Spain, the International Campus of Excellence Initiative. One of twelve case studies produced as part of the project on structural reform in higher education

This study analyses how different types of system-level (or ‘landscape’) structural reforms in higher education have been designed and implemented in selected higher education systems. In the 12 case studies that form the core of the project, the researchers examine reforms aimed at: • Increasin..

A Roma European crisis road-map: a holistic answer to a complex problem

This contribution explores the adequacy of EU action with regard to the Roma. The expulsion of large numbers of Roma individuals, accompanied by other discriminatory practices and forms of hostility, exclusion and violence against the Roma across Europe, has brought the attention of the media and policy makers to Roma issues to a greater extent than ever before during the last decade. The range of problems still afflicting the lives of many Roma individuals nowadays is extremely wide, well researched and profusely documented. This contribution leaves aside issues related to free movement and EU citizenship, thus moving the debate beyond the narrow framework of the ‘migrant Roma’. This contribution considers the wide range of relevant EU competences in this field, and assesses how comprehensive and appropriate the EU’s approach to Roma issues is. The analysis combines legal instruments, policy papers, and case law, draws from legal and non-legal literature, and integrates considerations of a social, economic and cultural nature. In the process, this contribution considers themes that cut across several strands of the EU’s Roma policy, including fundamental rights, intercultural sensitivity, the limits of the ‘integration model’, and issues of enforcement, monitoring and funding. The logical narrative developed puts together the key jigsaw pieces that currently contribute to an EU Roma policy, and clearly identifies the limitations of the present state of affairs. Finally, this contribution interrogates the trends underlying the development of the EU Roma policy and puts forward a range of recommendations

Report: EU à la carte? Chapter: European energy security in the age of Brexit

The concept of EU à la carte is an interesting one. For some, it invokes images of scattered states,unreconciled policies and unworkable objectives. For others, it suggests areas of complementarity that ultimately makes collaboration possible. EU à la carte options wax and wane according to the health of the overall EU enterprise, and the suitability of key mechanisms like integration and governance. When the latter encounter problems in providing collective solutions, then the benefits of flexible à la carte options are routinely suggested. But à la carte operations are risky and complex. As a non-uniform method of European integration, they operate via centrifugal philosophies which generally make a virtue of the peripheral, rather than a necessity of the centre. Can one strike a balance between the deep demands of integration, and a pragmatic use of looser approaches? The EU may need to. Collective approaches typify the EU’s pioneering approaches to climate change, but energy security remains defiantly geopolitical in nature. Whilst energy security continues to be determined by national foreign policy dynamics, à la carte mechanisms may be a helpful way of bypassing the current stasis in Europe’s energy mainframe. Could à la carte go even further? Some of the software and hardware, and even decarbonisation goals of the European Energy Union (EEU) could be accomplished in the short term by allowing Member States to achieve initial goals at different speeds and varying methods. This has the advantage of getting the general structure of the EEU completed, as well as retaining the inputs of non-EU Member States (and those swiftly heading for the exit). But achieving the security of the EEU is a tougher battle, requiring solidarity rather than symmetry. Energy security is the minimum objective, but it requires a maximum of input. À la carte mechanisms may work, but it would have to do so in a way that achieves genuine regional balance and between vulnerable states and the strategic imperatives of the EEU as a whole

Attribution-based motivation treatment efficacy in an online learning environment for students who differ in cognitive elaboration

Attribution-based motivation treatments can boost performance in competitive achievement settings (Perry and Hamm 2017), yet their efficacy relative to mediating processes and affect-based treatments remains largely unexamined. In a two-semester, pre-post, randomized treatment study (n = 806), attributional retraining (AR) and stress-reduction (SR) treatments were administered in an online learning environment to first-year college students who differed in cognitive elaboration (low, high). Low elaborators who received AR outperformed their SR peers by nearly a letter grade on a class test assessed 5 months post-treatment. Path analysis revealed this AR-performance linkage was mediated by causal attributions, perceived control, and positive and negative achievement emotions in a hypothesized causal sequence. Results advance the literature by showing AR (vs. SR) improved performance indirectly via cognitive and affective process variables specified by Weiner’s (1985a, 2012) attribution theory of motivation and emotion