Today (Wednesday), Federal Minister Elisabeth Gehrer described the agreement on the EU budget as a “milestone for education and research in Europe and a great success for the Austrian Presidency”. She added that the additional EUR 800 million would make far more money available for education programmes, and that an extra EUR 300 million for research and development was an important investment in Europe’s future. Against this background, the Minister also referred to Austrian initiatives. “Hitherto, Austria has already doubled EU funds in order to further support students with foreign-exchange scholarships. From the academic year 2006/07, we shall be increasing the scholarships appreciably from around EUR 2 million to over EUR 2.6 million”, Gehrer said.
“With EUR 800 million more for education and EUR 300 million more for research and development, a further significant step under the Austrian Presidency has been taken towards making Europe more competitive in the future”, the Minister declared. “Austria is certainly setting an example by paving the way for Europe’s future. We are one of the five leading countries for investment in research and, moreover, we have the highest growth rates for investments in research from among these countries”, stated Gehrer. The additional EUR 800 million means that each year throughout Europe up to 20,000 more students and pupils will be able to study abroad. Therefore, approximately half a million more young people will be increasingly mobile by 2013. Following the agreement on the EU financial framework, the Minister also underlined that education held the key to higher growth and greater prosperity in Europe.
Furthermore, Gehrer stressed that mobility was imperative in a unified Europe. “To this end, Austria is continuing to set a good example and has already doubled EU support for the ERASMUS study-exchange programme. We have again increased Austrian grants by one-quarter for the 2006/07 academic year in order to further support students. Each ERASMUS student studying in another EU country will receive support of between EUR 182 and EUR 279 per month”, stated the Minister for Science. This represents an increase in Austrian grants of between 10 and 17 per cent for each student and, in addition, more ERASMUS grants. “After a record-breaking 2005, even more Austrian students will be able to study abroad in 2006”, concluded Gehrer.
Examples of monthly ERASMUS grants and the increase in per cent compared with the 2005/06 academic year:
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