Brussels, 31/01/2001 (Agence Europe) - Viviane Reding, European Commission for Education and Culture, and Canadian Ministers James Stewart (human resources) and John Manley (foreign affairs) presented seven new projects on Wednesday that are to be launched in the framework of the cooperation programme between the European Union and Canada in the field of higher education and training. This takes the number of projects having seen the light of day since the establishment of this programme in 1996 to 38.
Selected on a competitive basis, following independent reviews in both Europe and Canada, these new projects have as main goal to promote structural transatlantic cooperation between consortia of education and training institutions. Each consortium must comprise at least three establishments on each side, involving at least two Canadian Provinces and two EU Member states, thus creating added value on the European level. Funding granted by the Commission is of around 740,000 euro over three years.
The EC/Canada cooperation programme, in which nearly 200 European higher education and training institutions are now taking part, offers students new opportunities to go and study abroad while guaranteeing full recognition of course units.
Ms. Reding stressed that "the challenge to take up over the coming years consists in maintaining a high quality of the programme, while broadening its field of application to explore new venues for cooperation".