and training will gradually take shape, in which the initiatives and programmes of the European Commission are to play a decisive role. In this context, the institutional organisation of Higher Education in terms of international, and particularly European representation is becoming a major challenge for political decision-makers, in their search for representative spokespersons and for educational establishments which wish, within a context of growing autonomy, to gain access to collective tools for strategic and long-term reflection, as well as to find a forum for exchanging and confronting different experiences. This paper aims to analyze the initial results of a recent initiative of the European Commission in the framework of the SOCRATES Programme, which since 1996 has provided financing on a trial basis for setting up Thematic Networks in certain branches of education. The author has studied the case of Higher Education in Agriculture, which was one of the 28 fields selected in 1996/97. He shows how, since 1994, the prospects for creation of the SOCRATES Thematic Networks and their implementation in 1996 have made a substantial contribution to confirming, firstly, the autonomy and unity of Higher Education in Agriculture throughout Europe and secondly, to creating the structural and organisational framework for genuine collective representation in this educational sector (restructuring and reinforcing associations and existing networks, setting up common tools to promote the circulation and exchange of information and initiating long-term reflection at European level).