Socrates is the European programme for education. Its aim is to promote the European dimension and to improve the quality of education by encouraging cooperation between the participating countries. The programme sets out to develop a Europe of knowledge and thus better cater for the major challenges of this new century: to promote lifelong learning, to encourage access by everybody to education, to acquire qualifications and recognised skills.

The countries taking part are: Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxemborg, the Netherlands, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Cyprus, Malta and Turkey.

Comenius: School Education

The Comenius action focuses on the first phase of education, including primary, secondary, technical and vocational education. The aims to enhance the quality of teaching strengthen its European dimension and promote language learning. There is also emphasis on certain important issues: learning in a multicultural framework, support for disadvantaged groups and tackling under-achievement at school and exclusion.

Comenius 1 supports a range of Partnerships which enable pupils, students and staff from across Europe to work together on joint projects.

Comenius 2 provides European in-service training for staff involved in school education and opportunities for trainees and intending teachers.

Comenius 3 supports Networks of organisations involved in Comenius which share expertise and good practice.

Erasmus

The purpose of this action is to improve the quality of higher education and strengthen its European dimension. It does this by encouraging transnational cooperation between universities and higher education institutions, fostering the European mobility of students and teachers and contributing to improved transparency and academic recognition of qualifications and studies within the Community. The participating institutions enter into Institutional Contracts with the Commission. MCAST applied to become a registered Erasmus Institution in November 2003. The main beneficiaries of this action are the students and teachers of the Higher National Diplomas.

Student mobility gives students the opportunity to study for a period of 3-12 months at an educational institution in another participating country. Teacher exchanges provide support for teachers while travelling to another country to deliver a short course, as part of the official curriculum of the partner educational institution. Erasmus also offers the possibility of more than 3 educational institutions to become partners in pooling resources to develop a programme of study in any academic area.

Grundtvig

Grundtvig seeks to improve and facilitate access to learning for everyone at any age wishing to learn either to return to school or university, for his or her own personal development or in order to enhance his/her role an active European citizen. This action supports different types of activities:

Grundtvig 1: European cooperation projects that wish to undertake a tangible projector a joint production through European cooperation;

Grundtvig 2: Education partnerships involve small scale joint projects around a specific theme or the organisation of conferences, exhibition or visits.

Grundtvig 3: Grants for trainers who want to undertake a short course in another country.

Grundtvig 4: Networks to strengthen the link between the various actors involved in adult learning.

Lingua

As the name suggests, this action promotes the teaching and learning of languages. Projects can either focus on raising awareness, information dissemination or development of language learning tools. Projects submitted under one of these Lingua strands must be based on a partnership between at least 3 countries and produce real added value for Europe.

Examples of Lingua projects can be viewed on europa.eu.int/comm/education/programmes/socrates/compendia/lingua2_02.pdf.

Current projects can be viewed on europa.eu.int/comm/education/programmes/socrates/lingua/community/community5.pdf.

There are two stages to apply for funding for Lingua projects:

1st November deadline for Pre-Proposals

1st March deadline for Full Proposals if pre-proposal is successful

Minerva

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are an essential tool in responding to the challenges currently being faced by the education system due to new trends in society. Through Minerva, the European Commission supports four major types of activity: Projects to better understand and support innovation; Activities to design new teaching methods; Activities intended to communicate and disseminate results of projects; Projects intended to network and encourage exchange of ideas and experience. ICTs feature in all aspects of the Socrates programme. In Minerva, however, they are the very essence of the projects. Minerva-supported activities are intended to reach a critical mass and are on a large scale than in the other actions. For a list of projects look at europa.eu.int/comm/education/programmes/socrates/minerva/tableprojects.pdf.

There are two stages to apply for funding for Minerva projects:

1st November deadline for Pre-Proposals

1st March deadline for Full Proposals if pre-proposal is successful

European Credit Transfer System (ECTS)

To help students make the most from their study abroad, the European Commission has developed a European Credit Transfer System. This system was piloted in the period 1988-1997 and till now more than 1000 higher education institutions run this scheme. This system provides a way of measuring and comparing learning achievements, and transferring them from one institution to another. Due to the transferability of credits, the Erasmus student can enjoy the study period in the host institution, without worrying about missing out on important studying back home.

How can MCAST students benefit from the Socrates programme?

Students in general are both the direct and the indirect beneficiaries of all the Socrates projects since they are anyway the recipients of any upgrade in tuition that teachers give as a result of a Socrates project. There are 2 ways how students can be the direct beneficiaries of the Socrates programme. They can either be a participant in a Comenius school project, often initiated through a teacher's initiative or else, Higher National Diploma (HND) students, can apply individually for an Erasmus placement. An Erasmus placement, involves spending between 3 to 12 months studying in a partner college. This will be possible due to the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS).

How can MCAST staff benefit from the Socrates programme?

MCAST staff has a lot to benefit from the Socrates programme. All the various actions provide opportunities for staff development and mobility. Comenius school projects are often initiated by teachers and then a group of students participate. Various themes can be chosen but often they centre on Europeanization and the pooling of resources and good practices. The Erasmus mobility action gives the opportunity for a teacher to spend a few days teaching a short course or part of a course in a partner college. Erasmus also allows teachers to meet and jointly prepare a course or a module.

All the actions with Grundtvig are aimed at the personal and professional development of adults and their teachers. Grundtvig projects can vary from projects aiming at producing something tangible (Grundtvig 1) to small-scale cooperation between adult education organisations (Grundtvig 2) to requesting grants for attending training courses or doing job shadowing (Grundtvig 3) but also to hold forums for discussing key issues and policy shaping in adult education (Grundtvig 4).

Lingua projects both under action 1 and 2 offer teachers the possibility to raise standards and upgrade language learning tools. Minerva projects, on the other hand, aim at projects to enhance the use of IT especially in education.

Additional Information

More detailed information is available from the following web sites:

Socrates Malta Web Site

EU Socrates Web Site