School of Law

European Higher Education Institutions under EU Law constraints

Planned Submission Date: 30 September 2012

European Integration in the field of Higher Education represents a puzzle which mirrors the tensions between economic and social integration in Europe. Despite the fact that the EU does not use the Community method of integration in this field, higher education seems yet another area where the forces of directly applicable Treaty provisions may deconstruct national policy concepts.

At the same time, higher education institutions (HEI) in many Member States have been subjected to national policies aiming to commodify their "products" and attract research funding that will provide "full economic costing".

These developments beg the question whether the tasks performed by HEIs will be yet another example of a "service publique" that will be transformed through the seemingly inevitable pulls of internal market law or whether Member States will be able to maintain their tasks as a "non-economic service?" Will HEIs perpetuate a status where they are not (fully) governed by EC Law?

These questions form the background for the research, in which an in-depth study of the structure of funded research in HEIs in three Member States of the EU will be undertaken in order to analyse the practical and legal problems arising from the increasing pressure to compete for research funding at levels that cover the economically calculated costs.

In particular, the constraints which may arise from EC law as a result of increasing such activities will be looked at. The specific research question of this work will therefore be "What impact do economic constraints, especially those coming from EC law, have on research in HEIs?" It will also look at the consequences this development might have on eg. the variety of subjects offered in HEI’s teaching activities.