Higher education is a powerful driver of long-term growth. Evidence shows that economies with higher numbers of graduates in their population also have higher economic growth. In other words, as well as being a profitable choice for the individual, investment in higher education is profitable for the economy as a whole and its capacity to improve living conditions.

Universities and higher education institutions need the support of governments to be flexible, to specialise and to unlock potential. These are the key messages of the European Commission's agenda for the modernisation of higher education – a central plank of the EU's Europe 2020 strategy, focusing on:

• Increasing higher education numbers.

• Improving the quality and relevance of education programmes to increase graduate employability and to meet the demand for people with high-end skills.

• This stresses the importance (both for the individual and society) of adapting programmes so that each graduate, whatever their discipline, has a good mix of sector-specific and cross-cutting skills to enable them to thrive in a labour market with ever more individualised career paths.

• Improving quality and raising skills through mobility and removing the obstacles that hinder mobility.

• Adapting governance and funding models to enable better performance by higher education institutions.

• Encouraging higher education institutions to develop a stronger role in supporting sustainable growth, in their regions and beyond.

The European Commission is taking forward a number of key initiatives announced in the agenda.

These include: a multidimensional ranking initiative; new ways of promoting student mobility; a new initiative on the quality of teaching and learning in higher education; and ensuring mutual support between the policy agenda and our Erasmus for All proposal.