Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia Oskar Benedikt called Serbia to make strategic use of opportunities offered by new EU’s educational programme Erasmus+, presented at the National Erasmus+ Information Day.
“I invite all of you here present, as well as decision-makers at all levels to make strategic use of opportunities which Erasmus+ offers,” Benedikt told participants of the Information Day, held in Belgrade.
“Participation in education programmes is an important tool which brings EU and Serbia together even before accession. It enables us to get to know each other, cooperate with each other, learn from each other and together make important decisions which improve the quality of the national education systems as well as the European higher education space,” he added.
The EU is Serbia’s biggest partner and donor when it comes to modernising education systems, Benedikt recalled.
“Through our pre-accession or IPA funds, we have donated more than 63 million Euros for educational reform, from pre-school to vocational education to higher education. Just last month, with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological development we successfully celebrated the end of our €30 million programme for reconstruction of the infrastructure of Universities across Serbia,” he said.
In addition, the EU programmes have been an additional, if not the main, catalyst for modernisation of higher education in Serbia over the past 10 years:
“Serbian universities and other institutions have participated in more than 200 Tempus projects since 2002 to the total value of approx. 50 million EUR.Through this EU programme, Serbian universities have established excellent cooperation with European partners and have become one of the most successful applicants in this programme. The projects have helped to introduce new systems of studies and modern curricula, to equip many university labs and computer rooms or have provided other equipment needed for modern teaching,” Benedikt said.
Through the Erasmus Mundus programmemore than 1600 individual scholarships were granted to students from Serbiafor an exchange period or full study period in European universities (i.e. for attending Erasmus Mundus joint master or PhD programme in the EU).
“The new Erasmus+ programme will build on these successes and offer even more opportunities for students and staff of higher education institutions to spend periods abroad. Under the so called credit mobility scheme, some 3500 student exchanges under Erasmus are planned for 2015 for the Western Balkans region to the total value of 22.3 million EUR,” he said.
According to him, very interesting element of the Erasmus + will be the capacity building projects for HEto help Serbia to further modernise the higher education system by joining forces with EU universities.
Curricular reform in specific academic disciplines, but also projects aiming at reforms in university governance, opening up universities to society at large, improving student services, reinforcing quality assurance measures and employability are the focus of the attention in such projects.
“The new Erasmus+ programme also encompasses Youth programmes to support informal and non-formal learning of young people, such as exchanges, volunteering and internship opportunities. This part of the programme complements very well what the system of formal education is doing,” Benedikt said.
