Streamlined Tempus sheds travel grants

The Commission is preparing to unveil a fourth phase of Tempus, its programme of joint projects between universities in the EU and 26 neighbouring countries in the western Balkans, eastern Europe, the Mediterranean and central Asia.

In the streamlined future, Tempus will focus on encouraging higher education reforms in these countries, in particular where these bring systems into line with the way things are done in the EU. Support for academic and student exchanges, meanwhile, will be taken up by other EU programmes, such as Erasmus and Erasmus Mundus.

The third incarnation of the Tempus programme ended in December 2006, and the Commission is currently finalising its plans for the next phase, running from 2007 to 2013 with an anticipated budget of €50 million. Details are expected to be presented to national representatives of the programme in June, with a first call for proposals to be issued in the summer.

Tempus IV will have a more strategic orientation in the support it gives to reform efforts in the target countries. "Tempus will continue to place special emphasis on the modernisation of higher education systems (and not only individual institutions) in partner countries," said an official in charge of the programme. The Commission particularly wants to encourage structural measures aiming at promoting the necessary reforms flowing from the Bologna process. The official added that the Commission wants to address issues linked to the EU higher education modernisation agenda, such as quality assurance, the credit system, university governance, funding resources, innovative teaching, new publics and so on.

Average project size is expected to go up, and regional co-operation will be encouraged. But the individual mobility grants available in Tempus III will be dropped from the new programme and any support for travel will have to be closely linked to projects. "Tempus projects will continue to include small-scale and short-duration mobility activities for students, academic staff and university administrators, to test the approaches and methods developed under the projects, which should contribute to the modernisation of higher education systems in the partner countries," the official said.

This change runs counter to the feedback received from participants in Tempus, who valued the individual mobility grants, with some calling for a dedicated travel programme in Tempus IV. Last year’s study of the impact of Tempus also gave its mobility elements strong support, recommending that existing student mobility projects be extended and that such activities should be added to projects where student travel was not yet a feature.

But the Commission sees this as an area of overlap with other programmes that support academic and student exchanges with non-EU countries, in particular with the Erasmus Mundus external co-operation that began this year. This programme supports study visits for academics and students (from undergraduate to post-doctorate level) between universities in the EU and selected third countries. Despite its name, it is not limited to previously supported Erasmus Mundus programmes.

In addition, dropping the Tempus mobility grants will also spare the Commission considerable administrative effort.

• Ian Mundell is a freelance journalist based in Brussels.

The Commission is preparing to unveil a fourth phase of Tempus, its programme of joint projects between universities in the EU and 26 neighbouring countries in the western Balkans, eastern Europe, the Mediterranean and central Asia.