strength of this ‘social contract’ can be construed as a measure of democratic adhesion to the education structures in place. Trust in institutions is therefore key to social inclusion and to political reforms (Algan and Cahuc, 2007) – and yet level of trust in the education system is not systematically measured in elaborate transnational surveys, such as the European Social Survey and the World Values Survey. SIM Europe can thus help us provide new data about this phenomenon.
What can be drawn from the data is that in all countries, excluding Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Portugal and Spain, governments have made efforts over the last year to improve the education system – or have not done so because reforms were carried out prior to that year. The question is broad, and it should therefore be no wonder that only four countries are judged to not have put in place policy reforms. However, very few of the reforms in the field of education have improved the level of trust in the education system to deliver reform, according to the answers. Only Denmark, Ireland and Malta have unambiguously made successful (or very successful) reforms in this regard. The respondent for Ireland associates success with its National Strategy to Improve Literacy and Numeracy (2011 – 2020), whose outcomes among the weakest in reading are significant. Also, the Delivering Equal Opportunity in Schools scheme, implemented in 2005, is showing incremental improvements in terms of retention until the Leaving Certificate (the final examination in the Irish secondary-school system). The targets for social inclusion could be extended and improved. The expert commenting on Malta mentions the need for better completion rates of compulsory education, a more relevant curriculum and the strengthening of home-school links.
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(e.g. France, Portugal and the United Kingdom) is inequality. Education policies are often considered to be increasingly socially selective, with no significant impact on the existing inequalities – except when they actually contribute to reinforcing inequalities. Within the UK, however, devolution to four different governments in the education area (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) adds variety to the general impression: England is singled out as a government reluctant to acknowledge lack of trust and inequalities, focusing rather on overall performance in global university rankings. However, the introduction of the ‘pupil premium’ additional cash for schools could yield results in terms of achievement among the poorest children.
Increasing Tertiary Education Attainment:
The EU 2020 target for tertiary education is that at least 40 percent of 30- to 34-year olds should complete third-level education by 2020. The target seems to be within reach, as the rate of tertiary education attainment in the EU-28 was 36.9 percent in 2013; however, there is great variety among member states, from 22.4 percent in Italy to 52.6 percent in Ireland (Eurostat, 2015d).Higher education massification is recognised as being at the heart of a knowledge-based ‘smart growth’ economy. Attainment levels need ‘to meet the projected growth in knowledge-intensive jobs, reinforce Europe’s capacity to benefit from globalisation, and sustain the European social model’ (European Commission, 2011). There is indeed an economy-efficiency argument in favour of widening access to higher education, holding that the role of human capital is becoming more important in global competition or, in other words, that ‘countries cannot afford to waste talent’ (Barr, 2012: 301). But there are social implications, as well.
What can be drawn from the data is that some countries witnessed policy initiatives in this area last year, including Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Ireland, Latvia and Malta. Only Ireland and Malta have fairly successful policy outputs. A good Irish policy tool, according to the Irish respondent, is the Equality of Access policy, which links access to higher-education targets to funding. Malta resorts to European funds to provide more opportunities for post-graduate studies.
It is striking that experts for Cyprus and Poland comment that reaching attainment targets is not an issue. While Cyprus (with 47.8 percent in 2013) has already met its national target of 46 percent, Poland (with 40.5 percent in 2013) has achieved the European threshold but not its national target of 46 percent. For Portugal and Spain, increasing tertiary attainment appears to be an important issue, but one that has not been the object of significant policy initiatives.
On this evidence, France, Portugal and the United Kingdom appear to be among the least successful countries in developing successful policies to increase their higher-education attainment rates (although one expert points out that there have been numerous policies in this area in the UK). Comments on France by the relevant expert state that the promotion of competition between universities is an impediment to greater access to higher education.
Enhancing Employability:
The target defined by the strategic framework for education and training for 2020 is a share of at least 82 percent of employed graduates (20- to 34-year-olds having successfully completed upper-secondary or tertiary education) having left education 1–3 years ago. The 2013 figure for the EU-28 was 75.5 percent, and it ranged at the national level from 40 percent in Greece (where the crisis certainly affected the figure) to 92.2 percent in Malta(Eurostat, 2015a).
Employability, generally defined as the acquisition of skills, understandings and personal attributes which make individuals more likely to gain employment and be successful in their chosen occupations, is a salient issue in relation to both social cohesion and social inclusion since success in increasing the level of skills benefits the economy, the community and the individual. As such, it relates to another EU policy area: To measure social inclusion, the new poverty indicator used at the EU level for the 2020 strategy takes into account not only a monetary threshold, but also work intensity.6
What can be drawn from the data is that Bulgaria, Cyprus, France, Ireland and Latvia definitely took policy initiatives in this direction last year. In Portugal, the issue is considered important, but no policy initiative has taken place in recent times. Only in the Czech Republic and Malta is this aspect of education not considered a political issue.
There was no perception of highly successful policy for any country. Fairly successful employability, increasing the likeliness of reaching the EU target, was assessed in Bulgaria, Denmark and Ireland. Cyprus was the object of mixed reviews from two experts; there are indeed government initiatives to increase graduates’ participation in labour markets, but in many cases the impacts are only short-term. Unsuccessful and very unsuccessful policies were flagged in France, Greece, Portugal, Slovenia and the United Kingdom. In the case of Greece, one expert highlighted how employability-related policies are made to conform to austerity policies (e.g. reducing the number of students in the social sciences).
Promoting Learning Mobility:
The Europe 2020 target set by EU ministers relating to learning mobility is that 20 percent of those graduating in the EHEA should have a study or training period abroad. Mobility constitutes a key objective of the Modernisation of Higher Education Agenda for 2020 (‘promoting mobility of students and staff and cross-border cooperation’).Mobility has been a core pillar of the construction of Europe from the outset, from the free movement of workers to the free movement of persons today. It is a key role attributed to education policy in the European treaties (‘encouraging mobility of students and teachers’, Art. 165.2 TFEU). The EU has budgeted for a vast extension of programme mobility through Erasmus+ (whose budget has increased by 40 percent in comparison with the previous budgetary framework). Learning mobility is not easily measurable, but the EU has recently launched a Mobility Scoreboard, a monitoring tool to identify and remove obstacles to studying and training abroad as part of wider efforts to help young people gain the skills and experience they need to increase their employability – and, as such, it is a
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policy instrument targeting social inclusion at the European level (European Commission, 2014a). It examines key aspects, such as information and guidance about mobility opportunities, portability of student aid, knowledge of foreign languages, recognition of studies abroad and support for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
What can be drawn from the data is that more than a third of the 17 countries witnessed initiatives in this area last year or before (Bulgaria, Denmark, Ireland, Latvia, Malta, Poland and Spain). But apart from in Denmark, Ireland, Malta and Spain, no success has been recorded. One plausible explanation is that it is too early to evaluate changing national patterns of mobility following these reforms. Extension of mobility to vocational educational and training is interpreted as being part of the Maltese success, according to the respondent for this country. Comments from one expert on Denmark point out the potential issue of the emphasis on company training in the vocational education, which limits opportunities for mobility abroad.
Although mobility is considered an important policy issue in the Czech Republic, Portugal and Slovenia, no governmental effort has been formally assessed in those member states.