We are used to see the university
as a centre of higher education. I remember a research done in 2000, together
with an international team for the European Institute of Romania,
regarding 4 topics in the agenda of the Romanian universities: education,
training, research and consulting.
But, what is happening in Euro-Brussels
from the university point of view? Most of the big universities understand how
the system functions and they actually maintain a “permanent representation” in
the capital of Europe. I remember a meeting I
had some years ago with the Director of the International Relations Department
of the University
of Madrid. He explained
why his university has 10 people permanently on staff in Brussels: “EU research funding programmes
contribute millions of euro every year to our university. It is normal to have
people to implement and manage the relationship especially with the European
Commission”.
Given that the EU has little
competence in field of education, most of the universities therefore focus
their lobby activities in Brussels on the research policies. This is the
priority of the European University
Association as well, representing the interests of more than 800
universities.
There are 2 more associations of
universities with permanent representations in Brussels: the Network of Universities from the Capitals
of Europe and the Santander Group European
Universities Network.
The University of Madrid, the
university with the biggest number of students in Europe, is not only
university with physical presence in Brussels: the University of Helsinki has
support from the Representation of
Helsinki to the EU; the University of Ljubljana can count on support from the Slovenian Business and Research Association;
and the University of Parma is supported by the regional representation of the Emilia-Romagna Region.
In my opinion the universities
have a very good relation with the local and regional representations in Brussels, but they don't
manage to have a common agenda to the Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
To summarize, the motto of
universities in Euro-Brussels combines “academic seriousness” with “financial pragmatism”.
Dan LUCA
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