Azerbaijan, Baku, 5 July/ Trend corr. E.Ostapenko/
European Commission announced today the allocation of €47 million to support higher education projects in the European Neighbourhood countries and Russia under the Tempus Programme, EU press-statement says.
The new funding will improve teaching, learning methods and teaching material, as well as boost quality assurance and management of higher education institutions in the partner countries.
Today's decision will also enable enhanced networking and joint projects and partnerships to be set up between higher education institutions in the EU and European Neighbourhood countries. The money allocated under the Tempus Programme will support approximately 60 multilateral partnerships, aiming at modernising curricula, teaching methods and management of the colleges, schools and universities in the neighbouring countries.
This allocation represents an increase of almost €17 million in comparison to last year's programme.
"Investing in people is a key objective of the EU Neighbourhood Policy", EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, Štefan Füle, said. "Fruitful cooperation between higher education institutions in the EU and European Neighbourhood countries will be continued, helping to share knowledge, experience and ideas".
The significant increase of funding to this programme illustrates the renewed commitment of the EU to support higher education in this region, he said.
Overall, more than 450 institutions from these countries will have new opportunities to collaborate in a structured way with a similar number of institutions from the EU in two to three-year projects which will commence in 2012. Public and private companies and NGOs will be involved as well, to improve relevance and reinforce the links between society and education.
Tempus promotes the development of higher education in the EU's neighbouring partner countries and provides mechanisms to offer new learning opportunities for students and new career perspectives for academic staff.