European University Association (EUA) has issued a monitoring report on public financing in 2015, which points to significant budget cuts of universities in the Nordic countries, as well as the trend of declining public funding of European universities.

EUA monitors the impact of the financial crisis on financing of universities from public funds since 2008. Results are reported through an interactive EUA-online tool which displays the development of financing in various European countries. In Slovakia, there is obvious decreasing trend of these funds as a percentage of GDP, while the overall level of public funds is in a long-term point of view stable, representing about 450 million Euro annually.

The issue is the trend of declining public funding, which forces universities to apply for funding elsewhere. Great expectations were so embedded in European structural funds and Horizon 2020. Some governments are therefore directly set themselves to actively participate in these programs. According to the EUA, the reduced expenditures cause decreasing of quality of university staff and subsequently their chances to be successful in Horizon 2020. Furthermore, Horizon 2020 undergoes changes when its budget is reduced by 2.2 billion Euro.

Find the report here.

Illustrative photo, Source: flickr.com/ Will Folsom