Academic Year 1995/96
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
* * * * * * ■k * * * EDUCATION TRAINING YOUTH TEMPUS Compendium ACADEMIC YEAR 1995/96 Phare EUROPEAN COMMISSION Prepared for the European Commission Directorate-General XXII - Education, Training and Youth by the u European Training Foundation Villa Guatino Viale Settimio Severo 65 1-10133 Torino ITALY Tel.: (39)11-630.22.22 Fax: (39)11-630.22.00 E-mail: [email protected]. The European Training Foundation, which is an independent agency of the European Union, was established to support and coordinate activities between the EU and partner countries in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia in the field of education and training, and assists the European Commission in the implementation of the Tempus Scheme. * * * * * * * ** * EDUCATION TRAINING YOUTH TEMPUS Compendium ACADEMIC YEAR 1995/96 Phare EUROPEAN COMMISSION Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 1995 ISBN 92-827-5476-6 © ECSC-EC-EAEC, Brussels · Luxembourg, 1995 Reproduction is authorized, except for commercial purposes, provided the source is acknowledged. Printed in Belgium o OS H INTRODUCTION The Tempus Programme Tempus (trans-European cooperation scheme for higher education), now in its sixth academic year of existence, was adopted on 7 May 1990 . The second phase (Tempus II), covering the period 1994-98 was adopted on 23 April 1993 . Tempus forms part of the overall European Union assistance programmes for the social and economic restructuring of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, known as the Phare Programme, and, since the beginning of its second phase, also for the New Independent States and Mongolia, known as the Tacis Programme. In the context of these overall programmes the Scheme seeks to support the development and restructuring of the higher education systems in the Partner States in such a way as to maximise their impact on economic and social restructuring at national level through cooperation with partner institutions in the European Union or other G-24 countries. This Compendium concentrates on all projects running under the Tempus Phare Programme in the academic year 1995/96. The overall Phare budget is decided annually and each Partner State, in consultation with the European Commission, establishes a breakdown of the amount allocated to it. Since the start of Tempus in the academic year 1990/91, the European Union, through the Phare Programme, has invested a total of 514.81 million ECU (MECU) in the reform of higher education in the Partner States. The table below illustrates the evolution of the Tempus Phare budget since 1990. 1990/91 1991/92 1992/93 1993/94 1994/95 1995/96 Total in MECU 23.16 70.5 98.0 129.15 95.9 98.1 No. of Partner States 3 6 10 11 11 11 Tempus Phare is based on the "bottom-up" approach: support is provided for initiatives proposed by universities themselves which are in line with the overall restructuring objectives of the Scheme and address the real needs of national higher education systems through targeted actions which can be transferred and disseminated from university to university. Whereas in the first years of the Scheme projects tended to focus on the immediate need to invest in the development of new curricula and update teaching facilities with up to date equipment, cooperation is now more targeted and projects must have a strategic long-term sustainable objective. One of the hallmarks of the transition from the first to the second phase of the Scheme in 1994 was the introduction of annually selected, clearly defined national priorities for cooperation. These priorities are jointly identified by the national authorities of the Partner States (in cooperation with the National Tempus Offices) and the European Commission, and are closely oriented towards the national objectives for higher education development in each country. The main reasons for their introduction were: • to provide the authorities of the Partner States with an instrument adaptable to the overall higher education reform policy; • to ensure that Tempus remains in line with the overall Phare Programme for economic and social reform; there is active involvement of the Phare coordinator of each country in the process of the definition of priorities; • to help universities focus their proposals on strategic issues; The types of project available through the Tempus Phare Scheme are as follows: • Joint European Projects (JEPs) are the main vehicle for cooperation between the countries eligible to participate in Tempus Phare and the Member States of the European Union. This type of project requires the participation of at least one higher education institution per Partner State involved, one higher education institution in an EU Member State and a partner organisation (higher education institution, enterprise or organisation) in another EU Member State. There are two types of JEP: Structural JEPs and Cf. Council Decision (EEC) no. 90/233 of 7 May 1990. O.J. no. L 131/21 Cf. Council Decision (EEC) no. 93/246 of 29 April 1993 O.J. L. 112/34 Tempus Phare - Albania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, the Sovak Republic and Slovenia. Tempus Tacis - Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Moldova, Mongolia, Russian Federation, Ukraine and Uzbekistan. Mobility JEPs. Structural JEPs focus on the restructuring and modernisation of a chosen aspect of the higher education system in the Partner State. The aim of the Mobility JEP is to create a network for student mobility. Financial assistance is granted over a maximum three year period for activities which respond to the specific needs of the institution(s) concerned. Approximately 90% of the annual budget for Tempus Phare is spent on JEPs and including the new JEPs that started this academic year (1995/96), a total of 1208 JEPs have been launched since 1990. • Complementary Measures grants (CMEs), cover parallel activities related to the support of higher education institution restructuring. They provide a maximum one-year support for a number of different actions complementary to the Tempus Phare Programme as a whole and are designed to underpin its aim of supporting the development and renewal of the higher education systems in the Partner States. The CME action was redesigned for 1995 in an attempt to move towards a compact and quick response to Partner States' needs. It comprises three main strands: • support for institutional restructuring and development at university/faculty level including university management; • dissemination of results derived from Tempus or other projects (designed to increase the impact of projects in similar or related subject areas among target groups); • support for the policy development for higher education (assist authorities in defining the frame for developing higher education). Including the first round of CMEs from the academic year 1995/96, a total of 241 CMEs have been launched. • Individual Mobility Grants (IMGs) provide support for visits from the Partner States to the EU and vice- versa. Applicants must be directly involved in higher education and be from one of the following categories: teachers, trainers and administrative staff at higher education institutions; senior Ministry officials or education planners. Including the first round IMG projects that started in this academic year (1995/96), a total of 8919 IMGs have been launched under the Scheme. • Joint European Networks (JENs), are intended to enable the most successful completed Joint European Projects to maintain the results accomplished within the project (e.g. through the continuation of the teaching of new courses introduced, by maintaining the international network established, maintenance of the equipment purchased etc.) and to stimulate the dissemination of the JEP results outside the project network in the Partner States involved. Tempus Phare projects accepted in 1995/96 Joint European Projects Project selection in Tempus II is carried out in two stages: • the first is to determine compatibility with the priority areas set by each Partner State and compatibility with technical criteria such as deadlines, endorsement letters etc.; • the second takes the quality of the project into account; criteria include the academic quality of the project, the extent of the links that already exist between the partners, feasibility of the project objective, the prospects for the continuation of the achievements after the end of Tempus funding and the impact of the project on the different levels, both within the institutions involved and society in general. Higher education institutions and academics in both Central and Eastern Europe and the European Union continue to be very enthusiastic about the Tempus Phare Programme, with 916 applications for JEPs resulting from the call for applications. After the first stage of the selection, 706 projects were judged to comply with the priority areas for cooperation. At the end of the whole selection procedure, 219 were accepted for financing. This represents a success rate of 24% of the total number of applications and 31% of applications in priority areas. The majority of applications were for Structural JEPs (815, of which 189 were accepted), while 101 were for Mobility JEPs (30 of which were accepted for support). The average grant allocated to the JEPs starting in 1995/96 is 376,087 ECU and the total budget for the 219 selected new projects over the three years is 82,363,014 ECU. Joint European Projects accepted in 1990, 1991 and 1992 have now completed their maximum three year period, while the projects accepted in 1993 and 1994 still running along with the new projects starting this year make a total of 466 JEPs currently in operation. Complementary Measures The CME action is organised in two rounds. For the first round of the academic year 1995/96, a total of 222 applications were submitted. This is a four fold increase compared to previous selection rounds and is almost certainly due to the complete restructuring of the CME action for this academic year.