Tuition fees ‘taboo’ leaving European universities ‘exposed’

A “taboo” around introducing or increasing tuition fees is contributing to the struggles of many university systems across Europe, a new report has warned.

The paper from the Policy Institute at King’s College London brings together essays from leading higher education figures across England, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland – identifying some of the “common roots” that formed them, and some of the similar challenges they face today.

Alison Wolf, professor of public sector management at King’s and one of the editors of the report, described the post-war period for Europe as a “golden” one for universities.

However, as state-backed expansion continued across the rest of the century, she writes that the sector “incurred large new financial obligations” and wider economic growth has been sluggish.

“It is increasingly hard to believe that simply increasing the number of graduates will deliver both high salaries for ever-increasing numbers of people, and a boost to economic growth,” Wolf says in the report.

The report, published on 11 May, warns that many sectors across Europe are facing declining per-student funding, increased global competition, and a shrinking graduate premium.

Despite these issues, many European nations on the continent have been reluctant to increase tuition fees – one chapter said that France has “firmly entrenched a moral taboo” on higher fees.

“Given the state of our public finances, tuition-free education eliminates the only real option for funding competitive salaries for teaching and research staff,” the report says.

As a result, junior lecturers in France with a decade of training can expect a gross salary of about €30,000 (£26,000) a year.

Wolf, a former adviser on skills and workforce to the UK prime minister, told Times Higher Education many leaders feel the tuition debate is “damned if you do and you’re damned if you don’t” – and are even envious of the parts of the UK that have introduced fees, in some ways.

“I don’t think that most other European countries think that our model where we are so dependent on fees is particularly attractive.

“But they definitely feel that the fact that we’ve sort of bitten that bullet and said no, we can’t afford to have really high expenditure per student…very many people in senior positions in European universities would agree with that.”

Wolf said part of the problem is that European universities are conservative by nature, with leaders who feel “threatened by change”.

Despite increasing fees far beyond any other nation in Europe, English universities have still found themselves reliant on international students – and with these students becoming caught in the immigration debate.

Although Wolf said much of Europe is far less dependent, overseas students in the Netherlands have become a politically hot topic as well – being blamed for the housing crisis.

And in a continent where states are more involved in higher education than the US or the UK, for example, Wolf said the “culture wars” of Europe are a risk.

“Many countries in Europe have governments which can interfere if they want to, really heavily. They can do so far more easily than they can in this country.

“When systems feel under threat and you’ve got a set of institutions which are very expensive and where students are going [out] and can’t get a job, the reflex action of politicians is actually not to step back but to step in.”

For example, in Sweden, one of the chapters warns that universities have become increasingly aware of how “exposed” they are to direct political governance.

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com