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Monday, December 1, 2008

ATLANTIS Programme: new funds for the university cooperation

The ATLANTIS programme is a cooperation programme between both sides of the Atlantic. 11 of the projects based on the students exchange have been launched in common by Australia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand. These projects aim at reinforcing the institutional cooperation in the higher education and training. More than 2000 students are concerned.EU-US Atlantis Programme - 3rd edition with new projects

The European Commission and the US Department of Education have jointly launched 16 new cooperation projects involving 73 universities and training institutions from the EU and the US. The European Commission and the US Department for Education each contribute €4.5m – an increase of 18% compared to 2007 – to support 700 students in two-way transatlantic exchanges.

The Atlantis now focuses on innovative courses and degree structures, such as transatlantic joint or double degrees. It seeks to encourage an innovative and sustainable range of student-centred activities, in both higher education and vocational education and training (VET).

The new selected projects comprise:

* Eight Transatlantic Degrees. These absorb most of the budget and are joint or double Bachelor's or Master's degrees, where students will spend a full academic year on the other side of the Atlantic. They receive, upon successful completion of their study programme, a joint or a double degree from one university in Europe and one in the United States.
* Six Excellence in Mobility projects. These projects are similar to the EU's Erasmus exchange programme in higher education and focus on curriculum development with student mobility for one academic term.
* Four Policy Oriented Actions. These projects aim to enhance transatlantic collaboration through studies, seminars, working groups, and benchmarking exercises that address comparative higher education and vocational training issues.

New EU-Canada projects

Eight new projects have been launched under the EU-Canada agreement in the fields of higher education, training and youth (2006-2013). They will involve a total of 42 universities and training institutions in Canada and Europe. The European Commission's contribution of €1.1m, to be matched by Canadian authorities, will support the joint projects on curriculum development and joint study or training programmes and allow the mobility of 360 students over the course of three years. These exchanges will be supported by the necessary mutual recognition of credits, by adequate linguistic and cultural preparation and a range of essential services and infrastructure.

New joint projects with Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea

Building on the experience of the pilot projects with Japan, Australia and New Zealand since 2002, the format of cooperation has been extended this year for the first time to the Republic of Korea. The result is the launch of 11 new joint projects of which 5 with Australia, 3 with South Korea, 2 with Japan and 1 with New Zealand. The projects are based on the model of Erasmus-like projects implemented successfully with the US and Canada since 1995. The Commission will contribute with €3.6m to these projects with the partner countries providing match funding. The projects will involve a total of 75 institutions and will support the mobility of some 940 students.

Since the inception of the programme in 1995, 267 projects have been funded involving some 800 European universities and vocational training institutions, 680 institutions in North America and 60 institutions in Asia Pacific. The projects launched to date support over 10,000 students' exchanges.

This year’s projects cover a number of important and innovative areas such as sustainable water resource management; civil society education; regional and global governance; rural development and agricultural economics; laser materials interactions; sustainable tourism; international relations; mechanical, manufacturing and mechatronics engineering; early childhood intervention; health promotion; transnational law; international economics; hydro informatics; entrepreneurship education; information systems; mechanics in micro- and nanosystems; forest and natural resources; inclusionary social work; environmental journalism; transformation of urban areas ; bio-production; fashion; graphic design; hotel management and hospitality studies; quantum information processing; climate change; as well as paper, computer and natural sciences.

With an increase in both selected projects and overall funding, cooperation with industrialised countries continues to foster innovative collaboration ventures, maintaining European higher education institutions at the forefront of the global knowledge-based economy. The success of this cooperation programme plays an important role in strengthening the partnership between Europe and strategic partner countries by promoting understanding between their peoples and improving the quality in the development of their human resources.

Source  Atlantis Programme Website

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