How do/should we address challenges in higher education in Eastern Central Europe? Who is “we”?

The reflection regarding whose responsibly it is to address challenges in higher education appears to be as yet underdeveloped in Eastern Central Europe. Traditionally, it is understood (“expected”) that the main responsibility with regard to basically everything in higher education resides with the State. It should be recognized that there are different responsibilities at different levels (system level or institution, for example), and that various actors and stakeholders have to assume different responsibilities. This includes for sure public authorities and policy makers at national, but also at local level. It also includes members of the university leadership and other university representatives as well. Across the region (but with exceptions), it appears that there is not enough engagement and participation of university leaders in policy making. The prevailing attitude is rather “comply”

(with directives from the top) or “lament” about the lack of State support, or about the strong hand of the same evil State. Is it possible to overcome this situation? Would it be possible to stimulate more involvement of universities and university leaders themselves,

47 assuming that such involvement would help in better addressing regional challenges? Are there institutional arrangements that could help at national level, such as rectors’ councils (inactive in some countries of the region and very weak in others), or perhaps national higher education councils)? Is it conceivable and would it be effective to put in place trans-regional initiatives that would stimulate institutional participation? These are possible avenues to pursue.

Another question to be asked when trying to clarify who should address challenges in Eastern Central Europe is about any remaining role for international intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations in the region. Some of them, like the World Bank or the Open Society Foundations, to give just two examples, played a key role during the early transition in higher education. By now, they have basically left the region.

The question how to address challenges in higher education in Eastern Central Europe is obviously a complex one. It could be stated that the European policy framework remains potentially extremely useful. Universities in the region should continue to seek to take advantage of this framework, despite pressure from the State in some countries to move away from the European model or ideal. What Europe can offer is significant funding, but also other resources, including possibilities for trans-European cooperation, information and data on current realities and trends, access to professional expertise, instruments, mechanisms, tools, or useful pan-European platforms (such as for quality assurance), etc.

Institutional cooperation possibilities, in turn, be they bi-lateral or multilateral, represent a source for generation of new ideas and also operational opportunities for institutions from Eastern Central Europe. Apart from defined resources and operational opportunities, the European policy framework for higher education created a new possibility for universities to assume more freedom, including freedom from their governments. The Bologna Process, for example, helped to loosen the strong grip on universities of the State/national public authorities, and this is highly relevant for our part of the world, which has a long history of repressed freedoms, including in higher education. Universities should attempt to take advantage of these new possibilities to exercise freedom (mainly in form of university autonomy, on all its relevant dimensions), even in face of governments and politicians that are trying recently to limit this space again. More direct participation and engagement of higher education institutions appears to be an important means to use in pursuing the objective of addressing challenges in the region.

There are other means or approaches, possibly related, that could be considered as well.

One of them has to do with institutional and policy innovation. We have seen, for example, that universities in countries like Poland, working in partnerships within the sector but also with others outside higher education, have been able to create innovative mechanisms and policies in support of internationalisation and have been able to overcome in this way the dismal attitude and lack of involvement of the central State authorities in this area.

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One last comment about public support for higher education, which is not to be taken for granted anymore. Universities in the region do very little (many of them basically nothing) to cultivate and sustain public support. It would be important to promote awareness among universities regarding this matter and also dedicated and effective practical action to address it.

5. Conclusion

If the realities and challenges discussed in this paper are real, is there hope for higher education in Eastern Central Europe? While the current situation can give ground to a certain degree of pessimism, there are also important reasons to maintain a commitment to developing and improving higher education in the region. There are many ways in which this could be envisaged and put in practice; there are many actors and stakeholders involved, as there are many particular, local and national issues. At the same time, it appears that there are also regional specificities, and indeed regional challenges. One particular way to address them might be through regional initiatives and certain efforts at regional coordination. A standing conference on higher education in Eastern Central Europe and a dedicated network of experts for this region appear to be an interesting and promising experiment in this context.

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