UNESCO Science Report 2010

Confesso-vos que ainda não li com a atenção devida, mas fica aqui o UNESCO Science Report 2010. Saltando muito rapidamente para as conclusões sobre a ciência europeia, temos as seguintes reflexões:

- Europe must have a sufficient number of researchers who must be well-trained and mobile;

research infrastructure is vital to facilitate research in all areas of S&T;

- excellent institutions of higher learning and research are needed;

- knowledge sharing across research bodies – including the private sector – is a key prerequisite for success;

- co-ordinated research programmes must form a glue for dispersed national efforts;

- last but not least, Europe must be open to the world in its STI efforts.

E sobre o processo de Bolonha e a comparação sempre perigosa EUA-Europa:

The Humboldt model advocates a unity of teaching and research at the institutional, personnel and student levels. Under the Humboldt model, academic training is hardly conceivable without some involvement in research, with the consequence that acquiring a university degree can take many years. Of course, the expansion of university systems to provide tertiary education to growing numbers of students, combined with the need for greater efficiency and cost-effectiveness, has inevitably led to changes. The rhetoric emerging from many discussions on universities, however, still reflects an attachment to the Humboldt model, despite the fact that it may not be sustainable.

A comparison with the US higher education system makes this abundantly clear. A good starting point is the now well-known ranking of universities worldwide by Shanghai Jiatong University. There is no need to discuss here in detail the merits or demerits of this ranking, or for that matter of any ranking. What matters is that the criteria used for the Shanghai Jiatong ranking are based on research capacity. When it comes to research, all ranking systems would demonstrate that Europe spreads its resources relatively thinly compared to the USA.

E, para finalizar:

Europe thus needs to foster greater diversity among its universities and other institutions of higher learning. Many of the reforms European countries have witnessed over the past decade have diversification as their goal, sometimes explicitly, more often implicitly. Diversification has several components, including the concentration of research funding. European countries are still very reluctant to embrace this. Just as the EU’s Framework Programmes have relied in many ways on creating networks and other forms of collaboration to create supposedly a critical mass, so too do most national programmes and policies.

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