Universities asked to boost jobs and economic growth

Official lays out the higher education priorities for the Juncker Commission.

Balancing professional skills programmes with a traditional academic education will be central to the higher education strategy for the new team of commissioners as they seek to grapple with a Europe still recovering from the financial crisis, according to a senior European Commission official.

Adam Tyson, head of the unit for higher education, modernisation strategy and Erasmus at the European Commission, told an audience at a Universities UK conference that jobs and growth would be the highest priorities of the new Commission headed by Jean Claude Juncker (pictured). The shift highlights how the Commission is increasingly looking at the social impact of economic policies, particularly the importance of getting young people into work.