Parliamentary Assembly Assemblée parlementaire

RECOMMENDATION 650 (1971)[1]

on the creation of a "European Television University" (European Inter-University Institute for the development of multi-media distant study systems)

The Assembly,

1. Recalling its report on university exchanges and the European University (Doc. 2831) and Order No. 308 (1970), in which the Committee on Culture and Education was instructed to "work out, with the help of experts, a project for a European Television University" ;

2. Considering the increasingly important role of distant study systems in a European society which is characterised by enormous needs in the area of education and culture ;

3. Considering that, within the context of a system of permanent education and cultural development in Europe, the establishment of an institution for the purpose of complementing and extending the work of European universities and of co-ordinating it in the area of distant study systems (a field in which the universities are often deficient) would seem to be increasingly useful ;

4. Emphasising that such an institution should not be a super-university, but that it should play the role of catalyst in the movement towards the Europeanisation of national universities, and that in addition it should serve as a "last chance" institution within adult education for all those desirous of overcoming initial handicaps ;

5. Convinced that the establishment of   a "European Television University", conceived as a European Inter-University Institute for the development of multi-media distant study systems, would permit a joint approach to the problems which face European universities in this field, with a view to reaching quicker and more economical solutions,

6. Recommends that the Committee of Ministers :

(a) invite the governments of States adhering to the European Cultural Convention to create at Florence a European Inter-University Institute for the development of multi-media distant study systems (European Television University) as set out in the report of its Committee on Culture and Education (Doc. 3018) ;

(b) instruct the Committee for Higher Education and Research of the CCC to under take the examination and establishment of this project.

[1]. Assembly, debate on 6 October 1971 (12th Sitting) (see Doc. 3018, report of the Committee on Culture and Education).

Text adopted by the Assembly on 6 October 1971 (12th Sitting).