THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

- welcomes the European Commission's intention to play a more active role in supporting higher education institutions and the various national, regional and local authorities in implementing the agenda for the modernisation of higher education;
- shares the European Commission's view that total investment in higher education in Europe is too low, and acknowledges that both Member States and, in many cases, regional governments must take responsibility for increasing public investment in higher education;
- urges the European Commission to pay even closer attention, when drafting specific programmes and lines of action, to one of the priorities that it has itself set for Member States and higher education institutions: increasing participation and boosting the "social dimension" of higher education to that end;
- believes that the relevance of higher education can also be seen in the extent to which higher education institutions meet typically regional or local needs, thus making a real contribution to local or regional development;
- notes that a great deal still needs to be done to expand and consolidate opportunities for learning mobility and cross-border cooperation, and thus to increase the added value of such opportunities significantly;
- reiterates that local and regional authorities have key responsibilities in education and training, just as in youth and employment policies, and therefore points out that such authorities have a vital role to play in implementing the modernisation agenda, in full respect of the subsidiarity principle.