Abstract:

In this work, we have analyzed university excellence in the European context, with special emphasis on the very different observable categorization among European university centers based on indicators such as the number of publications, their level of impact among the university community or the number of inter university collaborations at national or international level. Although one of the objectives of the EHEA (European Higher Education Area) is the establishment of an integrated network of European higher education systems, homogeneous in terms of excellence, our work still makes a huge difference when comparing universities quality standards between different European countries and even supranational areas.

Obviously, quantifying objectively and individually the performance of a university center, given the high number of variables that determine its standards of quality, research or internationalization, is a complex task, since Higher Education is a multidisciplinary phenomenon, by which, we have used as an objective parameter of European university quality the CWS Leiden Ranking corresponding to the year 2018, from which 324 universities from 27 European nations have been selected. As a result of our study we have obtained as a shallow analysis of this index, grouped by countries and supranational areas, it shows a clear conclusion: European university excellence continues to be concentrated in the north-central European countries while those in the South and East, present a manifest difference in their quality standards.

From this work it can be concluded that the single framework in European higher education will not ever be completed until the substantial differences between quality standards are finally overcome or, in other words, most likely the desired social-economic convergence between European nations. It will not be achieved until it reaches the convergence of the minimum inter-university quality standards.

Keywords:

European Higher Education Area, Convergence, Bolonia Process, University Rankings, University Excellence.