Session A: Changes in University Organisation and Structure
Yves Epelboin: Approach to new technologies of Information and Communication for Higher Education: the Cultural paradigm

4. A model for Europe?

What can each of us learn from the experience of others in European countries? The scale of the support for IT is about of the same dimension everywhere thus it is of interest to share our failures as well as our successes because we all act with the same constraints. European experiences are more profitable than American ones. European countries share a number of common views about the social organization of the society. Although it is not the most advanced part in the organization of the European Community common strategies for the social organization of life and for education exist. This has some implication on the perception and the use of NTIC in all countries belonging (either today or in a near future) to the European Community.

Let us now think about what model means for Europe.

Differences in the national cultures mean differences in the approach for education. For instance German attitude towards technology is different from the French one. French Cartesian approach to science and humanities mean a rather skeptical attitude towards Information Systems and a much less enthusiastic approach to its use than in UK. Differences in the structure of the State mean differences in the structures of Higher Education. In Germany there exists an agency for each land and a number of decisions as well as the politics are made at this level. France is very centralized and the degrees of autonomy of each university, especially the financial rules to which the institution must obey, are quite strict. They are much more liberal in UK. Thus different organizations and rules mean different strategies and solutions. For instance it is not uncommon, in France, to unify a number of universities to develop together a common product: this has been done for management software with some success. In Sweden the Ladok did the same. It did not work in UK where universities have chosen individual solutions. On the contrary, individuality seems to have been a key factor in UK universities, to successfully develop e learning in a variety of fields and sell their products abroad. This examples show that the French, the Swedish model might be of interest to other countries for management software development, the UK one for the development of e learning.

The differences in the cultures are also visible in the way Information Systems services try to work together. Briefly speaking one sees more a tendency to work together, to establish formal or informal organizations to share their experience and establish common projects in the Northern part of Europe than in the South. This is clearly visible in the organization of EUNIS. Delegates in the General Assembly are nominated by national wide organizations for most Northern countries, by individual universities in the South. Having the opportunity to exchange information through EUNIS, this has encouraged the countries where such organizations did not exist to form one. Tomorrow this will certainly facilitate the communication inside these countries but also exchanges at a European level.

A more delicate field is to write common courses among universities. The way the same course is taught differs according to the national cultures. To illustrate this point I may give a personal example: I am teaching numerical mathematics to physicists at the level of the third year. My course is based on a very well known book, “Numerical Recipes, the Art of Scientific Computing » by Press and others. This book presents a practical approach avoiding long and sophisticated theoretical explanations. A number of my colleagues, although they use it in their research, are quite reluctant in using it for teaching. They prefer a more theoretical presentation. I am convinced that this course would better fit UK students than french ones who share their professor‘s attitude because they have been educated in France. Thus it is not obvious that a course written in a country would be well accepted in another. However attitudes will certainly change in the future since students will more and more travel to others universities. All European universities would benefit if the European Community would just pay to translate courses from one language to another and the catalogue that each of us would be able to offer to his students would be greatly enriched.

Despite its diversity, Europe is a real community and common attitudes and models are shared among the different countries. Universities are mostly funded by the State, either locally or nationally. Exchanges among universities, researchers as well as students, are growing rapidly. Network associations exist at a European level. Brussel encourages changes. Despite the diversity of cultures, organizations and approaches, one always finds countries with common attitudes for a given problem.

We all have the same challenge: to do as well as the US with much less funds. Thus we must work together to solve this challenge. There is an urgent need for common actions at the level of Information systems centers.



© This publication and its compilation in form and content is copyrighted. Every realization which is not explicitly allowed by copyright law requires a written agreement. Especially, this holds for reprography and processing / storing by electronic systems.

EUNIS Proceeding DTD Version 1.0
HTML - Version create: Fri Mar 23 14:32:32 2001