The European Commission announced the establishment of a new High level group on the Modernisation of Higher Education, that will be chaired by Mary McAleese, former President of Ireland, and will focus this year on how best to achieve excellence in teaching and then, next year, it will discuss how to adapt learning in the digital age.

The High Level Group on the Modernisation of Higher Education, launched by the European Commission, will address this issue as part of a comprehensive three-year review of the sector across the European Union. The group, chaired by Mary McAleese, former President of Ireland, will focus this year on how best to achieve excellence in teaching and then, next year, it will discuss how to adapt learning in the digital age. Recently, an OECD report highlighted than a third more women than men are enrolling in higher education in the EU.

The European Commission also informed that the Group will identify best practices and creative solutions, as well as making recommendations to national and European policy makers, universities and colleges. During the next three years the group will consult experts from higher education, government and businesses, as well as students and teachers. It will report for the first time in 2013 and has a mandate until 2015.

The launch of this group is a part of a broader strategy to modernise the higher education sector in Member States. The European Agenda for the modernisation of higher education, which was endorsed by Ministers at the Education Council on 28-29 November 2011, identifies priority areas where EU countries need to do more to achieve their shared objectives and sets out how the European Union can support their modernisation policies.