Government, Policy and the Role of the State in Higher Education (Luxembourg)

The University of Luxembourg (UL) is Luxembourg’s national research university, established following the Law of August 12, 2003,revised June 27, 2018.
The creation of the UL took place within a higher education policy that has as a cornerstone international student mobility at the nexus of national educational and migration policies. With implications for larger questions of social integration and economic development of Luxembourg as a hyper diverse society and a strongly expanding knowledge-based economy, the policy debates surrounding the foundation of the UL in 2003 focused on the establishment of an international research university as a means of competing for the best and brightest, regionally, and globally, and of securing human resources to satisfy a booming, internationalized labor market.
Against this background, a major goal of public research funding is to “position the country as a knowledge-based society” and to “foster innovation that will drive sustainable socio-economic development” (University of Luxembourg, focus areas,
2022).