The Americanization of European higher education and research

Lex Borghans and Frank Cörvers
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Sessi Tokpavi () and Bertrand Candelon

No 51, Research Memorandum from Maastricht University, Maastricht Research School of Economics of Technology and Organization (METEOR)

Abstract: Over the past two decades there has been a substantial increase in the mobility of students in Europe, while also research has become much more internationally oriented. In this paper we document changes in the structure of research and higher education in Europe and investigate potential explanations for the strong increase in its international orientation. While higher education started to grow substantially around 1960, only a few decades later, research and higher education transformed gradually to the American standard. Decreased communication costs are likely causes for this trend. This transformation is most clearly revealed in the change of language used in research from the national language, Latin, German and French to English. Smaller language areas made this transformation earlier while there are also clear timing differences between research fields. Sciences and medicine tend to switch to English first, followed by economics and social sciences, while for law and arts only the first signs of such a transformation are currently observed. Th is suggests that returns to scale and the transferability of research results are important influences in the decision to adopt the international standard.

JEL-codes: A22 A23 I21 I23 O15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-01-01
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

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Related works:
Chapter: The Americanization of European Higher Education and Research (2010)
Journal Article: The americanization of European higher education and research (2010)
Working Paper: The Americanization of European Higher Education and Research (2009)
Working Paper: The Americanization of European Higher Education and Research (2009)
Working Paper: The Americanization of European higher education and research (2009)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:unm:umamet:2009051

DOI: 10.26481/umamet.2009051

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