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PROGRAMME TEMPUS IV – 2008 DEADLINE - AN ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS
by Maria Rosaria de Falco – University of Rome “La Sapienza”
The European Commission finished, last October 24th, the selection procedures among the proposal submitted under the first call for proposal of TEMPUS IV. Out of total of 66 projects selected, (53 JP and 13 SM ) only 13 are referred to the MEDA Countries (11 JP and 2 SM) , being the remaining 54 addressed to Eastern Europe Countries, Russia, Albania, Balkan Area and former USSR Republics. By a first analysis, the MEDA Projects are very reduced, especially in comparison with TEMPUS III ( and in particular with the former JEP projects, similar to JP ones as for contents and size of the grants) where the financed projects were nearby 50. The result of this selection as for MEDA countries is very disappointing, even if the number of Countries and the size of funding is lower in comparison with the above mentioned geographic area.
The results of TEMPUS MEDA projects are the following:
• Morocco 7 (one as grant applicant)
• Tunisia 5
• Egypt 4 (two as grant applicant)
• Jordan 3
• Syria 3
• Algeria 2
• Palestine 2
Among the EU grant applicants: France (4 projects), Spain (3 projects) Austria, Italy and Sweden (1 project). Israel is partner within two projects, not in MEDA countries, the first with Croatia (grant applicant), in partnership with Lithuania, Poland, France and Belgium, the second with Greece (grant applicant), in partnership with 19 countries, being none of them in MEDA area. On the subject of Multi countries projects: EC financed 5 JP multi countries projects out of 11, and 1 SM project out of 2. As for the training subjects: only two JP projects deal with “real” University courses, such as the former JEP named Curricula Development (CD); a Master Course in “Water Management and Desalination Engineering “, submitted by Pavia University (Italy) which beneficiaries are 13 (!) universities in Jordan, and a project submitted by Linkoping University (Sweden) which beneficiaries are 11 (!) Syrian universities. Both Multi- countries projects and the above mentioned JP indicate that EC granted projects with a huge number of beneficiaries. The remaining 9 JP projects deal with University-Enterprises partnership (2), Innovation (2) University Governance and students services, (2) PhD curricula reform, an issue linked to the Bologna process. As for the two SM, the first deals with Quality Assurance (one more time Bologna process), while the second, submitted by the University of Granada, deals with the accompanying measures of the diploma towards professional integration. One considerations on SM: the number of the funded projects is very poor and limited, both in MEDA Countries and the remaining TEMPUS beneficiaries area: in my opinion it could depend on the difficulties in involving the Ministries of Higher Education , and obtaining , in due time, the relevant endorsements.
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