Activities of Marie-Christine VERGIAT related to 2011/2294(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on modernising Europe’s higher education systems PDF (235 KB) DOC (146 KB)
Amendments (23)
Amendment 6 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas the economic crisis, and its consequences in terms of the imposition of austerity measures and budget cutbacks, demographic developments, rapid technological change and the resulting demand for new skills pose serious challenges to, and call for far- reaching reforms in Europe’s higher education systems which should not have a detrimental effect on the quality of education;
Amendment 8 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
A a. whereas universities have been an important resource in Europe for almost a millennium, and the importance of their role in the progress of society should not be reduced to their contribution to the economy and their development should not solely depend on their ability to adapt to the economic needs of the current economic model;
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
A b. whereas universities encourage individual autonomy and creativity and have a very important role in the promotion of knowledge, Member States should therefore make every effort to ensure that higher education is widely accessible without discrimination particularly on social, economic, cultural, racial or political grounds;
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
A c. whereas education is the responsibility of Member States and it is important to ensure financial support to higher education institutions, first and foremost, through the provision of adequate public funding;
Amendment 11 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A d (new)
Recital A d (new)
A d. whereas the creation of a European Higher Education Area is a significant development that could contribute to European integration while respecting the diversity of education in the various EU Member States and the goals of higher education in relation to society; whereas the European Union has an important role to play in strengthening this area while drawing on the efforts and cooperation of Member States in this regard;
Amendment 13 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas individuals must re-think, throughout their careers and, must widen as well as update their skills and knowledge at an ever faster rate and a combination of general and specialised knowledge offers the best guarantee to help individuals to succeed in this regard;
Amendment 17 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas more than 21 % of young people in the EU are unemployed; whereas significant cutbacks to education budgets by several Member States, combined with a constant increase in education fees, have led to a massive increase in the number of students who are vulnerable, in debt, and have to resort to paid employment to fund their studies;
Amendment 20 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas in the EU in 2010, unemployment of tertiary education graduates stood at 5.4 % compared to more than 15 % among those with only lower secondary education; whereas, on the other hand, it is taking longer and longer for the majority of those graduates to find secure employment, and more often than not, they first have to complete several internships and accept temporary employment contracts or work for which they are overqualified;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas only 200 of Europe’s 4 000 higher education institutions rank among the top 500 in the world; whereas, however, rankings are often unreliable, and fail to reflect the diversity of pathways and programmes across the various countries and often only take English language publications into consideration in their ranking criteria;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1.Calls on higher education institutions to integrate lifelong learning into their curricula and adapt to a student base that includes adults, non-traditional learners and full-time students who have to work while studying; calls, therefore, on Member States to consider freezing registration fees since, during this period of economic and social crisis, such fees constitute a barrier to access to higher education and equal career opportunities for the majority of people;
Amendment 41 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2.Invites higher education institutions to take into account the needs of professionals who need to update their skills in a short space of time; insists that higher education institutions can play a key role in responding to the need to secure careers through the development of courses that meet the needs of workers, thereby facilitating a return to education for workers faced with job losses or the end of an employment contract, as well as voluntary mobility for other workers and promotion on the condition that the programmes lead to secure and well-paid employment;
Amendment 47 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3.Acknowledges the wide variety of higher education institutions in Europe; calls on the Member States and these institutions to develop clear, integrated, pathways that allow learners to progress from other types of education into higher education and to change between different tracks and types of institutions; emphasises, however, the need to maintain the diversity of educational pathways and programmes, teaching methods and university systems within the European Union; considers that a national framework of qualification is necessary to that end, while at the same time promoting the mutual recognition of degrees and qualifications across all Member States;
Amendment 49 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Emphasises that academic staff and students, as well as their organisations, need to be involved in the modernisation of higher education institutions; snotes that in the countries where the Bologna Proceses that excellence s been implemented, there has been an overall decline in the representation of the university community within decision- making both research and teaching needs to be rewardeddies to the benefit of economic actors, in particular large corporations; stresses that excellence in research and teaching needs to be rewarded in order to promote individual and collective liberation; stresses, therefore, the need to strengthen the teaching of traditional subjects (humanities, hard sciences, research);
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. EndorOpposes the Commission’s initiative to launch a multi-dimensional tool for ranking of higher education institutions based on characteristics such as the quality of teaching, regional engagement and knowledge transferthe view that such a tool would fail to take account of the diversity of educational pathways, programmes, and linguistic diversity in university publications; is of the view that there is a serious risk that this type of classification system would place institutions in competition with one another at European level instead of fostering cooperation centred on acquiring and rewarding knowledge, research and development;
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Demands that the attractiveness of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) for students and researchers from all over the world be promoted and that collaboration with non-EU countries in educational matters be strengthened; calls, therefore, on the Commission and the Member States to strengthen current programmes and create new programmes for cooperation and research, based on mutual interest, with universities in countries outside the EU, with particular attention to those located in conflict zones, in order to facilitate access to higher education and to train students and researchers, without discriminating on economic, social, racial or political grounds; calls in particular for the establishment of partnerships between universities in the EU and universities in the Maghreb countries and Palestinian territories;
Amendment 82 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Points out that public funding is of primary importance for higher education; emphasises that investment in higher education in Europe is crucial to overcoming the current economic crisis; calls on the Member States and higher education institutions to develop innovative funding mechanisms; opposes, therefore, significant cutbacks to education budgets in several Member States, as well as the constant increase in education fees, which is leading to a significant increase in the number of vulnerable students, who are more and more often in debt, and have had to resort to paid employment to fund their studies; takes the view that this situation impedes the objective of increasing the number of students and young graduates, as well strengthening social aspect of education as a public service;
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Reiterates that higher education has the potential to promote social inclusion and upward social mobilitysocial advancement; calls on Member States and higher education institutions to widen access forto students from all social backgrounds and to recognispromote multiculturalism and multilingualism as a, which are fundamental values of the EU that needs to be fostered;
Amendment 105 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Calls for the promotion of best practices that help higher education institutions react efficiently to changes in labour market demands and facilitate young people’s transition from higher education to the labour market;
Amendment 110 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11.Welcomes Takes note of the quality framework for traineeships that the Commission intends to propose; emphasises the success of the ‘Erasmus placements’ that give students the opportunity to gain work experience abroad, and insists that this action be continued under the new programme with particular support for young people from the most disadvantaged socio-cultural backgrounds;
Amendment 113 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Highlights the need to track graduates’ employment outcomes to measure how well higher education reforms have actually respondsed to labour market demands; welcomesthe objectives in relation to improving employability; takes note, therefore, of the Commission’s commitment to improving the availability of such data;
Amendment 145 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18.Stresses that continuous public investment in the link between education, research and innovation is necessary; stresses the importance of further supporting and developing the European Institute for Innovation and Technology with its knowledge and innovation communities;
Amendment 163 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20 a (new)
Paragraph 20 a (new)
20a. Stresses the need to preserve the diversity of educational pathways, teaching, teaching methods and university systems within the European Union; is of the view that a national qualifications framework is needed to that end while also promoting mutual recognition of degrees and qualifications in all the member countries;
Amendment 165 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21.Welcomes Takes note of the Commission’s proposal to create a financial instrument to help students secure funding for a Masters degree outside their home Member State; demands fair and transparent access to the scheme throughout the Member Statescalls for the suspension of this proposal since it takes the view that this initiative involves a very high risk that students from disadvantaged backgrounds and students from countries in Central-Eastern Europe will find it more difficult to access higher education and their chosen specialisation as a result;