Getting academia to work well together is hard enough even within national borders, but collaborating internationally is often even harder. A paper from the European University Alliance (EUA) outlines some of the key barriers to effective transnational collaboration.

“This briefing aims to shed light on the link between European and national system reform discussions in the context of the European Universities Initiative and to structure the debate about remaining system-level challenges related to transnational university cooperation in Europe. It also provides some considerations for the future,” the authors explain.

Effective cooperation

The paper highlights that some problems, such as the differences in how tuition is managed, are far from new and there have been efforts to create a single market for higher education for 20 years or more. There has also been the creation of the European University Alliance program from the EU, which aims to foster greater collaboration in the sector.

Accreditation is the first barrier identified in the paper, with this making joint study programs difficult. The authors highlight a European system developed in 2015 to enable joint accreditation, but the implementation of this is disjointed, with many nations failing to fully apply it.

There are also significant differences in how course credits are transferred and the degrees themselves are structured between countries. This hampers any attempt to offer joint programs. Language presents another obvious issue, with many countries struggling to provide English-language programs.

There are also issues around charging for programs, as in many countries a bachelor’s degree is free, whereas in others it’s set by the universities and in others by the state. This can create issues when it comes to transferring between institutions.

“The European Universities Initiative is moving into a new phase. As the pilot phase comes to an end, it is time to take stock of the impact it has had thus far at various levels,” the authors conclude. “Aside from changes at the level of the participating institutions, from the start the European University Association (EUA) has focused on the potential of the initiative to help further policy reforms that benefit the wider university system.”