Parliamentary Assembly Assemblée parlementaire

RESOLUTION 533 (1972)[1]

on present trends in higher educational reform and further prospects, with a view to permanent education

The Assembly,

1. Recalling its Recommendation 611 (1970) and its Resolution 463 (1970), on permanent education in Europe ;

2. Having regard to the report by its Committee on Culture and Education on present trends in higher educational reform and further prospects, with a view to permanent education (Doc. 3187), and taking note of the results of the Symposium on Higher Education, held in Vienna (Austria) on 30 June and 1 July 1972, in pursuance of the above resolution ;

3. Noting that the purpose of this symposium was to study, from the standpoint of political responsibility, problems raised by the organisation of higher education in a post-industrial society ;

4. Believing that, at a time when a concern for living standards is accompanied, and indeed being dominated, by a concern for the quality of life, higher education, in its various forms, should be made available to all who aspire to it and are capable of benefiting from it ;

5. Believing, in this context, that higher education should be overhauled as regards its content and methods, as well as its diploma-awarding system, so that it may be used as a means of obtaining, revising and extending knowledge ;

6. Believing that a coherent structure needs to be established for permanent education, which covers the entire range of educational facilities from an individual's early childhood to the latter part of his working life ;

7. Believing that, within such a structure, the education provided by universities at the usual studying age becomes a period of initial education, to be co-ordinated with the new subsequent period, that of continued or recurrent education, during which the occupational sphere and educational establishments should combine their efforts so as to ensure maximum individual and social effectiveness for higher education ;

8. Noting that the Vienna Symposium was concerned with the following themes, on which problems regarding the reform of higher education in Europe are mainly centred :

(a) Development of higher education structures ;

(b) Student participation and career opportunities ;

(c) Harmonisation of initial education and recurrent education ;

(d) The conditions for recurrent education at a higher level,

9. Calls on the Conference of European Ministers of Education and the Council for Cultural Co-operation to be guided by the principles and measures set out in the report of its Committee on Culture and Education (Doc. 3187), in their efforts to work out a reform of higher education in a context of permanent education to be proposed to the States which are parties to the European Cultural Convention.

[1]. Assembly debate on 20 October 1972 (13th Sitting) (see Doc. 3187, report of the Committee on Culture and Education).

Text adopted by the Assembly on 20 October 1972 (13th Sitting).