The second Euro-Mediterranean ministerial conference on higher education, research and innovation was due to be held in Brdo, Slovenia, last April, but was postponed because of air traffic disruptions caused by Iceland's volcanic ash cloud.

The Union for the Mediterranean's Higher Education, Research and Innovation cooperation initiative is likely to kindle debates regarding what steps should be taken to develop a common higher education and research area.

The larger Mediterranean requires some kind of entity that can help sustain projects in the area. I have a few concerns regarding what this might entail.

The last thing one desires for this area is a new form of cultural imperialism. This can be brought about by spreading the commonplace European mantras of internationalisation, competitiveness and privatisation typical of a neoliberal approach to higher education and lifelong learning in general.

The EU policy discourse is partly an attempt to provide direction for and regulation of universities which have suffered in this part of the world. Many of the shortcomings of southern European universities have been highlighted in the national press of several countries.

In Italy, for instance, the talk has been about reforming what are perceived to be archaic structures. Even universities in the south of the Mediterranean were judged to be in need of reform.

As is often the case in a situation when an inability to create jobs (a job crisis) is presented as lack of adequate skills on the part of the labour force (a skills crisis), educational institutions are made the scapegoat. They are also popularly viewed as the potential panacea for many existing ills.

Pressure is placed by the Breton Woods institutions, namely the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, on these countries, such as Morocco, to reform their higher education and vocational sectors.

These situations make it attractive for Europe to extend its higher education thinking to influence countries from the rest of the Mediterranean.

Part of this thinking is strongly connected to what is known as the 'Bologna process'. This refers to the harmonisation of different universities to make the various credits, modules and qualifications provided recognised and transferable throughout Europe.

There is a danger that standardisation and harmonisation become key words as the so-called 'Bologna gospel' continues to be spread to the rest of the region within the framework of Euro-Mediterranean relations. Would these countries be allowed to develop their own institutions on their own terms and in harmony with their own cultures, geographical position and social and economic needs?

This would be the challenge for any cooperation in this regard, where countries from different sides of the region, EU members or not, are allowed to participate in a process of exchange and policy 'reinvention' (not a cargo-style transfer) on their own terms.

Simply extending the dominant EU discourse across the Mediterranean would be just another form of Eurocentric domination and invasion. As with the situation concerning the market-driven higher education discourse in Europe, I would caution against any project that promotes guidelines characterised by a 'one-shoe-fits-all' approach.

One ought to guard against this proposed Mediterranean higher education project becoming the vehicle for the expansion of European influence and direction into north Africa and the eastern Mediterranean, with universities in these regions simply becoming institutions that mirror the image of their European counterparts.

Such a form of 'cultural invasion' would also give rise to the suspicion that one of the main purposes is to facilitate the process of enticing potential labour power and students towards Europe and its universities. European higher education institutions are being called upon to engage in internationalisation, which entails attracting students from outside the EU fold to EU universities. European universities are being called upon to compete with their US counterparts in attracting foreign students from outside the EU.

The US enjoys the lion's share in terms of attracting foreign students. Foreign students from outside the EU are meant to enhance, on a world level, the stature of universities and other higher education institutions within the EU.

They are also intended to provide the cash that enables European universities to compete with their US counterparts, such fees becoming a significant source of revenue and foreign exchange. Non-EU Mediterranean countries can prove to be a valuable and sizable market here.

EU communications also promote the idea of diversification. This includes having different types of universities: premier league universities dedicated to research, teaching universities and regional development universities.

Do we need a separation of this kind? Should teaching be separated from research and international research contributions from regional development issues, so crucial to many parts of the Mediterranean?

I consider quite welcome a higher education project that enables universities and higher education institutions to contribute effectively to surrounding communities - local, regional or national. They can do so without losing their international vocation as producers and disseminators of knowledge.

The other major issue that emerges from the EU discourse, as well as the larger global neoliberal discourse, is that of privatisation and the market.

Large supranational organisations, such as the EU, promote this market-driven regulatory function. In this scenario, public and private boundaries in higher education, and other areas for that matter, are blurred. The state engages in policy-making and other action together with other agencies and organisations, including NGOs (governance rather than government), either through loose networks or through partnerships.

Partnerships in this proposed Mediterranean area might involve agencies from outside, and possibly from the EU itself, working in tandem with national states.

Privatisation is also a feature of a scenario in which the State helps to create or sustain, or both, a higher education market as part of a market for lifelong learning in general.

This has been occurring in many countries of the Mediterranean for quite some time. It is a characteristic of what is being referred to as the 'competition state'.

In many countries of the Mediterranean, privatisation of higher education results in lecturers, who are underpaid in public institutions, boosting their income by teaching part-time in private universities to the detriment of research.

Most of their time is taken up by a double teaching shift. It is a way by which the State helps sustain the private competition sector, underpaying its employees in the public sector and allowing the best qualified to be hired by the private sector on a part-time basis and being paid part-time rates.

This strikes me as being a 'win-win' situation for public and private employers, but much to the detriment of research and possibly quality as a result.

What contribution can a Mediterranean higher education and research project, such as that being contemplated, make to assist academics, ensconced in southern Mediterranean higher education institutions, to remedy this situation?

How can it help them get rid of economic and political shackles, to become an integral and visible part of the world academic research community?

Have your say

If you wish to contribute an article or would like a particular subject to be tackled in the Education section, call Davinia Hamilton on 2559 4513, or e-mail dhamilton@timesof malta.com.

This article has been published on the European Institute of the Mediterranean website www.iemed.org.

Peter Mayo is professor and head of the University's Department of Education Studies, Faculty of Education. He is president of the Mediterranean Society of Comparative Education (2008-2010).