Better degrees don't automatically translate into better skills and better jobs and better lives.

Better degrees don’t automatically translate into better skills and better jobs and better lives.

You can spend a lot of money on education, but if you don’t spend it wisely, on improving the quality of instruction, you won’t get higher student outcomes.

If Europe wants to retain its competitive edge at the top of the global-value-added chain, the education system must be made more flexible, more effective and more easily accessible to a wider range of people.

Immigration in Europe is still considered a problem rather than an opportunity, and nowhere is that more obvious than in education.

In all those countries social background has much less of an impact on outcomes than it does have in a country like Germany. They are providing students with equitable opportunities.

They have clear objectives, well defined and clear to all stakeholders who are pursuing these objectives systematically.

Despite the characterization of some that teaching is an easy job, with short hours and summers off, the fact is that successful, dedicated teachers in the U.S. work long hours for little pay and, in many cases, insufficient support from their leadership.

The time when Europe competed mostly with countries that offered low-skilled work at low wages has gone. Today, countries like China and India are starting to deliver high skills at low costs.

Better degrees don't automatically translate into better skills and better jobs and better lives