NEW COMMISSION/EDUCATION/MEDIA : VASSILIOU TO FIGHT FOR MORE GENEROUS EDUCATION BUDGET.

Androulla Vassiliou's first priority as education commissioner will be to try to match education and skills to employers' needs, she told MEPs, on 14 January, to better target the jobs crisis. "The times have passed when low-skilled people could find work," Vassiliou warned deputies in the Education and Employment Committees. "Those who have been worst hit by this crisis have been young people and the less-skilled ones." Answering calls for more money for education and training, she said, "Of course I am committed to doing my best to increasing the budget. I will really fight for more budget in education and training, but it's not just up to me." Limited by the fact that education is a national competence, she said she would push for higher spending by local and regional authorities and the business community in the areas of technology and science. "My conviction is that we must invest carefully in key areas to have a lasting effect on the lives of all Europeans, today and tomorrow."

Her statements resonated with MEPs, who are well aware of the plight of the 80 million Europeans with only basic skills. A major asset to her portfolio will be the European Institute of Innovation and Technology, which aims to open its doors to its first band of postgraduates in the autumn. "If we connect learning to businesses, then the business world will be more interested in investing in education," she said. "One of our objectives was to attract businesspeople and industry to complete the [knowledge] triangle and we have succeeded." But she said an overhaul of the universities' ranking system was needed if the institute and higher education in general were to serve the needs of students. "Universities have to be modernised. Most university rankings are based just on research. We have to take other factors into consideration, such as teaching methods, internationalisation and outreach to communities," she insisted.

Mobility for researchers and teachers, her second priority, was also brought up by several MEPs. The Cypriot commissioner-designate held up Erasmus Mundus, the Marie Curie programme (which hands out grants for postgraduates under 35 and is now within her purview) and the Comenius programme (which promotes cultural exchanges at primary and secondary level) as success stories in the bid to get more students to travel.

She gave little in the way of new ideas, however, pledging repeatedly to strengthen and support existing plans. She did say she...

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