Universities in Europe are losing their ¡°monopoly¡± over the production of research, but gaining dominance in the training of PhD students, according to a leading scholar in political economy.

Ove Kaj Pedersen, professor of comparative political economy at Copenhagen Business School, said higher education institutions are now competing with private organisations for ¡°resources¡±, ¡°attention¡± and political influence around knowledge production.

He said this means universities¡¯ main capital is not research, but ¡°training and education of qualified PhDs¡± for the private sector.

Professor Pedersen¡¯s comments were made as part of a keynote speech, ¡°Why the Welfare State was Transformed into a Competition State and How it Changed the Role of Education and Knowledge¡±, delivered at Universities in the Knowledge Economy¡¯s (UNIKE) University Futures conference at Aarhus University¡¯s Copenhagen campus on 15 June.

³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ

¡°Universities are losing monopoly over research; universities are gaining dominance in producing PhDs,¡± he said.

¡°That will be one of the very strong future trends.¡±

³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ

He added that the ¡°progressive vision¡± of countries building a knowledge economy, which he said began in the early 1990s and was developed by centre-left world leaders including Tony Blair and Bill Clinton, is no longer a priority for nations.

¡°I don¡¯t think¡­that this vision is still a dominant wish,¡± he said. ¡°The financial crisis since 2008 put very many visions to bed.¡±

He continued that the global financial crisis meant that countries focused more on survival, which he defined as ¡°stick to what you¡¯ve already established; try to save the political institutions; try to stick to a strategy of globalisation by having international trade agreements; and try to stick to small, piecemeal reforms of your national institutions¡±.

Speaking to ³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ following his speech, Professor Pedersen added that as state funding for universities has dropped in the Nordic countries, privately funded research has increased, and private companies are ¡°hiring more and more PhD students to do research¡±.

³ÉÈËVRÊÓƵ

¡°This is a break away from...universities [mass] producing knowledge and students, and professionals for the welfare state,¡± he said.

¡°When I started working at a Danish university 40 years ago, I can¡¯t remember one single example of privately funded research. It was only an issue from the mid-1990s going forward and it was fought against by every university department and every scholar because they thought it meant loss of neutrality and loss of productivity.¡±

He added: ¡°Private organisations can now apply for funding in competition with universities. This is a challenge for universities.¡±

ellie.bothwell@tesglobal.com