Governance Reforms in European University Systems by Karsten Krüger Martí Parellada Daniel Samoilovich & Andrée Sursock

Author:Karsten Krüger, Martí Parellada, Daniel Samoilovich & Andrée Sursock
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham

2.4.3.3.2 Ensuring Equality of Treatment Between Disciplines, Structures and Territories

The heterogeneous aspect of the French HE&R landscape, being the legacy of a long and complex development, nurtured a whole range of inequalities, whether perceived or real, between territories, structures and disciplines. But we remain positive that it may be possible to achieve a certain degree of equality and trust thanks to a proper system of redistribution and allocation of funds – subject to three conditions.

The first condition is total transparency of information about funding and resource allocation, which can find along the way some resistance, especially from the people having no interest in revealing their entire budget management.

The second condition is to clearly define the goals in terms of equality and to provide adequate and scalable indicators to bring everyone on the same page. Without this, there is a high risk of seeing the never-ending cycles of white promises and unproductive (being ungrounded) complaints.

Justice cannot be taken as a levelling principle of blind ‘equality’. Obviously. But truth be told, no justice can be achieved if inequalities or the existing differences are not accurately known, defined, explained, repaired and/or (in some unavoidable cases) accepted. And no justice can be done in terms of equal and fair treatment if the plans for decreasing inequalities or levelling differences levelled (unless legitimate) are not made, managed, shared and reviewed, by all the members of the gathering or cluster, a process that should be encouraged and guaranteed by the state itself, with indicators allowing a tracking of changes through time.

The third condition is to take into consideration that equality is both an objective and measurable situation, but also a value, that is to say a social construct between players: depending on the situations, there can be an important gap between the two. In other words, we should prevent ourselves from being either too mechanical in our data collection and reviews or too sensitive to subjective opinions (necessarily biased). The balance is delicate, but it is necessary to ensure a fair, objective and equal treatment of all partners based on the clearest picture possible of grounded situations.

Therefore, the problem becomes less the one of choosing between a criteria-based system and a general funding scheme set in stone, thanks to a contract. The problem is rather more how to think and manage the intertwining of both. To respond such a need for delicate balance, the criteria-based system will be the analytic framework, a support to decision-making processes or strategic planning. The contract will be the tool, dedicated to programming, planning and adjusting the differences and specificities of the gathering. For we have to remember that the goal is not to achieve an automatic system of blind criteria and indicators, homogeneous and zero balancing the understanding of what truly happens on the ground.

Another equality aspect rises from an ongoing major French change: the one of territorial division. When the law insists that ‘The State is the keeper of HE&R equality in the entire country’, it brings equality between localities as a fundamental state mission.

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