European Commission adopts Erasmus World

Citation

(2002), "European Commission adopts Erasmus World", Education + Training, Vol. 44 No. 8/9. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2002.00444hab.006

European Commission adopts Erasmus World

European Commission adopts Erasmus World

The European Commission has adopted Erasmus World, a higher education programme to attract more students from non-EU states to Europe and to encourage European students to study abroad.

The programme will offer 250 European masters courses and thousands of study grants and fellowships for Europeans and nationals of non-EU states. A kind of Fulbright Programme for Europe, it will help to communicate European cultures and values to the rest of the world. Covering the period 2004-2008, Erasmus World will have a budget of E200 million.

Viviane Reding, European Commissioner responsible for education, said: "European universities receive too few students and visiting scholars from other continents. This deficit is a problem not only because of its implications for the EU's cultural, political and economic influence in the world, but also because our universities, if they developed links between themselves and with the rest of the world, could take advantage of this greater openness to enhance the quality of what they provide."

She continued: "Erasmus World is the instrument that Europe needs, both internally and in relation to the outside world, to be a winner in the globalization of education. By opening our universities to the world, we also open them to Europe."

The programme is designed to complement existing regional higher education programmes such as Tempus (concerned mainly with countries from the former USSR, the western Balkans and the Mediterranean basin), Alfa and Alban (for Latin America), Asia-Link and programmes with Australia, the USA and Canada.

Under Erasmus World, host European masters courses which already exist, or are to be set up, will be selected for a five-year period. They will receive EU funding and an EU "seal". By the end of the programme, in 2008, around 250 such EU masters courses should have been established.

To qualify for the EU seal, the courses should involve at least three universities from three different EU member states, and entail recognized periods of study in at least two of the three universities. The courses will lead to diplomas that are officially recognized in the European countries taking part. The universities will reserve places for third-country students receiving Erasmus World scholarships. The courses will cover various fields and there will be no conditions regarding the language in which teaching takes place.

Either directly, or under partnerships between their university of origin and the universities taking part in an EU masters course, postgraduate students from non-EU countries will be able to apply for scholarships to study in Europe for up to two academic years. During their studies, they will follow courses in several member states.

The scholarships, amounting on average to e1,600 a month, will cover travelling and living expenses. Around 4,200 scholarships should be awarded to non-EU nationals over the life of the programme. Special attention will be given to ways of avoiding a brain drain from developing countries.

EU masters courses will receive visiting academics from universities around the world, for teaching and research assignments lasting an average of three months. Erasmus World will provide support for more than 1,000 visiting academics to Europe from third countries. The academics will receive an average grant of 13,000.

Erasmus World will encourage the universities taking part in EU masters courses to establish structured co-operation with top-class universities in non-EU states through joint, three-year projects. This co-operation will provide a means for the exchange of students and academics. Almost 4,000 European postgraduate students and 800 European visiting scholars should receive support under this aspect of the programme. This co-operation will relate to areas given high priority for higher education in Europe.

In addition, Erasmus World will provide financial support for the international promotion of European higher education (publicity material, presence at international education fairs) and for the establishment of services facilitating access of non-EU students to European universities (tools for language training, living conditions for third country students and so on).