The scorecard will be a major tool both at the national level
and at the individual institutional level, serving as a reference
for national governments wishing to benchmark their progress on
governance reforms vis-à-vis other systems, whilst also helping to
raise awareness among universities of the differences that exist in
Europe. The scorecard will also help record trends and progress on
a regular basis, thus effectively contributing to the consolidation
of the European Higher Education Area by improving comparability
and promoting modernisation of the sector.
The starting point for the scorecard will be the findings of the
forthcoming EUA Autonomy study, an in depth comparative study of
university autonomy across 34 countries based on more than 30
different indicators and focussing on four main areas of
institutional autonomy:
• Organisational autonomy (e.g. academic and
administrative structures, institutional leadership, governance
structures)
• Academic autonomy (e.g. capacity to define
study fields, student numbers, student selection, and the structure
and content of degree programmes)
• Financial autonomy (e.g. the ability to raise
funds, own buildings, borrow money etc)
• Staffing autonomy (e.g. the ability to
independently recruit, promote and develop academic and non
academic staff)
While it is generally accepted by universities and indeed many
governments that increased autonomy is necessary for
universities to modernise and respond to new demands being placed
on higher education, perceptions and terminology regarding
institutional autonomy vary greatly in Europe. To compare systems
reliably, more systematic mapping of universities' autonomy and
accountability through a set of common indicators is
necessary. Comparability is crucial as autonomy is often
linked to concepts like institutional performance, excellence,
quality and efficiency.