More student funding needed, report says

Policies to increase university enrolment that does not provide sufficient funding per student undercut the innovative potential of countries, says a report published today.

The report, University Policy Needs to Beef Up for Europe to Be More Innovative, is the second in a series on higher education policies from Empower European Universities, a Dutch-based non-profit group that assesses the progress made by EU countries in higher education.

According to the authors, the economic crisis and the rapid growth of universities has put substantial pressure on their spending allocated per student. In the last two years, university enrolment rose in the Netherlands, Switzerland, Germany, Malta, Luxembourg, Belgium and Spain, the report states.