The European Commission on Fridayproposed to extend and upgrade a higher education program, ErasmusMundus, for the period 2009-2013.
The new program, Erasmus Mundus II, will receive 950 million euros in the five-year period to enable joint programs or collaborative partnerships between European Union (EU) and third-country universities, and to grant scholarships to EU and third-country students for an international study experience.
The current Erasmus Mundus program was started in 2004. By 2006,more than 2,300 students have participated in the program and over1,800 have just been selected to start their studies in Europe in September this year.
"The current Erasmus Mundus program has been successfully running since its launch in 2004, encouraging the creation of high-quality Masters courses in Europe and attracting high-caliberstudents from third countries to European universities," said EU education commissioner Jan Figel.
"While we must consolidate the encouraging achievements of the current program, we also feel that it is necessary to go a step further and widen the scope of the program so that Erasmus Mundus becomes the trademark for EU cooperation with third countries in the field of higher education."
Erasmus Mundus II will cover a whole range of new program activities, including joint doctoral programs, increased financialsupport for EU students, as well as collaborative partnerships with specific world regions, said the commission, the executive body of the EU.
"With Erasmus Mundus II we now want to exploit the full potential of cooperation between European and third-country universities worldwide. The new program will extend its scope of activities in terms of participants, higher education programs on offer and scholarships," said Benita Ferrero-Waldner, EU commissioner in charge of external relations and European Neighborhood Policy.
The European Commission will now negotiate the proposal with the decision-making EU Council and the European Parliament. The commission hopes that the new program could be adopted in 2008 andcome into force in January 2009 when the current program expires.
Source: Xinhua
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