ERASMUS MUNDUS EXTERNAL COOPERATION WINDOW

The European Union recognises the importance of higher education for economic and social development. Higher education plays a crucial role in producing high quality human resources, in disseminating scientific discovery and advanced knowledge through teaching and educating future generations of citizens, high level professionals and political leaders, who in turn can contribute to better governance.

The promotion of international cooperation between the European Union and third-Country higher education institutions and in particular the facilitation of institution-based mobility is a win-win situation for its potential contribution to the mutual enrichment of nations and to a better understanding of peoples.

Within this context the European Commission launched in 2006 the Erasmus Mundus External Cooperation Window (EMECW) which combines the European Union education, cooperation and external policies to further deepen and enhance the higher education cooperation links between the EU and the rest of the world.

The Erasmus Mundus External Cooperation Window (EMECW) offers a unique higher education institutional cooperation frame and training opportunities relevant to the skilled manpower needs of the targeted regions and the EU. Thus EMECW students and academic staff benefit from the opportunity to study in Europe and abroad while the participating universities raise their capacities, build pole of expertise and gain international visibility.

The Erasmus Mundus External Cooperation Window (EMECW) objective is to achieve better understanding and mutual enrichment between the European Union and third countries co-operation in the field of higher education. This will be achieved through the promotion of partnerships and institutional co-operation exchanges between European Higher Education Institutions and Third Country institutions with a mobility scheme addressing student and academic exchanges.

The first call for proposals aimed at fostering cooperation between higher education institutions from 24 targeted countries by boosting exchanges of students, researchers and academic staff. Owing to its success, the European Commission has decided to enlarge its geographical coverage in the call for proposals 2007 and include two main groups of regions:

Group A: (constituted of Third-countries which were already targeted by the 2006 Call for proposals):

• The Neighbouring countries in the South Mediterranean and Eastern Europe covered by the ENPI regulation plus Russia (covered both by the ENPI and the TACIS regulations)
• Yemen, Iraq, Iran covered by the DCI regulation
• Central Asian Republics (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan) covered by the DCI regulation

Group B:

• African Caribbean and Pacific Group of States covered by the 9th European Development Fund
• Western Balkan covered by the IPA regulation
• Asia region: Asia Regional and India covered by the DCI regulation
• Latin America region: Brazil, Chile and Mexico covered by the DCI regulation