Europe’s schools and universities need propelling into the 21st century – as quickly as possible. Rote learning and rigid curricula are out. To succeed in the global knowledge economy, students need a raft of skills including digital literacy, as well as competence in maths, science, technology and foreign languages. And creativity and critical thinking are vital, says Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth.
But there’s a problem: Europe’s schools and universities are steeped in centuries of pedagogical tradition, and not geared to churning out multi-disciplinary graduates who think laterally and creatively. “We are a four out of ten”, in terms of completing that modernisation, Vassiliou told Science|Business. “We still have a long way to go.”
The good news is that the European Commission is making education, research and innovation a top priority. Under its budget proposal for 2014 - 2020, spending on education, training and youth would jump 73 per cent to €15.2 billion – the highest increase of any policy sector – while research and innovation would get €80 billion, up 46 per cent. “All European leaders without exception realise that the way to exit this crisis stronger is via education, innovation and research,” says Vassiliou.
Engendering soft skills
The money will be spent on a broad sweep of new and existing programmes - to modernise schools, bolster creativity, improve teaching quality, advance student mobility, promote campus entrepreneurship, encourage collaboration between education and industry, and support lifelong learning.
One key goal is to double the number of young Europeans studying and training abroad, from 400,000 per year to 800,000. Such programmes expose students to the soft skills needed to live and work in a foreign culture, says Vassiliou. A related proposal: a low-interest loan guarantee fund through the European Investment Bank that would help 50,000 students a year to finance a masters’ degree abroad.
But can bigger budgets and new programmes remake Europe’s educational culture? And if so, how quickly? Andreas Schleicher, advisor to the secretary general at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) on education policy, is concerned that Europe’s core countries, including France and Germany, are not moving quickly enough, and says policymakers need to take more a more radical approach.
Schleicher, author of the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (the Pisa study), points to Shanghai as a model. Its students ranked first among those from 65 cities and countries in reading, maths and science in the most recent Pisa study. Among Shanghai’s innovations: the best teachers and administrators are sent to the worst schools.
Breaking with the past
Vassiliou insists Europe too, is working on programmes that break with the past. In 2010, she launched, “Youth on the Move”, an initiative designed to reduce the school dropout rate, help young people gain high-level skills and qualifications and help them land a first job.
She points to a recent OECD study which shows that, even if education systems provide high levels of skills there is, “No guarantee of success in the job market if countries don't have the right innovation-friendly policies in place to back them up.”
The biggest challenge in Europe, Vassiliou believes, is bridging the gap between industry and academia. Governments need to create the kind of environment that nurtures innovation and leverages a skilled workforce. As European leader in the Pisa study, Finland is a role model both for secondary education and universities, with Aalto University, created from a merger of three existing institutions, held up as a pioneer in multidisciplinary learning. “Finland decided [25 years ago] education is key – and that’s something we all now realise,” says Vassiliou.
To promote a culture of entrepreneurship, the EC in 2008 created the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) that links universities and industry across key technologies. The following year, the EIT started three cross-border Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICS) focused on innovation in climate change, clean energy and information technology. Acting as catalysts, the KICs now have 30 start-ups in the works.
“It is the first experiment we have in creating a triangle of research, industry and education. In the past, education was the missing partner. Now they all realise it has to be included,” says Vassiliou.
Under the EC’s 2014 – 2020 budget proposal, the EIT would receive a substantial increase in funding, which, Vassiliou says, could help bring the kind of step-change in attitudes that Europe needs. Six additional KICs are planned between 2014-2018
Industrial doctorates
This year the Commission is launching two pilot programmes also designed to break down the barrier between academic research and enterprise. The “European industrial doctorate” aims to give doctoral students the opportunity to work within a company, and to bring companies closer to the research universities – a new element of the 15-year-old Marie Curie programme which has supported 50,000 researchers in Europe. The second programme, EU Knowledge Alliances, will help create partnerships between researchers and industry to bring innovative ideas to market.
Vassiliou is also determined to improve Europe’s grade for literacy and digital literacy. A recent OECD study showed that nearly 17 percent of European students lack the skills to move easily through the digital environment and most students are not able to use information technology in a critical and creative way.
Likewise, many of Europe’s educators are not equipped to take advantage of digital technology. “There is a clear implementation gap when it comes to using information and communication technology (ICT) in formal education,” Vassiliou says. “Even now, with so much unemployment, especially youth unemployment, we have about 2 million vacant jobs, because we don’t have the ICT skills to fill [them].”
Digital tools
To tackle that problem, the education commissioner is launching an initiative in 2012 called “Creative Classrooms,” to encourage teachers to experiment with new pedagogical methods. “For me digital capabilities are among the most important tools we have, because beyond providing a basic competence, they are a tool for learning more,” Vassiliou says.
With so many initiatives underway, how will Vassiliou measure the education commission’s success? “When I see our first grads starting their own businesses,” she says. “This will be the real indication that we are ready to make Europe more competitive and attractive in this globalised world.”
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