Erasmus students to receive bigger grant

The European Union is to increase its Erasmus programme grants from €150 to €250 per month in order to encourage take-up by students from all social backgrounds.

This was stated by Jan Figel, European Commissioner-designate for education, culture and multilingualism, during his recent hearing at the European Parliament, although he did not say when the increase would come into effect. He is due to become Commissioner on November 1.

He was replying to an MEP's observation that to date Erasmus students were almost exclusively from privileged backgrounds, since the amounts provided were inadequate to meet basic needs without financial help from parents.

The Erasmus programme provides opportunities to university students and teaching staff to spend time at higher education institutions in other European countries. Close to a million students have spent an Erasmus period abroad since the programme was initiated in 1987.

The increased grant should be good news to Maltese students, about 400 of whom make use of the programme each year. University of Malta Rector Roger Ellul-Micallef recently stressed that it was important for students not to miss out on exchange programmes, saying the majority did not take advantage of such opportunities.

At the hearing, other MEPs pointed to the importance of co-operation between private and public enterprises in order to allow more young people to participate in Community programmes. "We have to encourage public and private partnerships" as well as ensuring better access to the programmes for people in the less developed parts of Europe, emphasised Mr Figel.

Some MEPs voiced disappointment at the slow, complicated procedures of the programmes. The Commissioner- designate promised that he would speed up implementation of reforms in the area.

The new programmes aim to increase the number of citizens benefiting from mobility for learning purposes, the target being for one student in 20 in the EU to take part in Comenius (schools programme). Mr Figel said he expected three million students to participate in the Erasmus programme by 2011, while the Leonardo da Vinci (vocational training) programme would involve 150,000 placements, and 25,000 adults would benefit from the Grundtvig (adult education) programme by 2013.

On another question related to equal opportunities, Mr Figel said that the EU's goal was to cut school failure rates in the member states by half.

His statement has relevance for Malta in that the school absenteeism rate here rose by two per cent last year. The Ministry of Education is to set up a task force to propose a plan to improve school attendance.

MEPs were critical of the fact that only one per cent of the EU budget was earmarked for culture. Mr Figel said he backed the proposal to increase the total Union budget to 1.24 per cent of GNP, as proposed by the Prodi Commission, under which funding for education and culture would triple.

On questions regarding the preservation of cultural diversity, Mr Figel said: "Minority languages are part of the European culture". Although we cannot find a complete solution to the problem, he said, the institutions need more financial support to promote minority languages.

We have to wait for the outcome of the current feasibility study on a European Agency for Linguistic Diversity and Language Learning before deciding what action to take.

Mr Figel also stressed the crucial need for more active dialogue with young people: "Youth is our richness and our future".