EU and Canada renew higher education agreement
The European Union and Canada renewed their cooperation ties on higher education during an informal education ministerial meeting in Helsinki, on 5 December. The new agreement builds on a long-standing relationship between Canada and the EU in higher education and vocational training, which goes back to 1995. Over the next eight years, the agreement aims to strengthen and expand this cooperation by tripling available funds. Specifically, it will support the following actions: - joint consortia projects, supporting multilateral study programmes between EU and Canadian institutions - including joint or double degrees - and transatlantic student and faculty mobility; - joint youth activities in the areas of citizenship, cultural diversity, volunteering, and informal learning; - policy dialogue, addressing common priority areas in higher education, vocational training and youth issues, and recognising qualifications and the transfer of credits under the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS). For its part, the European Commission plans to contribute €18 million to the cooperation programme over the period 2006 to 2013, with the aim of doubling the number of joint projects undertaken, and increasing by over a third the number of students participating in the mobility programme. Under the last cooperation agreement, a total of 108 European and 110 Canadian institutions were recorded as having participated in 31 joint projects, while more than 3,000 students won places on one of the many transatlantic exchange programmes. Ján Figel', European Commissioner in charge of education, training, culture and multilingualism, and one of the signatories of the agreement, welcomed it, saying: 'Both partners have now a stable, long-term legal framework to pursue their common objectives: to make our education systems more open and competitive and to promote mutual understanding between our peoples.' Other signatories included Antti Kalliomäki, Finnish Minister of Education, and Anne Bourcier, Ambassador of Canada to Finland.
Countries
Canada