Connect with us

Frontpage

Vive Erasmus Mundus!

SHARE:

Published

on

We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. You can unsubscribe at any time.

viveThe culture and education committee on Tuesday adopted the new YES EUROPE
programme for youth, education and sport, merging all the EU programmes for
education, training and sport and Erasmus for higher education. More than five
million students, of all ages, should enjoy greater mobility and cooperation
abroad thanks to €18 billion in EU funding for the years 2014 to 2020."I appeal to all those in authority who
repeatedly stress the importance of education in their speeches, to do it
justice by providing an adequate budget. We will live up to our
responsibilities as co-legislators and give the programme the importance it
deserves at the heart of European education policy", said Doris Pack (EPP,
ED), chair of the culture and education committee.

MEPs amended the Commission proposal to facilitate
guarantee loans taken out by master's students and simplifying the
administration of grants. For the first time, programmes dedicated specifically
to sports will qualify for European funding. They will cover grassroots sports
as well as initiatives to tackle doping, violence, discrimination and
intolerance.

EU to guarantee loans for
masters students abroad

Students wishing to take a masters degree in a different EU country will be
able to apply for a loan which will be guaranteed from a new facility under the
YES Europe programme. To qualify, the student must study abroad for one to two
years. The committee voted for loans of up to €12 000 for a one-year master's
programme and up to €18 000 for a two-year master's course.

MEPs stipulate that this new facility will complement rather than replace the
other student grants or funding mechanisms that exist at local, national or
European level. Special terms, favourable to students, should apply to loans of
this type, such as reduced interest rates, "grace periods" for paying
off the loan (a minimum of 12 months after the end of the period of study) or
abolishing for additional guarantees from parents.

Actions that apply specifically to Youth should be funded from a separate
budget line, say MEPs. They propose a structure based on three sections, with a
specific chapter on Youth, in addition to the chapters for education and
training and for sport. Specific targets for this area are set out in the text
adopted by the committee.

MEPs want the EU to continue to use the existing brand names for the different
actions in the three sections of the programme: Erasmus for
mobility in higher education; Grundtvig for adult learning,Leonardo
da Vinci for vocational education and training abroad, Erasmus
Mundus for international students' and teachers' mobility, Comenius for
school education and Youth in Action for activities in the new
Youth chapter.

Advertisement

MEPs wanted to see the programmes and their
administration modernised in order to make better use of the total budget
allocation proposed by the Commission for the seven years from January 2014. It
amounts to over €18 billion, of which just over €1 billion will come from
various external aid instruments because the programme will be open to
cooperation with non-EU countries. They adopted minimum guaranteed thresholds
for each section of the programme: 83.4 % for education and training; 8% for
youth; and 1.8% for sport.

National agencies will administer the programme in the
member states. MEPs voted to ensure that each member state will be able to
decide whether to have one or more national agencies.

 

Anna van Densky

Share this article:

EU Reporter publishes articles from a variety of outside sources which express a wide range of viewpoints. The positions taken in these articles are not necessarily those of EU Reporter.
Advertisement

Trending