2 de agosto de 2012

Erasmus Exchange Program Celebrates 25th Year


July 29, 2012, The New York Times


THE HAGUE — When Michael Koller was an architecture student and preparing for an Erasmus exchange 16 years ago, a friend who had done the program a few years earlier gave him a list of things to do in Naples.
The list prescribed beautiful buildings, notable museums, cool art galleries, parks and restaurants. It was only at the very bottom of the list, almost as an afterthought, that his friend had written three lines about university courses.
“The actual studies are about half of it,” said Mr. Koller, now 40 and an architect in The Hague. “The rest is about learning to adapt to the new culture.”
On its 25th anniversary, the Erasmus program is being hailed as one of the success stories of European integration. By providing a framework and financing for studying and training abroad, it allows young Europeans to look beyond their national borders when considering their education and their future.
The program, which is financed by the European Union and named after the 16th-century Dutch-born pan-European scholar, has made it mainstream in Europe for students to experience adapting to a different culture while learning a new language.
About 10 percent of European students now study abroad, according to a European Commission estimate, and roughly half of them receive financing from Erasmus. In comparison, 1 percent of U.S. students enrolled in higher education study abroad each year, according to a 2011 report by the Institute of International Education.
“The university exchange program Erasmus is barely mentioned in the business sections of newspapers, yet Erasmus has created the first generation of young Europeans,” the Italian writer Umberto Eco said in January in an interview with the Italian daily La Stampa.
The number of students in the program grew a record 8.5 percent in the 2010-11 academic year, compared with the previous year. Organizers estimate that it will have supported about three million exchanges by the 2012-13 academic year, when its annual budget is estimated to be more than €489 million, or about $590 million.
“The Erasmus scheme has been a catalyst for harmonization,” said Dennis Abbott, a spokesman at the European Commission. He noted the importance of Erasmus in the development of the Bologna process, in which European countries are trying to coordinate their university systems to allow for greater movement across borders.
In 2011, Spain, France and Germany were both the biggest senders and receivers of exchange students. Britain ranks fourth, but it sends only half as many Erasmus students as it receives.
There is also significant growth in new member states. Of the 10 fastest growing countries in terms of sending students abroad, half have become members since 1998. Croatia, the fastest-growing source of Erasmus students, joined in 2009.
The Erasmus program started in the 1987-88 academic year with a budget of €13 million and 3,244 students from 10 countries. In earlier years, the exchanges between institutions were usually started by personal connections between professors and academics, Mr. Koller said.
“Erasmus just gave us the administrative framework to actually do the exchange,” he said.
As traffic increased and the Bologna process of harmonizing European degrees progressed, Erasmus also expanded its mission.
Foreign job training was introduced in 2007. By then, Erasmus membership had stretched to Croatia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Turkey and Switzerland. Formal collaboration between universities, an exchange program for teachers and a global exchange program known as Erasmus Mundus have been added to the program, but the pan-European university exchange is still the priority, Mr. Abbott said.
Experts say that Erasmus participants develop a cross-cultural fluency that is essential to European life and attractive to employers.
“We think it is something that is important for the students and universities, but also for the economic future of the country,” said David Hibler, who coordinates the Erasmus program for the British Council.
Late last year, a European commissioner, Androulla Vassiliou, proposed Erasmus for All, a major expansion in which several other pan-European exchange programs and collaborations would be integrated into Erasmus.
The expanded program would cost €19 billion over seven years starting in 2014. According to Mr. Abbott, the 70 percent increase in financing would bring a 100 percent increase in mobility grants.
Mr. Koller, the architect, eventually married a fellow Erasmus scholar, Alexandra, who was his roommate during his year in Naples.
“We are a typical Erasmus couple,” said Mr. Koller, who originally hails from Austria but now lives in the Netherlands with his French wife and their child. When they first met in Naples, they spoke Italian. When they moved to Marseille, they switched to French. Now their child is being raised to speak German, French and Dutch.

Nenhum comentário:

Postar um comentário