EU and US boost educational exchange programmes

The United States and the European Union signed a new agreement Wednesday on cooperation in higher education and vocational training on the sidelines of an EU-US Summit with US President George W. Bush in Vienna, according to a statement.

The eight-year agreement was signed by US Foreign Secretary Condoleezza Rice, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.

"The new agreement will usher in innovative transatlantic degree programmes, promote exchanges of students, teachers and other professionals, strengthen the Schuman-Fulbright (scholarship) Programme and encourage greater institutional collaboration in tertiary education," the statement said.

The project should receive 45 million euros (57 million dollars) from the European Commission by 2013 and hopes to target some 6,000 students over the next eight years.

"It will offer our students the opportunity to study on the other side of the Atlantic. Such invaluable experiences contribute greatly to relations between our citizens, helping us to understand each other better and making us more aware of our respective cultures, languages and institutions," Ferrero-Waldner said at the signing Wednesday.

The EU and US have run a joint cooperation programme in higher education and vocational training since 1995 with "joint curriculum development and student exchanges in a wide range of disciplines," the statement said.