Empower European Universities (EEU) was a think tank based in Maastricht, the Netherlands that undertook research aiming at assessing the state of higher education policies in Europe. The organisation was launched in 2010, and terminated five years later, in 2015.
EEU was instituted as a foundation under Dutch law. It was founded on the basis of a manifesto signed by twenty former ministers for education and higher education experts in Brussels in June 2010.[1][2] EEU was directed by a board of four members: Jo Ritzen (chair), Tessa Blackstone, Bálint Magyar and Eduardo Grilo.[3] Its staff was typically composed by a few experienced researchers and by a number of part-time student assistants. Furthermore, EEU could count on a network of about 30 experts on higher education (typically one for each country covered by the assessment) collaborating as volunteers.
EEU received substantial financial support from Educational Testing Service (ETS) and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), and logistic support from the United Nations University - MERIT.[4]
EEU produced two assessments of European higher education (one of which was published by one of IZA's academic journals,[5] the other as a working paper[6]) and a number of other conference and technical reports.[7] The underlying idea of EEU's research work was to combine the analysis of available data with the feedback and qualitative information supplied by a network of 30 experts on higher education. According to observers of the European higher education landscape, EEU's aimed at "bringing Brussels out of the comfort zone" in terms of higher education policies, in particular by increasing funding and institutional diversity in this sector.[8]
References
edit- ^ "Maastricht treatise: bleak future for Europe's academy without GDP boost | Times Higher Education (THE)". timeshighereducation.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-07-28.
- ^ "EUROPE: Empowering European universities - University World News". universityworldnews.com. Retrieved 2016-07-28.
- ^ "Team members » Empower European Universities -". empowereu.org. Retrieved 2016-07-28.
- ^ Stichting Empower European Universities at Maastricht - Report on the annual accounts 14 December 2010 until 31 December 2011, http://empowereu.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/2012_Financial_Statement_EEU.pdf.
- ^ Higher education and economic innovation, a comparison of European countries, IZA Journal of European Labor Studies 2013, 2:24, http://www.izajoels.com/content/2/1/24
- ^ http://empowereu.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/FINAL_EEU_2014_v2.pdf [bare URL PDF]
- ^ "Publications » Empower European Universities -". empowereu.org. Retrieved 2016-07-28.
- ^ "ScienceGuide". scienceguide.nl. Retrieved 2016-07-28.