Jo Ritzen wint boekenprijs
De Academie van Wetenschappen in Korea heeft het boek vande oud-minister en voormalig UM-voorzitter gehudigd als ‘the bestinternational book of 2011’. Het werd daartoe opgenomen in hetprogramma van de Academie voor “Supporting the selection anddistribution of outstanding books”.
Yoon en Ritzen – voortaan door zijn vrienden plagendtoegesproken als Kim Jong Jo – winnen hiermee een prijs van 15miljoen Won, zo’n €10.000. Ritzens analyse in zijn boek isgebruikelijk scherp “The present position of Europe’suniversities is something like a bronze Olympic medal: very wellrepresented among the world’s top 200 universities, but almostabsent in the top 50.” U vindt het als pdf in zijn geheel
Zijn executive summary geeft aan waarhij met name op mikt:
“European universities are underexploited – economically,culturally and socially – for a stronger Europe. There is an urgentneed to alter the context for European universities so that theycan strengthen the European competitive position through economicinnovation, increased social cohesion and a more vibrant culturaldynamism.
The present position of Europe’s universities is something like abronze Olympic medal: very well represented among the world’s top200 universities, but almost absent in the top 50. Society’sfeelings about universities are likewise lukewarm, sometimesecstatic but also often critical on the ivory tower image.
Europe has to choose to go for gold in a world competition with astrong US system of Higher Education and newly emerging runner upslike China and India. The unbalanced demographics in the world -with a virtually constant supply of graduates in the developed Westand a potentially fast increase in the number of graduates indeveloping countries – pose both new threats and new opportunitiesfor European universities.
Europe can cash in on the opportunities by innovating its highereducation, taking into account the lesson learned on effectiveeducation for an international labour market, on the valorisationof knowledge but also on the matching and selection of students.The context needs to be changed to make European universities moresuccessful:
– The Bologna process has to be denationalized with European-wideaccreditation and quality control.
– The organization of universities should be moved on frombureaucratic to innovative.
– The finance needs to be rebalanced so that the public budget cutsof the past decades can be met by private sources.
The 2008/2009 economic crisis (never waste a good crisis) is anexcellent opportunity for a paradigm shift all over Europe topromote excellence together with emancipation of the new Europeansin universities. European universities: yes, they can do so muchmore for Europe.”
