The SOCRATES programme was an educational initiative of the European Commission; 31 countries took part. The initial Socrates programme ran from 1994 until 31 December 1999 when it was replaced by the Socrates II programme on 24 January 2000, which ran until 2006. This, in turn, was replaced by the Lifelong Learning Programme 2007–2013. [1]
The countries participating in the programme were the then 25 European Union countries, the then candidate countries Romania and Bulgaria; Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Turkey.
The programme is named after the Greek philosopher Socrates.
Within the Socrates programme, funded by the European Union Directorates-General: Education and Culture (DG EAC), Information Society and Media (DG INFSO) and the EuropeAid Cooperation Office (DG AIDCO), the promotion and learning of languages is a high priority. Below is a short list of some funded projects:
The Erasmus Programme is a European Union (EU) student exchange programme established in 1987. Erasmus+, or Erasmus Plus, is the new programme combining all the EU's current schemes for education, training, youth and sport, the most recent programme covering the years 2021-27.
The Lifelong Learning Programme 2007–2013 was the European Union programme for education and training.
The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) was launched in March 2010, during the Budapest-Vienna Ministerial Conference, on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Bologna Process.
In the European Union education is at the responsibility of its Member States and their Ministries of education that they have; in such, the European Union institutions play only a supporting and overseeing role. According to Art. 165 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, the Community
shall contribute to the development of quality education by encouraging cooperation between Member States, through actions such as promoting the mobility of citizens, designing joint study programmes, establishing networks, exchanging information or teaching languages of the European Union. The Treaty also contains a commitment to promote life-long learning for all citizens of the Union.
Europass is a European Union initiative to increase transparency of qualifications and mobility of citizens in Europe. It aims to make a person's skills and qualifications clearly understood throughout Europe.
Apprentices mobility is the movement of students and teachers in vocational education or training (VET) to another institution inside or outside their own country to study or teach for a limited time. The term is usually used in the context of European Union (EU) policy.
The eTwinning action is an initiative of the European Commission that aims to encourage European schools to collaborate using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) by providing the necessary infrastructure. Teachers registered in the eTwinning action are enabled to form partnerships and develop collaborative, pedagogical school projects in any subject area with the sole requirements to employ ICT to develop their project and collaborate with teachers from other European countries.
The European Association of History Educators (EuroClio) was established in 1992 with the support of the Council of Europe. The NGO works as a European wide facilitator for innovation and progress in history Education. The organisation contributes not only to the development, but also on the actual implementation of regional, national and European long-term projects, which focus on establishing knowledge, experience and expertise in the countries by training and consulting teachers. EuroClio develops teaching materials, builds and maintains professional Networks and acts as advisor to governments, international organisations, NGOs, History Teacher Associations and other Organisations. EuroClio is supported by the Europe for Citizens Programme of the European Union and has, for many years, Official Participatory Status and is part of the EU Stake Holder's Network in Education and Training.
The European Day of Languages is observed on 26 September, as proclaimed by the Council of Europe on 6 December 2001, at the end of the European Year of Languages (2001), which had been jointly organised by the Council of Europe and the European Union. Its aim is to encourage language learning across Europe.
Leonard Orban is a Romanian independent technocrat who served as the Commissioner for Multilingualism in the European Commission, the executive body of the European Union (EU). He was responsible for the EU language policy and was the first Romanian Commissioner and the first member of the Commission whose portfolio is exclusively multilingualism. His term of office began on 1 January 2007 and ended on 9 February 2010. With a background in engineering and economics, Orban has taken up various posts working for the accession of Romania to the European Union, most prominently as Deputy and later as Chief Negotiator for his country at the time of final negotiations with the European Union.
The Medical University of Varna (MU-Varna) is a Bulgarian state school for higher education dedicated to training specialists in the fields of medicine and healthcare who graduate with the educational and qualification degrees of Master, Bachelor and Professional Bachelor. The university has a legal entity status with the following scope of business activities: training of cadres and professional qualification; training of PhD students; postgraduate education for medical and non-medical cadres; conducting medical diagnosis, prevention, consultation, rehabilitation, and expert services at the university hospitals; scientific research and applied sciences; international cooperation in the field of education and science; administrative, social, sport, publishing, information, and other activities.
The Enhancing Student Mobility through Online Support (ESMOS) project is a European-funded partnership between higher education institutions from Austria, Bulgaria, Italy, Lithuania and the United Kingdom. It has the aims of developing, evaluating and modelling the use of Virtual Learning Environments and online technologies to support students who take part in either a study exchange (ERASMUS) or work placement programme (LEONARDO), spending part of their studies overseas.
The STELLA project was originally supported and co-funded by the European Commission. The aim was to develop a new language learning methodology for online language learning suitable for European learners. The project's aim was also to deliver online language learning courses for less widely taught and used languages (LWTULs) within the European Union in order to meet the European Union's aim to "safeguard the linguistic diversity in Europe". The methodology was subsequently used in courses which further delivered languages considered to be of strategic importance to the EU and member states.
PLOTEUS is an acronym of Portal on Learning Opportunities Throughout European Space, meant to connote πλωτηρ (ploter) which means "navigator" in ancient Greek. It is a European Union web portal, coordinated by the European's Commission Directorate-General for education and culture, that aims to help citizens find out about education and training opportunities, throughout the countries belonging to the European Union, Switzerland, Iceland, Norway and Turkey, though the latter did not participate in PLOTEUS at its launch, as it was not a member of the Leonardo da Vinci programme yet. According to France 5, the portal offers an "easy access" to an "excellent source of information" from primary school to postgraduate education. PLOTEUS has been prioritised as a "project of common interest" by the European Commission. The European Parliament and the European Council have confirmed in 2006 their "support for transnational web-based services such as PLOTEUS". The portal is run by the Euroguidance network, financed by the Leonardo da Vinci programme, and is interconnected with EURES, the European Commission's portal on job mobility information. Both PLOTEUS and EURES are considered as examples of "pan-European services". After the launch of PLOTEUS and EURES in 2003, the Bologna process drive to favour student mobility in Europe wa further expressed in 2004 by the launch of the Europass program, which is accessible from the EURES portal, as well as PLOTEUS.
CIFE - the Centre international de formation européenne is a not-for-profit European institution of higher education and research established in 1954. CIFE encompasses educational and research activities promoting European integration and governance, multilingualism and student mobility. CIFE educates European and international students as future Policy Officers in European institutions and international organisations, a professional title which is recognised by the French state.
eCOTOOL was an international project undertaken through the European Union's Lifelong Learning Programme, specifically the Leonardo da Vinci programme. It ran from 1 June 2009 until 30 November 2011, with the primary objective of dealing with initial and continuing professional education in the European Union.
EUF - Campus Europae is a European network which aims at the promotion of high quality student mobility and contributing to educating a generation of European graduates with an innate understanding of Europe’s unity in diversity. The project is under the patronage of the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and its secretariat is in Oetrange.
The Learning Teacher Network is a European non-profit, member-based education network and association, which performs as a European platform for professional debate in the vanguard of educational progress. The network works closely with UNESCO in Quality Education and the implementation of the Global Action Programme for Education for Sustainable Development (GAP/ESD).
Blended mobility is an educational concept that combines physical academic mobility, virtual mobility and blended learning. It aims to promote employability of higher education students. Since 2009 it has evolved from virtual mobility, keeping the international value of academic mobility, but at the same time giving a concrete answer to possible family related, financial, psychological and social barriers of a physical mobility.