Information gaps holding back HE higher education

Not enough countries are using the information they collect on higher education to improve their universities and the opportunities they offer for students, according to a Eurydice report.

The report, ‘Modernisation of Higher Education in Europe: Access, Retention and Employability’, investigates what governments and higher education institutions are doing to widen access to higher education, increase retention of students, and give guidance to students on entering the labour market (employability). More than 30 countries took part in the survey, including Iceland, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, Norway, Turkey and EU member states (with the exception of Luxembourg and the Netherlands).

Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism, Sport, Media and Youth, commented: “Higher education needs to do more to respond to areas of weakness: for example, we want to encourage more diversity in the student population. Universities need to attract more disadvantaged students, especially people from low income backgrounds, with disabilities, of migrant status, or different ethnicities. As well as inspiring greater diversity, relevant data can help us to better assess the impact of our policy priorities and to alter course where necessary. We must move to a more proactive use of data and feedback to inform decision making.”

The report shows that although many countries collect information about their student populations, data analysis is often not linked to concrete objectives, such as ensuring access of disadvantaged students to higher education, and many countries are unaware if their student population is becoming more diverse.

A significant number of countries do not systematically calculate completion and/or drop-out rates. This includes countries that have policies addressing retention and completion, but clearly lack basic data to analyse the impact of these policies.