Reformy uniwersytetów europejskich. Państwo dobrobytu jako brakujący kontekst badań i polityki publicznej
The Reforms of European Universities. Welfare State as a Missing Context for Research and Public Policy

Summary/Abstract: This paper is focused on the links between reform agendas and their rationales in higher educationand in welfare state services across Europe. Lessons learnt from past and ongoing welfare statereforms can be useful in understanding ongoing and future higher education reforms. Research onreforming European welfare states is a missing context in research on reforming European universities.We intend to fill this gap and briefly explore possible links between these two largely isolatedpolicy and research areas. European universities and European welfare states are closely linked todaybecause they are heavily dependent on public funding – and the competition for public fundingbetween the different claimants to it is on the rise. Reforms of both sectors are also closely linkedto increasing intergenerational conflicts over public resources in aging societies, and pressures onboth sectors are linked to the shrinking tax base, the power of the neoliberal ideology, and changingsocial attitudes to both welfare and universities. Problems of both sectors and solutions to them areincreasingly being defined at a global level through transnational reform discourses.

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