Europe’s need for highly skilled and entrepreneurial graduates, in particular Masters and PhDs, will continue to grow in the years ahead. Europe not only needs employees but also future employers and entrepreneurs. The EIT will encourage higher education institutions to focus on developing innovative curricula that encourages more entrepreneurship, creativity and leadership.
Through the KICs, the EIT has the opportunity to act as a test-bed for future developments in this area. To achieve ‘world-class’ levels, it is also important to tap into developments outside Europe. The EIT will not interfere with the design and implementation of curricula but will support and challenge the KICs in this area.
KICs and the development of new curricula
Higher education institutions within the KICs will take a lead role in introducing innovative approaches to graduate education by developing new European masters, doctoral and post-doctoral curricula, integrating scientific progression with entrepreneurial and creativity skills. Such an approach is not only relevant to technical universities; entrepreneurial educational programmes in medicine, social sciences, humanities and arts are also needed to foster new learning outcomes and multi-disciplinary skills. These new approaches will reflect the diversity of actors in the innovation web. The EIT will monitor and reward the impact of KICs’ new curricula. Examples of measurement could include world-class best practices, transversal skills, multidisciplinary curriculum design, assessment based on learning outcomes and new models of entrepreneurship education, encompassing the rich spectrum of innovation models and approaches.
EIT labelled degrees and diplomas
Degrees and diplomas awarded by higher education institutions within the KICs will be based on clearly identified excellence and the key EIT educational activity will be to work with these institutions to implement coherent quality criteria for the EIT labelled degrees. EIT labelled degrees will form a major element of the EIT‟s intent to deliver a unique brand of excellent and relevant education, responsive to both business and societal demands, including entrepreneurship education with highly integrated and innovative curricula and approaches to learning combined with mobility and outreach. The criteria, and simple and effective processes for their application, are currently being developed together with the KICs.
Existing high-profile Community programs, such as Erasmus Mundus and Marie Curie, will be used as benchmark for joint curriculum development and international mobility to enhance the EIT’s reputation for excellence in innovation and entrepreneurship.
Quality criteria for EIT labelled degrees and diplomas
The EIT labelled degrees build on the experience gained in the context of other EU actions and be in line with the main achievements of the European Higher Education Area (Bologna Process), in particular in the field of Quality Assurance (European Standards and Guidelines) and recognition tools like the European Qualifications Framework, the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) and the Diploma Supplement.
Quality criteria for EIT labelled degrees:
EIT Education Conference
In December 2010, the EIT organised an Education Conference: The role of the EIT in the Education Landscape. To view the conference report, please click 
here.
More information on the 
Education Conference.
