Brussels, 15/04/2003 (Agence Europe) - New Erasmus university charters, which open access to all Erasmus activities in which a university may wish to take part, have recently been attributed to universities and establishments of higher education. Thus, 2000 establishments of higher education will be taking part in the Erasmus programme over the academic year 2003-2004, it was announced by Commissioner Viviane Reding's spokesperson. These university charters stipulate the obligations imposed on universities in the setting in place of this European programme of cooperation. For the most part, they concern services intended for mobile students (for example, the abolition of enrolment fees or the recognition of study periods abroad). In parallel, students taking part in these exchanges will receive an "Erasmus Student Charter", setting out their rights and obligations. These charters will allow the universities to introduce requests for subsidies to the European Commission in order to fund centralised Erasmus projects (development and study projects among others), and to national agencies in order to finance mobility activities (for example, the introduction of a European Community Course Credit Transfer System (ECTS).
Furthermore, the European Parliament approved (at first reading), on 8 April during its plenary session in Strasbourg, the report by Marielle de Sarnez (EPP-Ed, France) on "Erasmus Mundus" (see EUROPE of 15 November 2002. The EP calls for the creation, in autumn 2004, of a new university exchange mechanism on the model of the Erasmus programme, to be extended to universities outside the EU and which will be called "Erasmus Mundus" (a wording preferred to Erasmus World which is considered too Anglo-Saxon according to Agence France Presse). This new programme will not be a substitute to Erasmus but will complete it and will, at the request of the EP, have a budget of EUR 300 million for the period 2004-2008. Two thirds of this amount will be devoted to the attribution of study grants (that could reach EUR 1600 per student from a third country, as opposed to 160 euros on average for European students under the current Erasmus programme). In order to combat the exclusive predominance of English, the text provides for making it compulsory for each participant student to study at least two languages other than his/her mother tongue, in accordance with the wishes expressed by Commissioner Reding (see EUROPE of 12 April, p.15).
The Erasmus Charter had been launched during the celebration of the one millionth Erasmus student in October last (see EUROPE of 21-22 October 2002 and, for the content of the Charter, EUROPE of 16-17 September 2002). The annual budget of the Erasmus programme is by way of EUR 160 million).