Foreign students should get special visa to study in EU

Foreign students must get easier access to the European Union if the bloc is to catch up with US standards of education and achieve its own goals of making itself the foremost competitive and dynamic region in the world, MEPs have said.

In a report passed in the education committee on 24 June, euro-deputies say that students taking part in the union's Erasmus Mundus programme - a student exchange system aimed at promoting European education around the world - should be issued a special Erasmus Mundus visa by member states.

"Student visa facilitation should be a constant priority. My report tables the question of specific visas that need to be adapted to the complexity of certain university courses with a high degree of mobility," Liberal French MEP in charge of the report, Marielle De Sarnez, said.

Due for an update next year, the Erasmus Mundus programme has a budget for €950 million between 2009 and 2013.

Well-off students

The reforms proposed by MEPs are an attempt to make the system more widely used. During the first phase of the programme, from 2004 until this year, 4,424 scholarships were granted to students from outside the EU and 323 universities (265 in Europe) took part.

The second phase aims to create joint masters degrees and doctorates involving three European universities, setting up concrete links between EU and non-EU universities and actively promoting European higher education.

Aside from a special visa for the programme, MEPs have also suggested that students be told at least six months in advance where there will be studying to give them time to get a visa and that the programme should be in at least two languages.

Getting around the fact that member states have widely differing policies on fees for third level education, MEPs agreed that fees for the programme should not be charged in those countries where education is normally free - such is the case in Denmark.

However, critics say this risks making the system only open well-off students.

"Today's vote risks leading to good foreign universities only being open to students who can afford to pay. In reality it would mean user fees for Danish students," said Danish Socialist MEP Christel Schaldemose.

National issue

The goals are part of the EU's aim to boost the standards of European education, something they have been talking about for several years.

In 2002, member states agreed that the bloc should be a world leader in education by 2010.

However, progress has been stalled due to lack of political will and the fact that education remains largely a national issue.

This is despite almost yearly statements about how much better the US and Asia is doing and how much more attractive it for students to try and get into these countries rather than European ones.

"Europe's higher education must be competitive to attract the many foreign university students and teachers who previously went to study in the United States," said Ms De Sarnez.