MEPS STRESS IMPORTANCE OF UNIVERSITIES IN KNOWLEDGE-BASED EUROPE.

• Position: Brief Article

The European Parliament's Committee on Culture, Youth, Education, the Media and Sport has prepared an own-initiative report on universities and higher education in the European knowledge area. The report, which was adopted by Committee on May 23, is the first document that Parliament has produced on universities, and is aimed at opening the way for explicitly supporting universities as training centres for professionals and researchers.Christina Guti?rrez-Cortines (EPP. Spain), who drafted the report, believes that Europe's policy for higher education should be "institutionally oriented" in order for universities to be competitive and to respond to the priorities for a "knowledge-based society" set out at the Lisbon European Council two years ago.Ms Guti?rrez-Cortines points out that much of current research in Europe is currently being done outside of the university environment, and this is causing the traditional role of universities to be questioned. Furthermore, says the rapporteur, mass higher education has placed severe strains on...