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"Our youth are the future of Europe and we all need to prepare for this future. Much still requires our efforts...Europe also has an important role to play in breaking down gender stereotypes...All young people should have the chance to spend part of their studies or training abroad."
– Androulla Vassiliou EU Study Programs The European Union has developed a number of programs to encourage mobility of students, teachers and researchers and exchange of information and best practice. Programs such as Socrates and Leonardo da Vinci offer grants to study, teach or undertake training in another European country. They also afford educational institutions the opportunity to cooperate and establish networks. Under the Erasmus program, university students may undertake part of their studies in another country; well over a million have done so already. Erasmus Mundus, launched in 2005, promotes the EU as a global center of excellence by supporting inter-university EU Master’s Degree courses and funding scholarships for non-EU participants. EU-US Cooperation ATLANTIS Program: EU-US Cooperation in Higher Education and Vocational Training The European Union and the United States of America signed a new agreement on higher education and vocational training on June 21, 2006 at the EU-US Summit in Vienna for another eight-year period (2006-2013). The new agreement renewed and reinforced the long standing EU-US cooperation program that was established in 1995. The program is designed and funded jointly by the European Commission and by the US Department of Education. On the EU side, calls for proposals are managed by the Executive Agency for Education, Audiovisual and Culture. It aims primarily at promoting understanding between the peoples of the European Union and the United States of America and improving the quality of their human resource development. To achieve these objectives, the program supports the following main Actions:
The 2006-2013 program As well as implementing small curriculum components among consortia composed of six partners, as in the past, the 2006-2013 program pursues the more ambitious aim of implementing joint or dual transatlantic undergraduate degrees within a smaller consortium. In doing so, the European Commission and the US Department of Education, Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE) decided to promote a Transatlantic Degree program that can contribute to innovation and recognition of curricula and teaching methods and to the acquisition of skills required to meet the challenges of the global knowledge-based economy. The program plans to implement over 200 projects with some 6,000 EU and US individuals participating in mobility activities over the eight year period from 2006 to 2013. What are the Transatlantic Degree Consortia Projects? The idea of the new Transatlantic Degree program is to stimulate the creation of truly joint or double degrees by providing support to multilateral consortia with a minimum configuration of two EU higher education institutions located in different Member States and one US institution. The partner institutions will have to create an integrated joint study program, with students from the two sides spending a period of study both in the EU and in the US institutions and getting either a joint degree (issued jointly by two institutions) or a double degree (two degrees, one from an EU institution, the other from the US institution) encompassing the whole period of study. At the core of the program is the enhancement of student mobility, innovation and joint curriculum development and academic recognition between the EU and the US. What are the Excellence Mobility projects? This Action provides funding for international curriculum development projects that involve short-term transatlantic mobility not directly or necessarily related to award of a joint or dual/double degree. Support includes mobility stipends for students and faculty and flat rates/fixed amounts for the consortia institutions. What are the Policy-oriented Measures? This action provides support to multilateral EU-US projects and activities designed to enhance collaboration in the higher education and vocational training field. Policy-oriented measures include studies, seminars, working groups, benchmarking exercises that address comparative higher education and vocational training issues, including recognition of qualifications and issues of accreditation. The projects may also include comparative studies and analyses, language and content integration, dissemination of projects, software and Web development, e-learning and open education, and infrastructure and resources development. Policy study grants do not cover student mobility but may cover faculty and staff exchanges. What are the benefits of participating in the Transatlantic Degree program? EU and US institutions in developing joint programs of study draw together their best resources, learn from each other and innovate their offer of high quality education and training for the current and future generation of learners. With a double/joint degree, students are able to attain an undergraduate/bachelors degree in considerably less time and at a lower cost than would be required to obtain two separate degrees and gain an invaluable international experience. The past EU-US cooperation programs already implemented have had a remarkable impact on the educational record and on the cross-cultural background of participating students, improving their cultural knowledge, increasing their adaptability, introducing a more flexible mindset and enhancing personal confidence to operate on the international scene. Exchange students that participate in these programs considerably improve their knowledge and international skills and are much better prepared for the global marketplace. The majority of projects conducted so far have successfully established transatlantic partnerships, create motivated students who produce high-quality projects, and most of all, develop a stronger sense of the relationship between Europe and the United States for students as they have acquired more personal and sustainable attachments to the people and places they have engaged with abroad. These invaluable experiences are no doubt beneficial in the long term for EU-US relations. European Union Delegation, Washington, DC, Staff USEFUL Links: European Commission Websites
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