“Lisbon with Student Eyes” – ESU survey’s results published
In December 2007 ESU published the survey “Lisbon with Student Eyes” that revealed information on the implementation of the Lisbon strategy on national level, as seen from perspective of the national unions of students. This survey gives ESU the unique opportunity to compare the European Union’s educational policy in the Lisbon Strategy and its actual implementation, as well as it assesses the impact of the reforms on students in ESU’s member countries.
One key finding of the survey proved the lack of importance of promoting social cohesion also in the area of higher education. In fact student unions stressed that instead of promoting equity in higher education, both the European Commission and the countries increase financial barriers for students by implementing or raising their contributions to funding higher education.
Equality of students is not a priority in the Lisbon Strategy
The survey reveals that ensuring equality in higher education is a neglected concept in the Lisbon strategy. There is no indicator or benchmark that would motivate the member states of the European Union to take concrete action to ensure equality of students. The most discriminated groups in European higher education institutions, according to the survey, are students with disabilities, students from low socio-economic background and ethnic minority students.
Do tuition fees motivate students?
The national student unions in the survey confirmed that majority of students in their countries have to take up employment during their study period in order to finance their studies. Professional considerations are of very minor importance in this respect. Moreover the majority of students’ jobs are not linked to the subject of studies, which results in increased workload for students, affecting negatively the quality of their studies. Implementing or raising tuition fees was considered by student unions as an additional financial burden, putting even more students into this risk. Tuition fees, however, are more and more implemented and increased in European countries, using for that also the argumentation of the Lisbon strategy. National student unions from countries with tuition fees could not confirm that the argumentation used to implement tuition fees has ever materialized. There have not been significant improvements in the quality or financial situation of higher education or any improvement of equity in higher education.
“Lisbon with Student Eyes” has interesting conclusions also in the areas of alternative financing; excellence and governance; employability; attractiveness and mobility; and ICT and e-learning. All the analysis and conclusions were based on the answers of 39 national student unions from 33 countries, research of the EU documents and data from official national reports and surveys.
The survey “Lisbon with Student Eyes” was carried out by ESU’s Committee on Commodification of Education during the year 2007 in the framework of the project “Lisbon & students”.
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