International Educator - May/June 2012 - 55
Weathering the Storm The Impact of the Financial crisis on Europe’s Higher Education Sector B Y d aV I d t o B e n K I n illustration composed usinG elements from shutterstock. euro: shutterstock academia. In 2007, after garnering a PhD from MIT and a postdoctoral fellowship from the Harvard School of Medicine, Outeiro declined more lucrative career alternatives in the United States and returned to Portugal, the least-developed country in Western Europe, to help build the country’s scientific prowess. He is now a leading researcher at the University of Lisbon and its affiliated Institute of Molecular Medicine, where he researches the molecular basis of neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. In October 2011 the Portuguese government announced a sharp, 19.5 percent, cut in governmental support for higher education and social education. The cuts were caused by austerity measures instituted in response to the country’s financial crisis and reversed years of strong investment by the Portuguese government to help its higher education sector catch up. Outeiro says he is an optimist by nature. Nonetheless, he believes that there is little doubt what the budget cuts will mean for his work, and for scholarly pursuits throughout Portugal, in the years ahead. “This will make it hard to maintain things at a good level and all the investments in previous years will be compromised,” says Outeiro. “We won’t be able to get the latest equipment and the best researchers.” Recently, Outeiro hedged. He supplemented his position at the University of Lisbon with a position as a professor and the director of the Department of Neurodegeneration and Restorative Research at Germany’s Göttingen Graduate School for Neurosciences, Biophysics, and Molecular Biosciences. “I came there before the crisis, but it was a fortunate time, as it allows TiAGo FlEMiNG oUTEiRo is A sUPERsTAR in Portuguese M AY + J U N E . 12 InternatIonal educator 55