Are EUI alumni becoming a transnational elite?

Abstract

One of the manifest or latent aims of the European University Institute is the formation of a Europeanminded or ‘transnational’ academic elite, oriented not just to their own EU Member State. This article seeks to offer initial evidence as to whether the EUI has reached that aim. Our data are not perfect, but they are the best available at the moment. At a later point in time we hope to have collected better data. They are gathered by the EUI administration as a by-product of Alumni activities. Since the EUI has reached its 25th anniversary, the life course of its graduate students should have progressed sufficiently to make an analysis of their occupational activities now worthwhile. However, one should realize that the occupational careers of EUI graduates are not finished and a major part have just started their career, so this is only an interim picture which does not give final results. Nor do we have comparable data for national graduate schools in EU Member States so as to evaluate the results properly. With these caveats in mind, these data might be useful as first evidence.