Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-10-20-Speech-1-126"
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"en.20031020.9.1-126"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, a year ago, we celebrated the enrolment of the one millionth Erasmus student. If it were up to me, we would offer yet many more students across the world the opportunity of studying at other universities. I am also indebted to Mrs de Sarnez for the energy she has put into the successful completion of her report.
It is important in Europe to offer a sound alternative to the American universities, to which the majority of our European students go at present. As Europe seeks to become the world's most competitive knowledge economy, we ought to advertise ourselves as a centre of excellence, where academic standards are high, so that it makes it worth the effort for foreign students to come and study over here. For various reasons, I have always propagated that it is of major importance for students to learn foreign languages, at least two. This is a
for anyone from the Netherlands. It also promotes the understanding of other cultures. I see this reflected in your report, which I welcome.
The knowledge of languages does not only help the student with a university degree to secure a better competitive position within the labour market, it also contributes to his cultural baggage, and, lest we forget, to mutual understanding.
I should nevertheless like to make an observation with regard to this report. The programme is intended for students and university lecturers from all over the world, hence the name 'Mundus'. I should, in this connection, like to press for extra attention for universities in developing countries. Education is the best weapon in the fight against poverty. By giving students from the developing countries the opportunity of acquiring learning within the EU, we can help them disseminate this knowledge in their own countries. However, I should like to add explicitly that it must, of course, be ensured that they plough their knowledge back into their own countries once they have completed their studies. The programme is not, after all, intended to crank up the brain drain. This requires sound cooperation among European universities and the universities from the developing countries, which must have the broadening of knowledge and experience of students and lecturers as a priority."@en1
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