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Programmes and Projects

Socrates / Erasmus
Promoting European Cooperation in Education

Education and training are of central importance to Europe's economic and social future. Through exchanges of people and ideas, European cooperation can contribute to raising the overall quality of teaching methods and materials and to developing more appropriate ways of meeting new learning challenges.

The European Community action programme for cooperation in the field of education, SOCRATES, was launched in 1995 and runs to the end of 1999. Spanning the 15 Member States of the European Union, as well as Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, it is the first European initiative covering education at all ages and forms part of a broader approach to the concept of Lifelong Learning.

SOCRATES continues and extends a number of previous Community programmes, including ERASMUS (in higher education) and LINGUA (in the field of language-learning). These are combined with new actions to form the first comprehensive European programme for cooperation in all sectors of education.

A general description of the whole of SOCRATES can be found on the European Commission's server.
Assistance is given by the Technical Assistance Office (TAO) SOCRATES & YOUTH

The European Commission has prepared a Manual of Good Practice on ERASMUS, aimed at helping higher education establishments in eligible states with the preparation of their applications. Contact EC-DG XXII/A, Fax: +32-2-295.41.53.

The database for higher education in the EU is ORTELIUS.

SOCRATES and its first activity ERASMUS on Higher Education has accepted the University Cooperation Project of Mutual Interest entitled ETNET-WATER (European Thematic Network of Education and Traning for WATER). ETNET-WATER has been active since September 1996. If you are qualified and interested in joining the ETNET-WATER, send an E-mail to the Editor.

For a list of other Thematic Network projects 1996/97, click here.

A pilot-project of ETNET-WATER is TEST.EAU "Tests for the basic knowledge in the field of environment/water". Your contribution to this pilot-project is highly appreciated.