Friday 4th January 2013 - Cuts in Southern European universities

Over the years I have done a lot of work, and made a  lot of contacts, in Southern Europe.  I have had spells as visiting professor in Cagliari (Italy) and Zaragoza (Spain) and I have lectured at a number of other Southern European universities, including the Autonoma in Barcelona and the Sapienza in Rome.  I have been adviser to research bodies and to particular projects in Portugal and have connections with a number of universities in that country.

The university world of Southern Europe, both for staff and for students, is often a difficult one.  With no cap on entry numbers, class sizes are often very large indeed; personal contact and support from lecturer to student is virtually non-existent until late in the course; dissertation supervision is sometiems capriciously allocated; and (at least in Italy) the examination system and marking regime, based almost entirely on oral exams, leaves a lot to be desired - not least in terms of student anonymity.  The blame for many of these problems lies with university administrations, and with central governments that are unwilling to tackle abuses of systems since if the dominance of patronage were to be reduced the necessary consequence would need to be an increase in resource.

While the undergraduate experience suffers, the work of research institutes and researchers is often outstanding.  Such institutes are more often somewhat apart from the politics of the main university, and secure their funding direct from government or from foundations.

Today I had a seasonal e-mail exchange with a Portuguese colleague.  She and I share an interest in immigrant settlement in Europe, and we have won research money together in the past.  She works for the Portuguese Open University, but is also head of the migration research centre there - an important team that undertakes work of national and international importance.  We have published together - anyone particularly interested in an interpretation of the contrasting trajectories of thinking on post-colonial citizenship in Portugal and the UK can go to the article below if they are really keen - published (in English) in the major Portuguese journal of migration studies.  For those who want a one sentence synopsis: we suggest that in the UK there was initially considerable openness to citizenship for those who had migrated from the ex-colonies, but that this has progressively been tightened up - whilst in Portugal the opposite has been the case, with accession to citizenship for those from the ex-colonies now being much easier than in the days immediately after decolonisation and independence.

http://www.oi.acidi.gov.pt/docs/Revista_4/Migr4_Art2.pdf
In today's e-mail exchange my colleague reported that the financial cuts in Portugal have resulted in a 35% reduction in all academics' salaries over the past year; that research money is now almost impossible to obtain; and that the whole situation in the university world is bleak. Her son should graduate this year in Economics with little propsect of a job for him in Portugal.  Fortunately he is fluent in English since he was partly brought up in Canada while his mother was at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver: he can look elsewhere. 

I know this Portuguese story is repeated elsewhere in Southern Europe - or will be very soon.  Conditions in Southern European universities will deteriorate, staff will flee if they can, and graduates will look elsewhere.  The individual tragedies add up to a real set-back for higher education, and the wider economy, in countries where the need for research and for skilled graduates is immense.  I do my fair share of grumbling about aspects of educational and higher educational policy in the UK, but we are extremely lucky in comparison with some other places.