Higher Education Cooperation and Networks in the Baltic Sea Region: A Basis for Regionalization and Region Building?

Abstract

This article examines academic cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region. Academic networks are being discussed as indicators of regionalization, but research on the empirical basis is scarce. In the article, the regional networks of 70 higher education institutions in the Baltic States and the German federal state Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania are analyzed. The analysis shows a heterogeneous pattern for the regional higher education area. Regional embedding depends on the focus of an academy and its participation in regional networks. The article concludes with a discussion of options to be considered by regional organizations in order to strengthen regional academic cooperation.

Keywords:

• Baltic Sea Region
• region building
• regionalism
• higher education cooperation
• networks

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Michael Hein and his helpful comments on my previous version of the paper, the anonymous reviewers of this journal, and Nadja Grebe, Tom Kalányos and Sarah Sinram for their translation assistance.

Notes

Notes

1 The article uses the terms ‘higher education institution’ and ‘academy’ synonymously. They include all universities, colleges and other higher education institutions providing higher education on the ISCED-Level 5A. For the UNESCO ISCED-classification, see http://www.unesco.org/education/information/nfsunesco/doc/isced_1997.htm (accessed 18 December 2010).

2 I define the Baltic Sea Region as the region consisting of the eleven member states of the CBSS. These states are Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Sweden and Finland. For Russia, Poland and Germany, only the subnational administrative bodies bordering the Baltic Sea are considered. For a discussion of this definition of the Baltic Sea Region, cf. Ewert 2010, pp. 4–5.

3 Region builders refer to the arguments of social geographer Anssi Paasi, who understands the formation of regional identity mainly via discursive processes and social consciousness (Paasi 1986). University cooperation on a regional level is considered a place of such discursive processes. Even if there are strong national identities and an emerging European identity around the Baltic rim, the region building approach emphasizes the regional identity as a feature of Baltic Sea regionalization (Dellenbrant 1999; Wæver 1997; cf. Laursen 2003, p. 20). My argument is the following: even if it is almost impossible to segregate the effect of regional academic cooperation on the emergence of a regional identity, it is still expedient to analyze the empirical background of this assumption to test the region building approach as one of the most influential social science approaches to explain the Baltic Sea Region.

4 For a definition of ‘soft security’ covering all aspects of non-military security problems and an overview of soft security issues in the Baltic Sea Region see Hubel & Gänzle (2001).

5 From a rational choice point of view, the universities use the networks established before 1990 due to path dependence, which reduces the transaction costs of internationalization (cf. Pierson 2000).

6 For the use of indices in comparative politics and the context of my index in relation to other indices, see Pickel & Pickel (forthcoming).

7 Teachers’ mobility concerns the internationalization of teaching and research. Hence, the indicator refers to both dimensions.

8 The languages are: Russian, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, German, Danish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Swedish and Finnish.

9 The value 0 may imply that there are no international contacts of the higher school at all. However, it can also mean that there is some international cooperation, but with institutions from outside the Baltic Sea Region only. Regarding the research question, the conclusion is the same: there are no regional academic networks which can generate an internal or external benefit as described in Table 1. Values near 1 may also indicate an exclusive regional network if not all ten regional foreign languages are taught at the higher education institution.

10 In 2008, there were 34 higher education institutions in Lithuania, 15 in Latvia, 16 in Estonia and five in Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania with more than 1000 students enrolled. Data for the particular institutions reflect their cooperation in the different dimensions in 2007 (cf. Ewert 2010, p. 76).

11 Due to the assumption that English serves as the lingua franca for academic cooperation in the Baltic Sea Region there might be some reason to calculate the index without the indicator for the regional languages taught at the university. The ranking for the strongest regional embedded higher education institutions of such an index remains the same for Estonia and Latvia. The values range from =0.66 for the Estonian University of Life Sciences to = 0.40 for the Riga Stradins University. In Lithuania and Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania, the ranking changes slightly, with the Vytautas Magnus University Kaunas being the strongest regional embedded higher education institution in Lithuania (=0.50) and the University of Applied Sciences Wismar taking that position in Mecklenburg–Western Pomerania (=0.55). Nevertheless, due to the arguments discussed in Part Three, I use the index for the following correlation analyzes.

12 The allocation of higher education institutions to different groups is mainly based on the names of the academies and the study programs offered. Except for the last category (‘traditional universities’), institutions were allocated to the group which matched the majority of the programs best.