European Higher Education Research Articles

Costs and benefits of a formal academic qualification beyond the PhD

AbstractIn many Western and Eastern European countries, the habilitation is the highest formal qualification awarded by universities, ranking above the doctorate. Despite its central role in the European higher education system, little is known about the career trajectories of those who have obtained this degree. This paper systematically analyzes the career trajectories of scientists and scholars who have completed a habilitation in Germany, comparing these to those of individuals who did not complete a further degree after their PhD. To do so, linked social insurance data from a period of 2 years prior to 15 years after receiving the doctorate are used. My analysis reveals the substantial monetary costs of pursuing an additional qualification after the PhD. The empirical findings indicate that the benefits of an additional qualification beyond the PhD are primarily non-monetary, for example having a cognitively demanding and challenging job requiring a high level of education, and an increased likelihood of employment within the academic sector. These findings may indicate that beyond a certain level of education, and with an already fairly strong integration into the labor market, non-financial aspects of work could become more significant to individuals than income maximization.

University autonomy is a predictor of English medium instruction in European higher education

AbstractDespite extensive research into English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI) in higher education, few if any studies have explored the role of higher education autonomy in driving EMI. This paper tests the novel hypothesis that university autonomy—spearheaded across European higher education through neoliberally predicated ‘steering at a distance’ reforms—predicts EMI. The data are multilevel with higher education institutions (HEIs) nested inside education systems. The University Autonomy Scorecards (Pruvot & Estermann, 2017) operationalise university autonomy at the education-system level (n = 26) and measure four dimensions of autonomy: academic, financial, staffing, and organisational. We include ‘overall autonomy’ as the average. The European Tertiary Education Register provides HEI-level data (n = 1815), which we combine with a count of English-taught degree programmes (ETPs) to measure EMI, provided by Study Portals, the largest online portal of degree programmes. We conduct multilevel regression to analyse the relationships between autonomy and EMI. The results showed that overall autonomy predicts EMI in public universities (p = 0.002). Increasing overall autonomy by one point above the mean increases the likelihood of offering EMI by 9.5%. Academic, staffing, and organisational autonomy predict EMI in public universities, whereas financial autonomy does not. The first to quantify a relationship between university autonomy and EMI, this study offers new insights into how EMI comes about. By revealing a previously obscured interconnectedness between language shift and higher education governance, the study demonstrates the value added of an interdisciplinary approach and proposes a new line of inquiry for future research.

Student- Centered Learning, Teaching and Assessment – Student Opinion

Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine Technical' subjective perceptions of the extent to which learning, teaching and assessment at the university are student-centered. Theoretical Framework: The study draws on Part 1.3 of the Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) - Student-centered learning, teaching and assessment and the results of an empirical study regarding students' subjective perceptions of the implementation of this standard. Method: The methodology adopted for this study comprises a review of research related to the indicators that students use when assessing the degree to which learning is oriented to them and A Tool for Measuring Students' Opinions about the Degree in Which Learning and Teaching are Oriented to Student, created in 2021 at the Department of Social and Legal Sciences of the Technical University of Varna to assess the implementation of Part 1.3 of the Quality Standards for Higher Education. Research Implications: The research conducted shows that the newly developed tool can help in understanding the extent to which learning, teaching and assessment have been student centered. The application of the questionnaire can provide valuable insights into students' subjective perceptions as well as the areas where the implementation of ESG guidelines needs to be improved. Originality/Value: We believe that the main contribution of this study is in providing evidence for the use of a questionnaire directly aimed at assessing and self-assessing the extent to which ESG standards and guidelines relating to learning and teaching are being met.

HIGHER MEDICAL EDUCATION ABROAD IN THE HISTORIOGRAPHY OF UKRAINIAN PEDAGOGICAL COMPARATIVE STUDIES

The relevance of this research is driven by the need for a comprehensive understanding of foreign experiences in the functioning of national higher medical education systems within the context of Ukraine's complex and contradictory processes of integration into the European Higher Education Area. The article aims to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the historiography of Ukrainian pedagogical comparative studies on the development of higher medical education in foreign countries to identify trends, achievements, gaps, and prospects for studying this issue. The research methods include search-heuristic, analysis and synthesis, historiographic, hermeneutic, comparative, and phenomenological. As a result of search-heuristic and scientific research work, about 30 dissertations, monographs, and educational manuals on the issue were identified and analyzed. Based on this, their narrow country-specific focus and the similarity in the formulation of the research subject were identified, as well as the directions, trends, and features of research on the development of higher medical education abroad were outlined. It was shown that the historiography of domestic pedagogical comparative studies on this issue has a pronounced interdisciplinary profile-oriented character. Most of the authors involved in its formation, particularly degree candidates, were mainly professional medics, with their scientific supervisors and consultants being experienced scientist-pedagogues. When studying the body of work on the development of higher medical education abroad, it was found that a significant portion of the monographs, articles, and theses of scientific conferences dedicated to it were prepared based on dissertation materials. Therefore, the focus was on analyzing dissertations, as well as monographs and articles containing original scientific knowledge. The main vector of research related to the training of doctors in specialized higher education institutions in foreign countries was determined. Common and distinctive features of representative dissertations on its development in the USA and certain European countries (Great Britain, Poland, Germany, etc.), as well as on the development of continuous medical education abroad, the establishment of nursing education abroad, the formation of foreign systems of professional training for veterinary doctors, and foreign experience in the organization of military medical education were analyzed.

Assessing peer teamwork competence: adapting and validating the comprehensive assessment of team member effectiveness–short in university students

IntroductionThe Bologna Plan has promoted competency-based training in European higher education, which requires developing accurate, appropriate assessment tools for its measurement and evaluation.MethodThis study adapted and validated the Comprehensive Assessment of Team Member Effectiveness questionnaire on teamwork competence in a university population in the Basque Country, Spain. The questionnaire was first back-translated and adapted by two experts in educational research and then completed by 642 students pursuing baccalaureate degrees in primary education and physical activity and sport sciences at the University of Deusto [215 women, 426 men; ages: 17–25 years (M = 21.5; SD = 1.3)].Results and discussionA confirmatory factor analysis yielded adequate goodness-of-fit indices, confirming the validity of the instrument’s measurement model and indicating that it may be an appropriate tool for assessing teamwork competence among peers for university students in the Basque Country.

English as a lingua franca discourse in European Union higher education and research policy

The use of English as lingua franca in mainland Europe’s higher education and research sectors has rapidly expanded over the past several decades. Despite these expansions, critics claim that there is a conspicuous absence of European Union (EU) language policy concerned with the use of English as a “contact” language in education and research contexts. This study attempts to assess these claims by conducting a comparative analysis of English as a lingua franca discourse in the policy declarations and communications of two EU actors with remits for higher education and research – the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and the European Research Area (ERA). Using methods that draw on critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics, I compiled specialised corpora consisting of the policy documents published by the EHEA and the ERA over the past twenty years. I then used the corpus analysis tool Sketch Engine and a reference corpus of general EU discourse to assess how often and in what ways language policy was considered. The analysis reveals intra-institutional conflicts in how language is conceptualised between policy actors and across policy portfolios in the EU. The findings also confirm the absence of explicit discourse on the use of English in academic and research contexts over the institutional lifetimes of two actors with remits for these sectors. The study highlights the persistence of a “top-down/bottom-up” conceptual gap at the heart of EU language policymaking regarding English as a lingua franca in European higher education and research.

DESIGNING AND IMPLEMENTING APPLIED BACHELOR'S PROGRAM: A COMPREHENSIVE DEVELOPMENT MODEL

Modern education faces the challenge of integrating theoretical knowledge with practical skills, which is particularly crucial for the training of mid-level professionals. Practice-oriented educational programs shorten the adaptation period for graduates and enhance their competitiveness in the labor market. Special attention is given to applied bachelor's programs that combine theory and practice, fostering rapid professional development of graduates. The European higher education system offers short cycles leading to a bachelor's degree. The practical focus of these programs is ensured through partnerships between educational institutions and industry organizations, enabling students to develop the professional skills required by employers. This makes applied bachelor's programs key elements of educational reforms in the EU. In Kazakhstan, applied bachelor's programs have not yet gained widespread popularity due to a lack of regulatory support, but successful pilot projects demonstrate the potential of this direction. These programs integrate theoretical and practical training, approaching education with consideration of real-world functional tasks. The need to adapt educational programs to meet the current demands of the labor market is extremely important for preparing qualified personnel. This underscores the importance of continually improving educational initiatives to develop programs that successfully combine theory with practice and meet the needs of a dynamic economic environment.

Cross-border higher education in Europe and the role of quality assurance agencies

This article discusses the multiple challenges cross-border higher education (CBHE) in Europe faces nowadays, namely regarding the assurance of its quality. The views of a set of European quality assurance agencies are analysed to understand their role in assuring the quality of this type of educational provision. Empirically, the article is based on the material collected through interviews conducted with the responsible for quality assurance agencies from 10 European countries: Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom. The results reveal that almost all quality assurance agencies have at least partial experience with CBHE provision, mainly related to the evaluation of joint-degree programmes offered by European higher education institutions. The cooperation between countries and agencies emerges as one of the main challenges to the development of a common tool to enhance CBHE, which could facilitate the quality assurance process for all stakeholders.

Exploring inclusivity in entrepreneurship education provision: A European study

This paper explores inclusivity in entrepreneurship education (EE) provision. This is an important area of research given the growth in EE provision globally and the intention for it to be a discipline and a competence accessible to everyone. Drawing on data from nine European Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and their respective entrepreneurship programs, our core research question asks: how inclusive are European entrepreneurship education programs, and how might their inclusivity be enhanced? Answering this question could help raise awareness of the need for inclusive EE, identify specific student cohorts who are potentially excluded and help widen EE participation generally. We contribute to the existing body of literature in this field by underscoring the significance of inclusivity in EE programs, proposing an adapted version of an existing inclusivity-proofing tool as a first step for HEIs on their inclusivity journey and offering insights designed to bolster HEIs' EE inclusivity efforts.

Shifting geopolitics of the European higher education space

ABSTRACT Given recent major geopolitical events in the European region, such as Brexit and the launch of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, this article explores recent and under-researched shifts in the geopolitics of the European higher education space, focusing specifically on the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). The analysis is informed by the critical geopolitics approach and relies on interviews with stakeholders in the four countries that established the EHEA (Germany, France, Italy and the UK), key recent EHEA official communications, and a thematic analysis of these datasets. The analysis has revealed three major recent overlapping shifts in EHEA geopolitics: regarding its borders, identity and values. These findings are significant, highlighting the existence and dynamics of the phenomenon of higher education geopolitics in Europe and addressing an under-researched area in the literature on European geopolitics and the role of higher education in it.

Students’ performance and English as a medium of instruction: Do students learn less?

The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) is an EU initiative aimed at harmonizing university degrees and attracting international students and staff. Proficiency in the English language is now regarded as a pre-requisite for all business students. By adopting a quasi-experimental design, this article focuses on the effects that teaching Accounting in English as a foreign language (three groups totalling 52 students) may exert on Spanish students’ academic performance (measured through final exam grades), and compares it to the performance of peers having been taught in their native Spanish language (five groups totalling 70 students), where all groups have the same instructor. The impact of language on the students’ test scores is also considered. The findings show that the group using English as a medium of instruction (EMI) obtained better results, which suggests that, in this research context, the language of instruction does not seem to compromise students’ learning of academic content. Furthermore, the achievement of content regarding questions of a more conceptual nature is not dependent on language skills, which seems to contradict previous research. These findings may help foster the implementation of EMI courses, thereby encouraging both universities and students to partake therein. Suggestions are provided to enhance lecturer involvement, drawing on the lecturer’s pedagogical approach.

Learning mobility in European higher education: How has the Union’s flagship initiative progressed?

AbstractIn 2010, the European Commission set out the development of an economy based on knowledge and innovation as one of the priorities of its Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth. This culminated in the ‘Youth on the Move’ flagship initiative, aimed at enhancing the performance and international attractiveness of Europe’s higher education institutions and raising the Union’s overall education and training levels. Therefore, it is relevant to assess the performance of the ‘Youth on the Move’ initiative via the creation of composite indicators (CIs) and, ultimately, monitor the progress made by European countries in creating a positive environment supporting learner mobility. For this reason, we make use of the CI-building ‘Benefit-of-the-Doubt’ approach, in its robust and conditional setting to account for outliers and the human development of those nations, to exploit the European Commission’s Mobility Scoreboard framework between 2015/2016 and 2022/2023. Furthermore, we incorporate the value judgements of experts in the sector to construct utility scales and compute weight restrictions through multi-criteria decision analysis. This enables the conversion of ordinal scales into interval ones based on knowledgeable information about reality in higher education. In the end, the results point to a slight performance improvement, but highlight the need to improve the ‘Recognition of learning outcomes’, ‘Foreign language preparation’, and ‘Information and guidance’.

Transforming University: digital transition and future challenges for Higher Education

Introduction: When considering future learning environments in formal, non-formal, and informal domains, it is crucial to acknowledge the influence of the infosphere in which we are deeply immersed. Methodology: This study is focused on the concept of "circularity" between theory and empirical research. It uses a combination of research methods to carry out an exploratory and comparative analysis among six case studies/universities from five European countries. The analysis takes a multi-perspective approach and applies the translation model to study the complex translation process in supranational, national, and local policy practices. Results: The research highlighted the similarities and differences between the analyzed cases, and subsequently provided valuable recommendations for political decision-makers and academic institutions to guide the digital transition. Conclusions: From the analysis of dimensions, it is clear that the university system needs to reassess its teaching methods, organizational structures, management strategies, assessment processes, relationships, and competence frameworks in the teaching and learning processes. Discussion: This process can be enhanced by exploring new research paths to propose guidelines and direct political planning, organizational strategies, and teaching practices in the future European Higher Education space.

Teaching about heritage and project desing in the European Higher Education Area: The IACOBUS program

Teaching about heritage and project desing in the European Higher Education Area: The IACOBUS program

How interdisciplinary is it? A new method for quantifying interdisciplinarity in student teams & examination of a large project-based program

ABSTRACT The European Higher Education Area and the US National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine have called on higher education to support interdisciplinary learning. The National Academies recommend evaluating interdisciplinary education against relevant criteria, but beyond listing student majors, institutions cannot easily quantify interdisciplinarity in education. The Rao-Stirling diversity index, which incorporates measures of cognitive distance, is used to quantify the interdisciplinarity of research. This study extends the use of the Rao-Stirling diversity index to the context of higher education to: (1) determine whether it provides a more nuanced measure of interdisciplinarity than number of majors, and (2) to examine patterns in interdisciplinarity across 79 student teams in Georgia Tech’s Vertically Integrated Projects Program (N = 1218). The analysis employed cognitive distances developed in a previous study. Distributions of diversity indexes and enrollment by major were examined across the program, along with visualizations for 4 teams. Results show the Rao-Stirling diversity index provided a more comprehensive measure of team interdisciplinarity, and it indicated higher interdisciplinarity in more teams and in comparatively smaller teams than the number of majors would imply. Indexes across the program were examined graphically and explored through regression. Results indicated that higher interdisciplinarity was associated with smaller team size, implying a possible need for additional support for these teams. The utility of the index in quantifying the interdisciplinarity of teams and in revealing a previously unknown pattern confirm its usefulness within the context of higher education. Limitations, implications for research and practice, and future directions are discussed.

Effectiveness of cooperative, collaborative, and interdisciplinary learning guided by software development in Spanish universities

The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) proposes to enhance active learning and student protagonism in order to improve academic performance. In this sense, different methodologies are emerging to create scenarios for self-regulation of their learning. In this study the cooperative, collaborative and interdisciplinary learning methodologies were compared in Spanish universities. The main objectives were to evaluate their effects in higher education and to explore the relationship between perceived group cooperation and self-perceived ability to work in a group, differences between educational Spanish contexts, educational methodologies and gender. To this end, a quasi-experimental design was carried out. Data analysis included the descriptive metrics, correlations and analysis of variance to evaluate the differences among pedagogical methods, their effects on cooperative learning, teamwork outcomes and gender differences, comprising a total of 229 students in Spain from Psychology, Early Childhood Education, Primary Education and Computer Engineering completed the two questionnaires. Results showed that the highest correlation between perceived cooperative activity and self-perceived ability to work in a group was found among computer science students, especially among women, suggesting that the interdisciplinary learning focused on software tool development may be the most effective methodology to improve teamwork and cooperative learning outcomes. Despite these findings concern only to Spanish universities, limiting the generalizability of results, the interdisciplinary methodology seems promising for improving both teaching quality and teamwork skills. The learning methodologies of interdisciplinary projects may therefore need to be implemented within the framework of cooperative and collaborative methodologies.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF EUROPEAN STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES (ESG) IN THE QUALITY ASSURANCE SYSTEM IN HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

International cooperation in the field of quality assurance is one of the important elements of the Bologna process, which aims to create a European Higher Education Area (EAHE). The main tool in the implementation of this work is the European Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG). The Twinning project on providing support to the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan with the aim of further adapting the higher education system to the requirements of the European Higher Education Area, launched in 2015, provided an opportunity to apply ESG in Azerbaijan's higher education. One of the mandatory results of the project is the preparation of standards and guidelines for quality assurance in accordance with ESG in Azerbaijani higher education (AzST) and the testing of the document in three higher education institutions.

FORMATION OF INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN THECONDITIONS OF UKRAINE'S INTEGRATION INTO THE EUROPEAN HIGHEREDUCATION COMMUNITY

The article summarizes the results of scientific work and highlights the experience and approaches to the formation of interpersonal communication skills in the context of Ukraine’s integration into the European higher education community. It is stated that the European integration progress of Ukraine is accompanied by positive changes in the socio-economic development of society and the introduction of innovative changes in the field of higher education, which are aimed at successful political, legal, economic, and educational integration into the European space. It is noted that since 2005, Ukraine has been participating in the Bologna process, i.e. an international initiative aimed at reforming and unifying higher education in the countries of the European area of higher education. It is found that the alignment of the national system of higher education with European and world standards involves the transition to the system of competence education. The classification of integrated characteristics of the quality of training of education seekers and the results of their training, i.e. competencies, is given. It is pointed out that one of the key positions among “soft” skills is occupied by communicative competence, which requires the formation of interpersonal communication skills. The categories of theories of interpersonal communication are defined and characterized. A model of effective interpersonal communication is proposed, which provides for the achievement of individual group and organizational results thanks to a properly adjusted process of filtering perception and cognitive selection, as well as taking into account the situational characteristics of communication. A taxonomy of interpersonal communication skills is given. It is noted that training students of higher education in effective interpersonal communication skills requires teachers with relevant knowledge, as well as guidance and instruction in learning to develop and improve these skills. It is substantiated that for the successful formation of interpersonal communication skills in higher education students of Ukraine, it is necessary to study the experience and implement the practices of the European educational space. Prospective directions for further scientific research on the formation of interpersonal communication skills among students of higher education are outlined.

The underlying signals of efficiency in European universities: a combined efficiency and machine learning approach

ABSTRACT This study explores the critical determinants of efficiency in European Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The contemporary landscape presents a wide range of challenges and opportunities, necessitating unprecedented levels of efficiency. Our primary objective is to unravel the fundamental elements that drive the efficiency of European HEIs. To achieve this, we employ a novel methodological approach, integrating Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) with a Machine Learning technique, specifically Feature Selection. This combination sheds new light on areas previously less explored in DEA, including the intricate interplay among variables. Our empirical investigation contributes to the academic discourse by presenting a comprehensive, multi-country analysis from a multifaceted viewpoint. We assess the efficiency levels of European universities, highlighting the influence of factors such as student fee funding, Ph.D. program intensity, and international mobility on achieving high efficiency scores. The findings of this study have some implications for policy-making, suggesting strategies to enhance the efficiency levels of HEIs.

Children's Literature, Ecocritical Dialogues and Social-Emotional Learning: Developing Integrated Teaching Practices

An innovative primary teacher education course at the University of Padova combines children's literature, ecocritical dialogues, and social-emotional learning (SEL). It aims to enhance educational quality and prepare teachers for global environmental and social challenges. Developed through the Green Dialogues project, it fosters internationalization and interdisciplinarity. This article examines the course's interdisciplinary teamwork, focusing on its design and teaching methods. A case study highlights the benefits of incorporating ecocritical and SEL approaches in climate action teacher education. The course illustrates how children's stories can foster environmental and social consciousness and empathy among students. This approach not only enhances pedagogical practices but also prepares teachers to contribute meaningfully to climate literacy and social equity in European higher education.