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More UK students than ever before are choosing to work or study for up to a year in Europe through the Erasmus programme, according to the latest statistics released today ( 16 November 2012) by the British Council. The number of UK students participating in the programme has risen by 6.5 per cent since 2010/11. In the last academic year, 2011/12, UK students undertook 13,668 periods of study or work-placement, the highest number since the programme was launched in 1987. However David Hibler, Erasmus Programme Manager, cautions that the take-up of the programme in the UK remains heavily weighted towards language students. Read the full story
Employers Value the Ability to Work with People from Other Cultures
A new piece of research by the British Council, Ipsos and management consultants Booz Allen Hamilton shows that not only do employers around the world value the ability to work with people from other cultures as highly as they value formal qualifications - but they also say a lack of these skills in the workforce can open them up to serious risks including losing clients.Read the full report
EU Commission invites bids for €227m in research grants
The European Commission is inviting bids (March 15 2013) for the final tranche of Marie Curie fellowship grants allotted under the current seventh Framework Programme for Research (FP7, 2007-13). Some €227 million, the highest single amount made available through the Marie Curie Actions fund, will be awarded to around 1 000 experienced researchers this year. The application process runs until 14 August 2013. Please visit their website to apply.
A new report launched today (13 November 2012) by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) and the British Council calls on UK universities to commit to securing 20% participation in mobility among all higher education students by 2020. The report, 'Going Mobile: Internationalisation, mobility and the European Higher Education Area', highlights challenges to and opportunities for UK universities in achieving the 2009 Leuven 20/2020 commitment. Currently only around 2% of UK undergraduates engage in study or workplace mobility of at least three months. The report’s author, Simon Sweeney, Lecturer in International Political Economy and Business in the York Management School and a member of the Bologna Expert Team (both at University of York), describes the report as uncompromising in its calling for, “a much greater effort from our universities to ensure that internationalisation strategies are driven by educational imperatives rather than dictated by economic ends.” Sweeney also offers proposals for how the situation can be improved.
Over half of the UK’s Erasmus participants come from just twenty institutions, the British Council’s Chief Executive Martin Davidson revealed today at a reception to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Erasmus programme(17 May 2012).
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