The economic crisis does not spare the University

The European University Association (EUA) has published a report on the impact of the economic downturn on higher education in the European countries. Many national governments, forced to adopt austerity measures, have cut public financing and rationalized the way those funds are distributed among the universities. This is the case of the UK, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania. The EUA underlines that these often draconian cuts could have negative effects on the quality of education in the short and medium term, mainly because of the reduction of teachers when an increase of new students is occurring. Yet, other countries, such as France, Germany, Norway and other Nordic countries, decided not to cut university funds and, on the contrary, to increase resources for education.