Green light for «European MIT»

In this country, the discussion around Norwegian «elite universities» has been largely put to rest. However, the mood on the continent is another, and last week the application date for cities wishing to house the administrative centre for the European Institute of Innovation and Technology – also known as «EIT» – expired. The prestigious project, which has been launched as the European answer to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), is being shaped in a very different way to the American model.

The EIT headquarters will only have 60 employees, of which half will be doing administrative work. The rest will be hired researchers – but they will be doing other things than actually researching. The « researchers» will instead be given the task of distributing a gigantic pot of research funding to projects in which institutions from the whole of Europe can cooperate in a network.

The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) is so far the only Norwegian university intended to be included in the new network university.

A virtual university

The competition to house the headquarters is now between the Polish university town of Wroclaw, the Hungarian capital Budapest, the Spanish Sant Cugat del Valles (a suburb of Barcelona), and the neighboring cities of Bratislava and Wien, which are applying together.

Peter Maassen, researcher at Institute for Educational Research at the University of Oslo, thinks that the Poles will win.

– Poland is a big EU country, and has not been given any EU institutions yet, he says.

– A tiny administrative centre in Poland? What happened to the grandiose plans for a European elite university?

– It is typical of the EU. Formally and legally, the EU does not have the competence to build a regular university. Building a new Oxford in Brussels is something they cannot do, and it would not be politically possible. Too many member countries would see it as a challenger to their own national flagships. That is why the EU has to try new solutions.

– Can you even call EIT a university? Or is it really a European research council?

– It will be a virtual university. In order to call itself a real university, they must at least be able to offer their own EIT degrees. The idea of EIT diplomas for Master’s and PhD students is now shelved, because of resistance from the EU Parliament. Education is still viewed as a national matter in most countries.

– Will the experiment work?

– I am a little skeptical. EIT is supposed to be financed mostly by business, but so far they have been lukewarm when it comes to contributions. It will also be exciting to see whether EIT will be able to give out degrees and diplomas in the future – there is currently no agreement when it comes to this, says Maassen.

Unique

John McDonald, spokesman for the Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth at the European Commission, is more optimistic on behalf of EIT.

– If Europe is to keep up with the US and Japan when it comes to innovation, we need EIT, he says.

– But is the ambition of a new European elite university a realistic one?

– The press is too hung up on previous comments made by the Commission’s President Barroso. EIT is not comparable to MIT. EIT is unique and built on a completely different model.

– Will it be possible to get a degree certificate from EIT in the future?

– Depending on the preferences and rules of each member country, it is possible that certificates from partner universities will include a confirmation of the connection to EIT, MacDonald says.