The Commission has just selected the student and teacher exchange
projects entitled to funding in the 1993/1994 academic year in the
context of the ERASMUS and LINGUA (Action II) programmes.
On this occasion, Commissioner Antonio Ruberti, in charge of Research,
Education and Training Policies, welcomed the growing success of the
ERASMUS and LINGUA programmes both among young people and teachers.
In Mr Ruberti's words "the experience they acquire abroad and which they
later pass on to others makes these thousands of young people in a way
"ambassadors of the new". The training they receive in an educational
system other than their own contributes not only to their personal
development but also to the enrichment of the society in which they
live".
In order to enable a growing number of young people to benefit from such
an experience and to introduce a European dimension into their training,
Mr Ruberti believes that, "in tandem with strengthening mobility schemes
for individuals, we should also explore ways of promoting the mobility of
ideas in future and, to this end, we should give greater encouragement to
exchanges within the teaching community and the use of distance teaching
technologies."
ERASMUS
A stable university network.
The European university network set up under the interuniversity
cooperation programmes (ICPs) has obtained financial aid from the ERASMUS
programme and has been expanded.
For the 1993/94 academic year, a total of 2 153 ICPs have been selected.
The majority (78%) are extensions in the context of the multiannual
financing established in 1991/92. However, the number of new
applications indicates that ERASMUS has far from exhausted its catalyst
role, in particular in the EFTA countries and the so-called peripheral
regions of the Community. The Commission, with a view to offering wide
access to the programme, has approved a high proportion (61.5%) of these
new applications.
An inflow of new partners.
The growth of over 30% in the number of participants from new
establishments in the ICPs, (from 10 989 to 14 279) is indicative of the
programme's dynamism. In 1993/1994 an ICP will on average involve 6.6
institutional partners as opposed to 5.7 in 1992/93. It is important to
strengthen the networks in all Member States, but particularly in Greece,
Portugal and most of the EFTA countries.
Substantial and well-distributed student mobility
During the 1993/94 academic year, 103 886 students are eligible for the
ERASMUS programme. 51.6% will go to the countries of the "triangle" -
France, Germany and the United Kingdom, - as opposed to 52.9% in the
preceding year, which indicates the trend towards growing diversification
as regards target countries.
Teacher mobility: a pillar of the European dimension in higher education.
12 341 teachers applied for a short-term teaching post abroad during the
1993/94 academic year (as opposed to 9 398 in 1992/93). While continuing
to give priority to student mobility, the Commission has been
particularly keen to increase the approval rate for teacher mobility
programmes, thus allowing approximately 8 060 teachers to participate in
exchanges in 1993/94. The courses given are normally part of the
curriculum of the host establishments, and this gives all the students
access to the European dimension, notably those who do not have the
opportunity of benefiting from mobility.
A wider range of disciplines
The proportion of interuniversity cooperation programmes (ICPs) relating
to disciplines with a more international tradition, such as management or
languages, is diminishing to the benefit of other domains. For 1993/1994
it is interesting to note the growth in the number of ICP participants in
Arts and Architecture (+ 41%), Agriculture, (+ 75%) and Medicine (+35%)
and particularly in "Education" (teacher training) (+50%). For the
latter two disciplines, this was a sequence to several information
campaigns launched by the Commission and conducted with the support of
existing European associations.
A crucial year for the EFTA countries
While 1992/93 saw the promising but still timid beginnings of
participation from the EFTA countries, applications for 1993/94 mark a
new stage. The number of applications grew by 89% for all EFTA countries
taken together. The number of students covered by these applications
grew by 100%.
After selection, ICP participants from EFTA countries represent 8.5% of
the total. They also represent almost 7% of the student mobility, with
7 062 students from EFTA countries out of a total of 103 386.
One should note in particular the spectacular increase in Swiss,
Norwegian, Finnish and Icelandic participation - countries which did not
immediately have the opportunity to exploit the potential offered by
ERASMUS.
LINGUA (Action II)
Priority to the least widely used languages.
The main objective of Action II of the LINGUA programme is to promote
training of intending foreign language teachers, giving priority to the
least widely used and least taught languages of the Community.
Programmes which combine study of a foreign language with that of another
discipline (such as law plus foreign language, or engineering plus
foreign language) are also very common in applications for development of
interuniversity cooperation programmes.
Growth in demand was similar to that of ERASMUS - 14% more partners, 20%
more participating students and 8% more teachers. In particular,
countries such as Greece and Portugal which have less widely known
languages are participating more actively this year (up 30% on last
year). 226 ICPs have been approved in the context of LINGUA Action II,
involving 1 147 establishments, 8 846 students and 680 teachers.
* * *
