Texte intégral de l'entretien avec Marielle De Sarnez, députée européenne : "Erasmus Mundus propose

Dans un entretien avec EURACTIV, Marielle de Sarnez, rapporteur du Parlement pour Eramus Mundus, explique comment ce nouveau programme va permettre de renforcer l’attractivité de l’enseignement supérieur européen.

The Council adopted the Erasmus Mundus programme on 24 November 2003 with a budget of 230 million euro. During the plenary session of the European Parliament in October, you insisted on an increase in the amount of money earmarked for the new Erasmus programme. Can you explain why you defended such an increase?

The Erasmus Mundus programme is an ambitious one which provides students with the opportunity to pursue high quality European higher education. If we want to attract a large number of students and we want there to be exchanges between universities (eg researchers) we need to give ourselves the means to achieve our objectives. The extra money in the budget will mainly go to the students, in form of additional grants.

Do you think that the new Erasmus Mundus programme will manage to make Europe as attractive as the US for higher education students from third countries?

Currently the US is the top destination for higher education students from third countries. Some of the reasons are that the students are looked after so well, receive sizeable grants and can practice their English.

European universities have an excellent international reputation. We must now do what we can to harmonise degree qualifications and ensure that the qualifications are recognised at the European level. This will allow students to travel from European university to university and have the experience validated by a double or joint degree. What’s more, students will be able to learn foreign languages during their stays, which will enable them to have a better cultural understanding of the country they are visiting. Many students from third countries and Europe have already announced their wish to participate in the Erasmus Mundus programme. I am sure that after the first couple of years, the Erasmus Mundus programme will have the same success as its little brother Erasmus.

In your opinion, is it necessary to introduce (higher) tuition fees to keep European universities competitive ?

The things that can hold back a student from studying abroad are finances and the way they are looked after in the host country. That’s why the Erasmus Mundus programme offers grants of around 1,600 euro per month and demands high quality conditions for the visiting students. The added value of European universities lies both in the quality of the teaching and how students are looked after. This added value is, of course, also based on the recognition and harmonization of [European] degrees.

What are your main expectations as regards the current review of the exchange programmes (Socrates, Leonardo Da Vinci and Youth)?

These are three programmes which are making a key contribution to the construction of a knowledge-based Europe. It’s important that we increase their budget as we will soon be a Europe of 25. We will also need to open up these programmes to third countries. The Europe of education and training cannot stay isolated. It must open up the rest of the world.