ERASMUS Programme: Annual report 1994 The European Commission has recently published the "ERASMUS Programme Annual Report 1994" which describes the general implementation of the ERASMUS programme during the calendar year 1994 and the inter-university cooperation activities supported in 1994-1995. The total number... The European Commission has recently published the "ERASMUS Programme Annual Report 1994" which describes the general implementation of the ERASMUS programme during the calendar year 1994 and the inter-university cooperation activities supported in 1994-1995. The total number of inter-university cooperation programmes (ICPs) approved by the Commission for Community funding in 1994 was 2,280, of which 414 were new programmes. The level of institutional and student participation in approved ICPs increased, between 1993-1994 and 1994-1995, by 20%. For the European Community Course credit Transfer System (ECTS), 1994 was a year of extension to other fields and studies. There was also increasing interest from an ever-widening section of the university world. The publications programme continued to play a leading role in the wider dissemination of information on ERASMUS and the use of electronic information techniques is being developed, in a preliminary experimental phase, in order to open access (via the Internet network) to a broad range of information on ERASMUS which was hitherto available only in printed form. Two pilot projects were launched in 1994 on the assessment of quality in higher education in Europe. These pilot projects, due to be completed in 1995, should make it possible to devise European methodology based on the existing systems and on an enhanced European added value. Pending implementation of the new SOCRATES programme, in which higher education activities will play a major part, the Commission has continued to monitor and assess participation in ERASMUS at national and regional level and by subject area. This has led to the publication of several studies on the results of the various activities under ERASMUS and their significance for future Community action programmes. For the ERASMUS programme, as for the other Community programmes on education and training, 1994 was a pivotal year in which the experience acquired over the past years was consolidated and expanded in the proposal for the new SOCRATES programme, adopted in March 1995. This new programme will cover a period of five years and dispose of a budget of ECU 850 million.
