The Differences in Higher Education in Europe

In European countries, higher education means something entirely different than it does in America. The mission of universities in Europe is, above all else, to pass on knowledge and educate students who want to learn purely for the sake of learning not to gain an advantage in the future job market.

But recent events may force a shift from this idealistic view of an education to a more pragmatic one that reflects the current status of Europe in the world economy. The demand for highly skilled and trained workers has never been higher than it is currently, and Europe has never been farther behind competitors on the world stage in fulfilling this need with its university graduates.

Amid fierce and angry protests, many European universities are beginning to show signs that change is forthcoming. It comes as a shock to most Americans that universities in Europe have not historically charged tuition for students, especially when the cost of attending an average private college in the U.S. is hovering around $35,000 and growing larger every year. It was only recently in the late 1990s, in fact, that state schools in a European country, Britain, even began to charge tuition. Even this relatively small amount, capped at $5,500 a year, was protested intensely before its introduction. Britain still has a higher education system that is respected worldwide, making it an outlier in a continent where the dropout rate is about 40%.

Spending on higher education in all other European countries, though, has not been a priority. For instance, Germany, Italy, and France spend only 1.1 percent of their gross domestic products on higher education, compared with 2.6 percent for the United States. The United States' treatment of higher education in the twenty-first century should serve as a model for European countries. Instead, it is still viewed by many in the area as a classic example of what should be avoided.

So why has there been so much resistance? Cross-cultural psychology offers an answer. Europeans' refusal to change the structure of its university system epitomizes its long-held feeling of ethnocentrism. The psychological basis for this ethnocentric style of thinking is an upbringing during which culture-specific behavior is constantly observed. Over time, this culture will be viewed as normal and correct. Consistent with this belief is the idea that other cultures are inherently inferior to one's own, even when there is concrete proof of the opposite.

This is precisely what has happened in Europe over the last few decades when world events have rendered its higher education system, in many ways, obsolete.
Europe's resistance to reform, when faced with overwhelming evidence that the system is failing its students and the economy, indicates deeply rooted ethnocentrism.
European countries must increase their investment in higher education and make changes to the fundamental university system on which the education is based. There have been proposals this year to make these changes happen; there have also been political candidates who made these reforms a focus of their campaigns. If these are dismissed by the population, then one would have to be a European ethnocentrist to believe that the continent is succeeding