{"id":18432,"date":"2007-10-04T15:04:00","date_gmt":"2007-10-04T13:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/janfigel.com\/?p=18432"},"modified":"2026-05-27T15:15:55","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T13:15:55","slug":"20-years-of-erasmus-from-higher-education-to-european-citizenship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/janfigel.com\/sk\/2007\/10\/04\/20-years-of-erasmus-from-higher-education-to-european-citizenship\/","title":{"rendered":"20 years of Erasmus: from higher education to European citizenship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Erasmus 20th Anniversary Closing Conference<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Lisbon, 4 October 2007<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"666\" src=\"https:\/\/janfigel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/sanjiang-classroom-2787754-1-1024x666.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18434\" srcset=\"https:\/\/janfigel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/sanjiang-classroom-2787754-1-1024x666.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/janfigel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/sanjiang-classroom-2787754-1-300x195.jpg 300w, https:\/\/janfigel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/sanjiang-classroom-2787754-1-768x499.jpg 768w, https:\/\/janfigel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/sanjiang-classroom-2787754-1-1536x998.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/janfigel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/sanjiang-classroom-2787754-1-2048x1331.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/janfigel.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/sanjiang-classroom-2787754-1-18x12.jpg 18w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/photos\/classroom-guiyang-table-textbooks-2787754\/\">Classroom Guiyang Table &#8211; Free photo on Pixabay<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Minister of Science and Higher Education, Mr Mariano GAGO<br>Mayor of Lisbon, Mr Ant\u00f3nio COSTA,<br>ESU President Koen Geven,<br>Distinguished Guests,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Ladies and Gentlemen,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>I am delighted to be with you in Lisbon today to celebrate the tangible and<br>symbolic achievements of the Erasmus programme over the past 20 years.<br>Erasmus is such a resounding success that it has become a byword for<br>Europe in the minds of our citizens and throughout the world. Exactly a<br>week ago I was in this Cultural Center Belem for the first Cultural Forum for<br>Europe. One of the ideas we have discussed in this hall was &#8220;Cultural<br>Erasmus&#8221; \u2013 a nickname for the pilot project in 2008 on mobility of artists.<br>Erasmus program is growing and spilling over inspiration also to other<br>areas!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>The messages of Mr Delors and Mr Marin you have just heard, recall that<br>the programme had rather modest and difficult beginnings. Back in 1987 we<br>started out with only 3,000 brave and adventurous students. By comparison,<br>we expect about 200,000 students to travel in 2007\/ 2008 school year and<br>the total figure over 20 years is now close to 2 million.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Also, as you have heard from the previous messages, at that time, not all the<br>higher\u2013education authorities involved were enthusiastic about Erasmus. It<br>was clear to national governments that the European Commission was<br>planning a programme that would inevitably have a number of repercussions<br>for their institutions and systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Education was\u2014and remains\u2014primarily a responsibility of the Member<br>States, not of the EU; and the European Commission has always been<br>careful to respect this principle, even when it had to twist some arms\u2014as<br>was the case for the negotiations that led to the adoption of the Erasmus<br>programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Twenty years later almost two million students benefited from Erasmus and<br>everyone agrees that this exchange scheme has set in motion a sea\u2013change in<br>Europe\u2019s higher education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>There is no doubt that many of the original concerns were unfounded. The<br>changes inspired by Erasmus have done a lot of good to our universities.<br>The Erasmus programme has helped establish an unprecedented<br>environment of trust and co\u2013operation among academic institutions.<br>It has helped everyone realise that we should regard the whole of the EU as<br>the natural terrain of development for Europe\u2019s higher education.<br>Erasmus has a strategic role not only within European Union but also by<br>reaching out to the world beyond with its sister programmes Erasmus<br>Mundus, Tempus and so on.<br><br>The Commission has recently put forward new proposals which will make<br>these programmes an even more comprehensive, coherent and vibrant<br>instrument for the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The students and teachers who travelled from one university to another<br>under Erasmus planted the seeds of many of the structural changes<br>introduced in Europe\u2019s higher education over the past few years.<br>Let me open an aside here. I have just used the phrase \u2018students and<br>teachers\u2019. Everyone knows that Erasmus is a student\u2013exchange programme;<br>however, it is also open to faculty personnel.<br>Over the years, over 140,000 teachers and researchers have exchanged their<br>teaching and learning styles working side by side with their foreign<br>colleagues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>They have thus built up professional and personal contacts which have a<br>lasting impact, not least in terms of developing networks for research.<br>What are the implications of these exchanges? Students who spend a year<br>abroad would want the work accomplished in their host institutions count<br>towards their degrees at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>To do this, course structures and degrees need to be comparable even as they<br>keep all their specific differences.<br>Teachers who travel to a foreign institution would learn new ways of doing<br>things and would return with innovative ideas for their universities of origin.<br><br>I would like to stress one aspect in this process. The students, teachers and<br>educational associations involved in Erasmus have set the conditions for<br>change from the bottom up.<br>In the end, even the most conservative academic had to consider the<br>demands put forward by this grass\u2013roots movement, because the numbers<br>were becoming significant and the proposals were realistic.<br>Erasmus produced, almost as a side effect, a large transfer of knowledge<br>which has inspired innovation and modernisation on a large scale.<br>Public authorities and universities simply had to come to terms with the new<br>needs generated by the mobility scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Bologna process is perhaps the most spectacular result of the process set<br>in motion by the success of Erasmus.<br>As you know, the Bologna process now includes all EU members plus<br>nineteen other European countries for a total of 46 participating countries.<br>Moreover, a number of other countries around the Mediterranean or in the<br>Central Asia are looking with growing interest at this process of reform;<br>many of which would like to formally join the process or otherwise benefit<br>from the unique opportunities it provides.<br>Since the late 1990s, education ministers have been working together<br>towards mutual recognition of degrees, transparency, and co\u2013operation in<br>quality assurance.<br>The ultimate goal of this broad process of reforms is the establishment of a<br>European Higher Education Area by the end of the present decade.<br><br>The European Commission welcomes this process and has always provided<br>all the technical and political support needed to ensure its success.<br>However, the Bologna process does not belong to public authorities\u2014<br>European or national. The current secretariat\u2014jointly held by the Benelux<br>countries\u2014recognises the contribution of higher\u2013education institutions, their<br>staff and their students.<br>And this is the final indication I want to give you of the link between the<br>success of Erasmus and the wave of reforms that is modernising higher<br>education in Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Erasmus has encouraged us to see the larger, Europe\u2013wide picture to which<br>individual higher\u2013education systems and centres of learning belong.<br>I and my fellow Commissioners have often spoken out on the need for<br>universities to continue their march towards modernisation.<br>This modernisation agenda focuses on working together and creating<br>networks. We need networks not just between universities but also with<br>other research centres and business. This will allow Europe to harness its<br>potential for creativity and innovation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>But the long\u2013term benefits of the Erasmus programme are not limited to<br>institutional reforms and to the boost that a stronger higher education can<br>give to competitiveness and growth in the knowledge era.<br>I believe that the main contribution of the programme lies in the<br>opportunities it has provided for human and civic development.<br><br>The Erasmus programme has given students and teachers the opportunity to<br>discover other countries, languages, and cultures of Europe.<br>There is nothing like first\u2013hand experience during the formative years spent<br>at university to shape individual perceptions about one\u2019s place within the<br>European family and the peoples and cultures it includes.<br>As the success of the Erasmus programme was taking shape, people have<br>begun to talk of an \u2018Erasmus generation\u2019 of open\u2013minded, young Europeans.<br>Although the \u2018Erasmus generation\u2019 is one of the best news for Europe\u2019s<br>process of integration in recent years, it is certainly not unprecedented in<br>historical terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>The Erasmus generation of today follows in the footsteps of countless<br>scholars, scientists, and intellectuals who have transcended and<br>circumvented national boundaries since medieval Europe.<br>To these people, the only boundaries that counted were the boundaries of<br>erudition, innovation, intellectual and spiritual challenge.<br>For many centuries the travelling scholars were among the few who could<br>move freely around the continent. It was also thanks to this privilege that<br>they laid down what we recognise today as Europe\u2019s intellectual and moral<br>foundations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>We have named our mobility programme after Desiderius Erasmus, the<br>humanist from Rotterdam who is perhaps the epitome of the travelling<br>scholar.<br>An untiring opponent of dogmatic thought, Erasmus worked and studied in<br>Paris, Oxford, Padua, Cambridge, Leuven, and Basel.<br><br>He spent his life in quest of the knowledge, experience and insight that only<br>contacts with great minds and kindred spirits could bring.<br>Many centuries have gone by, but the wandering scholar of the Middle Ages<br>is still with us. The European project owes much to this emblematic figure<br>which embodies our own quest for political integration, intercultural<br>dialogue, peace and integrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>We know that education unites! And therefore we should work for more and<br>better education for the sake of our common future. And as the logo of the<br>Portuguese Presidency in this area says, united we learn!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Today\u2019s schools and universities have a heavier civic responsibility than in<br>the past because we expect them to prepare our young people for the<br>knowledge economy and for a complex world where we are all increasingly<br>interdependent.<br>Clearly, learning about our own history and culture is the starting point for<br>shaping our sense of belonging. However, we should complement the<br>knowledge about our own roots with an understanding of other societies and<br>cultures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>If you think about it, this is precisely what the Erasmus programme has been<br>doing for the past twenty years; and I can assure you this is precisely what it<br>will continue to do for many years to come.<br>When students and teachers go off to study and teach abroad under Erasmus,<br>they are not just getting a high\u2013quality academic experience. They are<br>discovering a new culture and expanding their own horizons.<br><br>Erasmus participants learn new languages, the habits of other peoples<br>become familiar to them, they become more tolerant and open\u2013minded.<br>And what counts most it that they take their newly acquired attitudes back<br>home with them. Just think that, 80% of Erasmus students are the first<br>member of their family to study abroad.<br>Perhaps the best proof of the deeply personal impact that the programme can<br>have is that those who travel with Erasmus also embark on a sentimental<br>journey\u2014to use Sterne\u2019s words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Quite a number of students start relationships with long\u2013standing partners<br>during their Erasmus experience.<br>Surveys tell us that no fewer than one in six Erasmus students finish up with<br>a life partner from another country, and of these 50% are from the country<br>where the student carried out his or her period of Erasmus study.<br>In this way, the Erasmus programme can be seen to be making a very<br>concrete contribution to the emergence of the \u2018European family\u2019.<br>Links are also established with fellow Erasmus alumni and these links often<br>become part of networks that will be with alumni throughout their personal<br>and professional lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>Spending a period of study abroad brings open\u2013mindedness, greater capacity<br>for teamwork, and increased independence.<br>These are features that give students a clear added value for employment in<br>international\u2013 oriented jobs.<br><br>This open\u2013mindedness and these cross\u2013cultural skills are becoming more<br>important as Europe seeks to balance our common heritage of shared values<br>with the promotion of cultural diversity.<br>We are talking about 2 million direct participants\u2014but perhaps as many as<br>10 million people who are indirectly touched by the programme\u2014with an<br>outstanding ability to understand and accept linguistic and cultural<br>differences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>In this respect, the Erasmus generation can be regarded as a new type of<br>social actor \u2013 the truly ambassadors of the European values and probably the<br>first generation of truly European citizens.<br>Long live Erasmus and happy birthday!<br>Thank you.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Erasmus 20th Anniversary Closing Conference Lisbon, 4 October 2007 Minister of Science and Higher Education, Mr Mariano GAGOMayor of Lisbon, Mr Ant\u00f3nio COSTA,ESU President Koen Geven,Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am delighted to be with you in Lisbon today to celebrate the tangible andsymbolic achievements of the Erasmus programme over the past 20 years.Erasmus [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18434,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-en"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.7 - 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