madam president most of us here are agreed that we should be supporting our universities and supporting our young people
although i believe as i think most of us do that universities are and should be autonomous of course they also live in the real world and need to take account of what happens in the real world not least because their students will be leaving them to get jobs in the real world
i think that is really what we are talking about
we are talking about how the universities can maintain their academic excellence yet prepare their students for work
that is why this dialogue the contact between universities and the business sector is so very important why we have spent such a long time working it through and why mr schmitt spent such a long time writing this report
what we need is a real dialogue between employers and employers at all levels i think
i agree that smes are important but i think we are also looking at talking to large corporations and also to the public sector to government employers at national regional and at local level the health sector and really all those who employ people because it is in that way that we will make sure that we get the level of graduate unemployment down and we give our young people a chance
within this it is very important that we maintain adequate levels of state funding for universities something which i know in some member states is becoming more and more of an issue
unless we get that money and unless universities are properly and adequately funded we will not have balanced courses we will not have balanced discipline and we will not be able to give our students the chances that they need
so i urge everyone to support this important report and to vote for it so that we can go forward and have a bright future for universities for students and for employers
