Elspeth encourages more student exchanges

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 23rd Sep 2008

Scottish Lib Dem MEP Elspeth Attwooll is encouraging more Scottish students to apply to the Erasmus exchange programme, which allows students to spend up to a year at another European university as part of their course.

She was speaking after today's vote in the European Parliament on the Pack Report on 'Student Mobility and the Bologna Process', which looks at the effects of the European Union on the mobility of university students in Europe.

Elspeth, who lectured at Glasgow University before she was elected, said:

"European cooperation has generated more opportunities for student mobility than ever before. Programmes like the Erasmus exchange provide funding for students to spend time at other universities across the EU.

But it is worrying when so few of our students take advantage in comparison to those in other member states. We have to look closely at the reasons behind this.

The skills that Erasmus exchanges develop give graduates an edge in today's enlarged European job market, while also helping to broaden horizons more generally".

Notes:

• Statistics show that less UK students take advantage of the programme compared to the other EU countries, with the number of UK participants decreasing since 2000 and those from France, Germany, Italy and Spain increasing. See http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/llp/erasmus/statisti/table1.pdf

• The Pack report on student mobility and the Bologna process was voted on Tuesday the 23rd September in the EP with 592 votes for and 26 against. See http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=REPORT&reference=A6-2008-0302&language=EN&mode=XML

• For more on the Erasmus exchange programme, see the British Council website http://www.britishcouncil.org/erasmus

• For more on the Bologna Process http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/educ/bologna/bologna_en.html