At the start of the academic year Itinera takes a look at the evolution of higher education. Itinera organized a survey of the academic corps: 5000 academics, 1300 respondents. The findings of the workplace of the universities and colleges provide alarming observations.
There are no ready-made solutions for policy reform of political appointments. On the other hand, many other countries use a system of hearings. In those countries, top nominations must go through a parliamentary committee where candidates have to explain their vision.
In their search for smart savings, the Itinera Institute went knocking on the door of several top officials of the federal government. 56 officials formulated no less than 450 concrete and feasible proposals that can make the functioning of the public services more efficient and cost-saving.
Rudi Verheyen has collected and evaluated the increasing criticism in a recent policy note and has come to the conclusion that a number of developments, (structure) reforms and policy decisions very likely have a negative influence on the quality of Higher Education.
Belgium didn’t show a lot of fiscal discipline in the good economic times. Since 2009 our country belongs to countries in the excessive deficit procedure with a strict surveillance of the European Commission. The nonsensical debate about austerity should be overcome.
By giving incentives to early retirement pension systems aggravate the problem of financial sustainability.
The banking crisis remains the severest shock experienced by the Kingdom of Belgium in the post-war period. Its origin lies in the collapse of business trust around the world. Despite this, it holds useful lessons for the Belgian financial system.
There’s a difference between the principle declaration of the European government and the political acts. This difference is also been perceived in Belgium were we don’t hesitate to make choices of which we know that they are disadvantageous for our partners in the EU.
To challenge youth unemployment government policy has to be adapted to local realities. Merely to target European resources to regions where youth unemployment rate is above 25%, is inappropriate.
