1 the delegation of the european union to kazakhstan erasmus
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The Delegation of the European Union to Kazakhstan
ERASMUS + Information day (Almaty, 17 October 2016)
Welcoming speech of Ambassador, Head of the EU Delegation to Kazakhstan
H.E. Mr Traian Hristea
Dear Vice-Rector of the Kazakh National Agrarian University Mr Tireuov,
Dear Chair of Department of Higher and Post-Higher Education MESRK Mrs Narbekova,
Dear Mrs Spangemacher,
Dear Mrs Tasbulatova,
Dear Mr Rector Omirbayev,
Ladies and gentlemen, distinguished guests!
It is my pleasure to welcome you all here today at the occasion of the ERASMUS +
Information day and thank you for the invitation to open this important event.
Let me first share with you basic paradigms.
Indeed education is the backbone of a modern, educated and democratic society. Good
education is indispensable for creating a good business climate. Education is also an
imperative to achieve a sustainable social and economic development, which is in itself a
precondition for further growth. This in turn demands stronger education institutions with
greater capacity. The demand for excellence is even stronger for higher education
institutions in the world of today.
Central Asia Education Platform
With this in mind, the EU and Central Asia partners identified education as one of the key
priorities areas in the 2007 EU-Central Asia Strategy which remains to date fully pertinent. In
order to support efforts by Central Asia countries in modernizing, reforming and improving
educational systems, the EU launched in February 2012 the Central Asian Education
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Platform. This Platform is designed to step up the policy dialogue with the Central Asian
partners and support coordination among donors and other key stakeholders. It also intends
to improve the capacity of the public servants and institutions in the educations sector.
Reflecting the similar challenges faced by each state and also the EU, this regional dialogue
helps facilitating the sharing of experience, best practices and knowledge from others that
are undergoing similar processes. The Platform is engaged now in a new phase of activities
for the period 2015-2018 with a leading role by two EU MS countries Latvia for vocational
education and Poland for Higher Education.
In the context of this fruitful cooperation, the first meeting of Ministers for Education of the
Member States of the European Union and the Central Asian countries took place in Latvia in
June 2015 and adopted a Joint Communique and a roadmap of activities. A Steering
Committee was also established and I am pleased to confirm here that the forthcoming
meeting of the Steering Committee will take place in Cracow on 18 November 2016 within
the frame of the regional conference ‘Enhancing cooperation in higher Education between
Central Asia Countries and the European Union’.
All participants to the Central Asia Education Platform reaffirmed their commitment to
strengthen further cooperation in the field of education more particularly addressing
Development of Qualification Frameworks and Standards; Quality assurance and
accreditation and also the link with the business realities and the alignment with
Employment and Labour Markets Needs. All also acknowledged the major contribution that
EU academic cooperation programmes Tempus and Erasmus Mundus have made to the
modernisation of Higher education in Central Asia and welcome the new cooperation
opportunities offered through Erasmus +.
ERASMUS +
As you all know, the new Erasmus+ programme combines all the EU's previous schemes for
education, training, youth and sport, including the Lifelong Learning Programme, Youth in
Action and other international co-operation programmes. There are currently more than
4,000 higher institutions participating in Erasmus+ across the 33 countries involved in the
programme and by 2013, 3 million students have taken part in ERASMUS since the
programme's inception in 1987.
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Kazakhstan is eligible for participation in two Key Actions of the ERASMUS+ Programme,
namely ‘Learning Mobility’ and ‘Cooperation for Innovation and Good Practice’, which also
includes the Jean Monnet Actions.
Kazakhstan’s participation in Erasmus+
And …Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am pleased to confirm that Kazakhstan is doing pretty well in the ERASMUS+ calls for
proposals. Following the very honourable results of 2015, 10 project proposals have been
similarly selected this year out of a total of 62 applications submitted. More in the detail, the
Al-Farabi Kazakh National University will be Project Coordinator in one of these selected
actions. The result of the call will have an impact all over the nation with 20 universities and
12 non-academic partners from 11 regions of Kazakhstan taking part in the implementation
of these 10 projects. Five universities are also involved in project activities for the first time.
The funding by the EU received by the participating Higher Education Institutions of
Kazakhstan reaches EUR 9,2 million, which is a sizeable amount.
But this is not all.
The Erasmus+ programme’s component ‘International Credit Mobility’ has opened
opportunities for the mobility of students and university staff since 2014. In 2016 the
number of funded projects in Kazakhstan amounted to 183, showing an increase of 30 per
cent from the previous year with 756 mobilities, including 517 outgoing to the EU higher
education institutions and 239 incoming to Kazakhstan. Most individuals concerned by these
mobility actions from Kazakhstan will go to universities of Poland, Latvia, Spain, Italy, Turkey,
and Sweden.
Acknowledgements
All these very encouraging figures are an evidence of the strengthening of the links between
EU and Kazakhstan and the good work carried out jointly by the National Erasmus+ Office in
Kazakhstan together with the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of
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Kazakhstan. These are two essential partners whose coordinated efforts must be saluted by
all.
My last work will go to the students and universities’ staff and I engage them to consider
participating in the activities of the Erasmus+ programme. This will not only be mutually
beneficial for universities of both the European Union and the Republic of Kazakhstan but
primarily to the individuals themselves and this will in no doubt boost their academic career
prospects or make their CV very attractive.
Thank you for your attention.
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