The Role of the Universities in the Europe of Knowledge

created on 17 Mar 2009

Summary

This Communication seeks to start a debate on the role of Universities within the knowledge society and economy in Europe and on the conditions under which they will be able to effectively play that role. The knowledge society depends for its growth on the production of new knowledge, its transmission through  education and training, its dissemination through information and  communication technologies, and on its use through new industrial processes or services. Universities are unique, in that they take part in all these processes, at their core, due to the key role they play in the three fields of research and exploitation of its results, thanks to industrial cooperation and spin-off; education and training, in particular training of researchers; and regional and local development, to which they can contribute significantly. The European Union therefore needs a healthy and flourishing university world. Europe needs excellence in its universities, to optimise the processes which underpin the knowledge society and meet the target, set out by the European Council in
Lisbon, of becoming the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion. The European Council in Barcelona recognised this need for excellence, in its call for European systems of education to become a “world reference” by 2010.

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