‘Distributed Excellence’ – A model for European HE

The concept of ‘Distributed Excellence’ was developed in a discussion paper at the German and Polish rectors’ conferences in 2017. It has met with support from many other European rectors’ conferences.

From a German point of view the attractiveness of the term can be seen in the results of the so-called ‘excellence initiative’ started at its universities in 2006. Funded by the German federal and Länder governments, the initiative continues with no end date in sight.

Rather than producing a small number of excellent institutions, the initiative showcased the wide spread of research quality across institutions. In 2018, 34 universities in 30 German cities were able to secure funding for so-called research clusters that highlight international excellence in a certain discipline or interdisciplinary field of research.

This confirms that the initiative can provide a reasonably broad canvas for competition between university groups and contribute to regional and social cohesion in Germany. It also leaves space for newcomers to enter the competition.

The German-Polish paper concluded that distributed excellence should be at the core of the European university system, which for economic, social and political reasons cannot be based on a handful of outstanding flagship universities alone. Distributed excellence should not, however, be interpreted as a social assistance programme aimed at bringing all universities to the same level. At its heart is competition.

For the European Union, this means that only those member states and their regions that are ready to invest heavily in research and innovation can hope to be part of a system of distributed excellence. In this context, national excellence initiatives have been proposed in less innovative member states.

Cooperation

A system of distributed excellence can only survive amid fierce global competition if it fosters cooperation and a pooling of resources. The most recent call of the German excellence initiative has permitted the funding of research clusters run jointly by two or three universities. These teams were quite successful, for example, in Berlin.

Cooperation can be simply project based or be something that involves several institutions, involving the development of joint governance structures. Proximity matters. At the EU level, cooperation in the upper Rhine valley (Eucor), in the so-called ‘Grande Region’, and at the Polish-German border have for long been the best-known laboratories for institutionalised international cooperation, addressing the many potential problems created by differing national legislation as well as funding and social security systems.

Fresh ideas are now being discussed in light of Brexit. Brexit has led to many British universities and their EU partners looking for more structured and closer partnerships in order to bridge the widening gap between the UK and Europe and to allow long-established links between institutions to continue to thrive in the future. Joint professorships, for example, are being proposed for researchers who are permanently based in two countries – a demanding model in terms of the professors’ private lives and social security issues.

Macron initiative

Thanks to the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron outlined in his Sorbonne speech of 26 September 2017, there is now a new opportunity for European universities to cooperate on a level playing field across borders with partners inside the EU.

Macron’s proposal to establish some 20 ‘European Universities’ is clearly based on the concept of distributed excellence in the EU and aims to build new stable networks that can cooperate in teaching and research rather than creating new institutions from scratch.

Macron surprised some by assigning universities a key role in the future of Europe – a place they deserve but which unfortunately was never on the mental map of the president of the European Commission in his ‘state of the Union’ speeches of the past few years. In his speech Macron intended to give a new impetus to and provide inspiration for the ailing process of European cooperation.

His idea was taken up by the European Council and then by the European Commission and delegated to the Directorate-General for Education, which was given the task of creating a pilot programme as part of the funds earmarked for the Erasmus+ student exchange programmes.

Though the small amount of money available for the pilot programme – €30 million (US$34 million) – is easy to ridicule, the announcement was met with enormous interest and enthusiasm by many European universities who understand that the creation of networks called ‘European universities’ might in the long run be the starting point for something big that they might not want to miss out on.

In particular it has to be considered a political breakthrough that many EU member states and regions voluntarily declared their willingness to co-finance their participating universities, making it a joint European multi-level political exercise.

In addition, after some hesitation, the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission also agreed to contribute financially to successful networks. In this sense this will be an important political learning exercise in multilevel and cross-ministerial funding.

Potential hurdles

Less reassuring is the fact that these networks are now supposed to be larger than originally discussed, with up to eight participating institutions. It remains a secret how such a large number of international institutions can succeed in creating a sense of ‘ever closer’ institutional cooperation, whether in terms of teaching and learning or research and innovation.

Finally, the members of the networks are supposed to be geographically balanced. This could become the biggest problem for already existing networks with a long history of cooperation because it means they will be under pressure to establish an artificial geographical balance of partners.

It is the political duty of the European Commission to make sure that the selected networks end up including a broad range of EU regions and cities.

This, however, should not be the task of the networks. Rather, the networks should look for a workable set of partners with a good match in their missions and intentions.

Turning small networks into functioning showcases for ‘European universities’ will already be a demanding enough task. It will in addition require changes in university legislation to allow for new legal forms of joint European governance.

Distributed excellence is a promising but volatile guiding star for the European university system that should be developed carefully but not overburdened by too many detailed political regulations.

Gerhard Duda is head of the Brussels office of the German Rectors’ Conference.