Erasmus 20th Anniversary Closing Conference

Lisbon, 4 October 2007

Minister of Science and Higher Education, Mr Mariano GAGO, Mayor of Lisbon, Mr António COSTA, ESU President Koen Geven, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am delighted to be with you in Lisbon today to celebrate the tangible and symbolic achievements of the Erasmus programme over the past 20 years. Erasmus is such a resounding success that it has become a byword for Europe in the minds of our citizens and throughout the world. Exactly a week ago I was in this Cultural Center Belem for the first Cultural Forum for Europe. One of the ideas we have discussed in this hall was “Cultural Erasmus” – a nickname for the pilot project in 2008 on mobility of artists. Erasmus program is growing and spilling over inspiration also to other areas!

The messages of Mr Delors and Mr Marin you have just heard, recall that the programme had rather modest and difficult beginnings. Back in 1987 we started out with only 3,000 brave and adventurous students. By comparison, we expect about 200,000 students to travel in 2007/ 2008 school year and the total figure over 20 years is now close to 2 million.

Also, as you have heard from the previous messages, at that time, not all the higher–education authorities involved were enthusiastic about Erasmus. It was clear to national governments that the European Commission was planning a programme that would inevitably have a number of repercussions for their institutions and systems.

Education was—and remains—primarily a responsibility of the Member States, not of the EU; and the European Commission has always been careful to respect this principle, even when it had to twist some arms—as was the case for the negotiations that led to the adoption of the Erasmus programme.

Twenty years later almost two million students benefited from Erasmus and everyone agrees that this exchange scheme has set in motion a sea–change in Europe’s higher education.

There is no doubt that many of the original concerns were unfounded. The changes inspired by Erasmus have done a lot of good to our universities. The Erasmus programme has helped establish an unprecedented environment of trust and co–operation among academic institutions.

It has helped everyone realise that we should regard the whole of the EU as the natural terrain of development for Europe’s higher education.

Erasmus has a strategic role not only within European Union but also by reaching out to the world beyond with its sister programmes Erasmus Mundus, Tempus and so on.

The Commission has recently put forward new proposals which will make these programmes an even more comprehensive, coherent and vibrant instrument for the future.

The students and teachers who travelled from one university to another under Erasmus planted the seeds of many of the structural changes introduced in Europe’s higher education over the past few years.

Let me open an aside here. I have just used the phrase ‘students and teachers’. Everyone knows that Erasmus is a student–exchange programme; however, it is also open to faculty personnel.

Over the years, over 140,000 teachers and researchers have exchanged their teaching and learning styles working side by side with their foreign colleagues.

They have thus built up professional and personal contacts which have a lasting impact, not least in terms of developing networks for research.

What are the implications of these exchanges? Students who spend a year abroad would want the work accomplished in their host institutions count towards their degrees at home.

To do this, course structures and degrees need to be comparable even as they keep all their specific differences.

Teachers who travel to a foreign institution would learn new ways of doing things and would return with innovative ideas for their universities of origin.

I would like to stress one aspect in this process. The students, teachers and educational associations involved in Erasmus have set the conditions for change from the bottom up.

In the end, even the most conservative academic had to consider the demands put forward by this grass–roots movement, because the numbers were becoming significant and the proposals were realistic.

Erasmus produced, almost as a side effect, a large transfer of knowledge which has inspired innovation and modernisation on a large scale.

Public authorities and universities simply had to come to terms with the new needs generated by the mobility scheme.

The Bologna process is perhaps the most spectacular result of the process set in motion by the success of Erasmus.

As you know, the Bologna process now includes all EU members plus nineteen other European countries for a total of 46 participating countries.

Moreover, a number of other countries around the Mediterranean or in the Central Asia are looking with growing interest at this process of reform; many of which would like to formally join the process or otherwise benefit from the unique opportunities it provides.

Since the late 1990s, education ministers have been working together towards mutual recognition of degrees, transparency, and co–operation in quality assurance.

The ultimate goal of this broad process of reforms is the establishment of a European Higher Education Area by the end of the present decade.

The European Commission welcomes this process and has always provided all the technical and political support needed to ensure its success.

However, the Bologna process does not belong to public authorities—European or national. The current secretariat—jointly held by the Benelux countries—recognises the contribution of higher–education institutions, their staff and their students.

And this is the final indication I want to give you of the link between the success of Erasmus and the wave of reforms that is modernising higher education in Europe.

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Erasmus has encouraged us to see the larger, Europe–wide picture to which individual higher–education systems and centres of learning belong.

I and my fellow Commissioners have often spoken out on the need for universities to continue their march towards modernisation.

This modernisation agenda focuses on working together and creating networks. We need networks not just between universities but also with other research centres and business. This will allow Europe to harness its potential for creativity and innovation.

But the long–term benefits of the Erasmus programme are not limited to institutional reforms and to the boost that a stronger higher education can give to competitiveness and growth in the knowledge era.

I believe that the main contribution of the programme lies in the opportunities it has provided for human and civic development.

The Erasmus programme has given students and teachers the opportunity to discover other countries, languages, and cultures of Europe.

There is nothing like first–hand experience during the formative years spent at university to shape individual perceptions about one’s place within the European family and the peoples and cultures it includes.

As the success of the Erasmus programme was taking shape, people have begun to talk of an ‘Erasmus generation’ of open–minded, young Europeans.

Although the ‘Erasmus generation’ is one of the best news for Europe’s process of integration in recent years, it is certainly not unprecedented in historical terms.

The Erasmus generation of today follows in the footsteps of countless scholars, scientists, and intellectuals who have transcended and circumvented national boundaries since medieval Europe.

To these people, the only boundaries that counted were the boundaries of erudition, innovation, intellectual and spiritual challenge.

For many centuries the travelling scholars were among the few who could move freely around the continent. It was also thanks to this privilege that they laid down what we recognise today as Europe’s intellectual and moral foundations.

We have named our mobility programme after Desiderius Erasmus, the humanist from Rotterdam who is perhaps the epitome of the travelling scholar.

An untiring opponent of dogmatic thought, Erasmus worked and studied in Paris, Oxford, Padua, Cambridge, Leuven, and Basel.

He spent his life in quest of the knowledge, experience and insight that only contacts with great minds and kindred spirits could bring.

Many centuries have gone by, but the wandering scholar of the Middle Ages is still with us. The European project owes much to this emblematic figure which embodies our own quest for political integration, intercultural dialogue, peace and integrity.

We know that education unites! And therefore we should work for more and better education for the sake of our common future. And as the logo of the Portuguese Presidency in this area says, united we learn!

Ladies and Gentlemen:

Today’s schools and universities have a heavier civic responsibility than in the past because we expect them to prepare our young people for the knowledge economy and for a complex world where we are all increasingly interdependent.

Clearly, learning about our own history and culture is the starting point for shaping our sense of belonging. However, we should complement the knowledge about our own roots with an understanding of other societies and cultures.

If you think about it, this is precisely what the Erasmus programme has been doing for the past twenty years; and I can assure you this is precisely what it will continue to do for many years to come.

When students and teachers go off to study and teach abroad under Erasmus, they are not just getting a high–quality academic experience. They are discovering a new culture and expanding their own horizons.

Erasmus participants learn new languages, the habits of other peoples become familiar to them, they become more tolerant and open–minded.

And what counts most it that they take their newly acquired attitudes back home with them. Just think that, 80% of Erasmus students are the first member of their family to study abroad.

Perhaps the best proof of the deeply personal impact that the programme can have is that those who travel with Erasmus also embark on a sentimental journey—to use Sterne’s words.

Quite a number of students start relationships with long–standing partners during their Erasmus experience.

Surveys tell us that no fewer than one in six Erasmus students finish up with a life partner from another country, and of these 50% are from the country where the student carried out his or her period of Erasmus study.

In this way, the Erasmus programme can be seen to be making a very concrete contribution to the emergence of the ‘European family’.

Links are also established with fellow Erasmus alumni and these links often become part of networks that will be with alumni throughout their personal and professional lives.

Spending a period of study abroad brings open–mindedness, greater capacity for teamwork, and increased independence.

These are features that give students a clear added value for employment in international– oriented jobs.

This open–mindedness and these cross–cultural skills are becoming more important as Europe seeks to balance our common heritage of shared values with the promotion of cultural diversity.

We are talking about 2 million direct participants—but perhaps as many as 10 million people who are indirectly touched by the programme—with an outstanding ability to understand and accept linguistic and cultural differences.

In this respect, the Erasmus generation can be regarded as a new type of social actor – the truly ambassadors of the European values and probably the first generation of truly European citizens.

Long live Erasmus and happy birthday!

Thank you.