Key-note of Hans Vossensteyn at the VLIR seminar on the Impact of Flemish Universities

On Wednesday 20 December 2017 the Flemish Interuniversity Council (VLIR) organised the seminar “The Impact of Flemish Universities” (http://www.vlir.be/seminarie). First, Graeme Blackett of “BiGGAR Economics” showed that every public Euro invested in Flemish universities leads to a Gross Value Added (GVA) of €6. Hans Vossensteyn broadened the scope of the discussion to the wider “relevance of higher education” in terms of personal development, sustainable employment and active citizenship. Based on the preliminary results of an international comparative study for the European Commission, he demonstrated that many governments actively stimulate HEIs to become more relevant for students and society at large. Various policy instruments – such as regulations, funding, organisational arrangements and information – aim to achieve wider benefits such as thoughtful, creative, innovative, healthy, happy, active and productive students, graduates and citizens. Many of such aspects can be measured with existing indicators. However, only few indicators are collected regularly in several countries using standardised definitions. As such, the real impact of universities is likely to be substantially higher than the pure economic value. To better know the extent, governments and universities should better monitor the effectiveness and impact of policy instruments and activities of universities.