Brussels, 02/07/2014 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 2 July, the new European Tertiary Education Register (ETER) published its first results, providing easy access to information on universities in 36 countries, including all 28 EU member states. The register aims to offer, at European level for the first time, a single point of access to detailed and comparable information on 2,250 universities hosting more than 16 million students. The data include university size, student and staff numbers, subjects and degree levels covered, as well as information about research and international activities. Set up with €500,000 in European Commission funding under the former Lifelong Learning programme, ETER will form a permanent and regularly updated database, using information fed in by the national statistical authorities. It will add to other data on university performance, such as the global university classification system, U-Multirank, which recently went online (see EUROPE 11078), and the higher education statistics published by UNESCO, the OECD and Eurostat. “The European Register will be an invaluable resource for policymakers and universities. It will increase transparency in higher education and help develop a wider range of analysis and information, improve links between education and research, and support the diversity of higher education in Europe”, said Commissioner for Education Androulla Vassiliou. Information: http://eter.joanneum.at/imdas-eter (IL)