Programmes supporting cooperation and mobility

The Agency is coordinating the two major educational programmes of the European Union and the five Nordic programmes and it is also responsible for a number of other programmes, schemes and initiatives that support contact and cooperation in education and training with other countries – also outside Europe.

Most programmes are funding different kinds of international education activities. The geographical scope varies, so do the activities that can be funded, but all the programmes have the overall purpose of:

• Strengthening cooperation between educational institutions across borders

• Disseminating knowledge of each others educational systems

• Increasing mobility in education as well as in the labour market in general

• Promoting higher quality in education

• Transferring good practice concerning teaching methods

• Developing intercultural understanding and intercultural competence.

EU-programmes

The European Union is funding two large educational programmes, Lifelong Learning and Youth in Action. On top of that there are several smaller programmes aiming at either certain countries, e.g. USA or Canada, or specific themes, e.g. eLearning.

Furthermore, the European Union has many programmes supporting research and development and education of researchers.

Nordic Programmes

The Nordic Council of Ministers has its own education programme, Nordplus. This programme contains five sub programmes, Nordplus Junior for general and vocational education, Nordplus for higher education, Nordplus Adult Learning, Nordplus Language and Nordplus Neighbour for cooperation with the Baltic Countries and Northwest Russia.

Nordic Youth Cooperation Committee awards grants for cooperation among organisations and groups and for youth projects.

National Programmes

Denmark has a few national programmes to promote mobility in education.

The Ministry of Education offers a grant to young people under 18 who wish to go abroad for one year while continuing their upper secondary studies. The stay must last for an academic year, i.e. at least 10 months, the young person must follow full-time courses at a locally recognised school or college, and live with a host family. Approximately 800 students take this opportunity every year.

The PIU programme is a Danish mobility programme for students in initial vocational education and training, agricultural training, and social and health care training. PIU is short for work placement abroad (Praktik I Udlandet), and funding is provided to students on work placements abroad as an integrated part of a Danish training programme. The work placements may be carried out in any part of the world, provided the country is safe according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.
 Approximately 1,000 students avail themselves of this opportunity every year.

Bilateral Agreements

As early as 1937 Denmark entered into the first bilateral cultural agreement with another country. Today there are 27 of these bilateral agreements on scholarships according to which students and researchers in higher education from abroad may apply for a government scholarship for long-term studies or short language courses in Denmark, and Danish students and researchers likewise may apply for scholarships in the agreement countries.

Denmark has also entered into a bilateral programme with USA. This programme supports cooperation in vocational education and training between US community colleges and Danish business and technical colleges. The target sectors are vocational education and training and short cycle higher education. The cooperation is based on an understanding between the Danish Minister of Education and the US Secretary of Education, and expires at the end of 2006.

Denmark is still open to new bilateral agreements. The latest agreement is from 2004, and it has been agreed between Denmark and the Australian state Victoria. The scope of the agreement is cooperation in the field of higher education.