Brussels, 22/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - Benita Ferrero-Waldner, External Relations Commissioner, and Condoleezza Rice, US Secretary of State, signed a new cooperation agreement on Wednesday in the context of the EU-US Summit in Vienna (see yesterday's EUROPE). The new 8-year cooperation agreement in the field of higher education renews the provisions of the earlier agreement. It will usher in innovative transatlantic degree programmes, promote exchanges of students, teachers and other professionals, and generally encourage greater institutional collaboration in tertiary education. The European Commission plans to allocate €45 million to the cooperation programme for the period 2006-2013, with a target of 6,000 EU and US participants. The following projects are foreseen: - joint consortia for the purpose of setting up joint study programmes and organising transatlantic mobility of students and teaching staff; - excellence mobility projects providing additional financial support in favour of the mobility of students to joint consortia; - policy-oriented measures to tackle comparable aspects of higher education and vocational training and promoting dialogue on recognition of qualifications and accreditations; - the Schuman Fulbright programme providing scholarships to highly qualified professionals to allow them to undertake study or training courses on the other side of the Atlantic. Since its creation in 1995, the programme has allowed over one hundred transatlantic consortia to be set up with over 700 establishments and mobility of over 4,000 students. “The new agreement provides us with a stable, long term legal framework to pursue our common objectives: to make our higher education systems more open and competitive and to promote mutual understanding between our peoples”, commented Jan Figel, Education Commissioner.