Information about SOCRATES

What means SOCRATES ?

SOCRATES is the name of a program of the European union for transnational co-operation in different areas of general education. The program started in 1995 with the first stage (finished 1999). In the year 2000, the second stage started (will be finished 2006). Up from this time the programm applied no longer only to the 15 European Union member states as well as Liechtenstein,		Iceland and Norway, but also to the entry candidates.

The second stage consists of the following elements: ERASMUS for the field of higher education, COMENIUS in the field of general school education, and GRUNDTVIG for the field of adult education. Information about SOCRATES can be found on the web pages of the European union as well as at the academic international exchange offices of your country.

ERASMUS - To support the higher education

In the program section ERASMUS, the focus lies at the European co-operation of the universities. In order to make university education comparable, the ECTS system has been developed (see below), which has been already introduced at many German universities. The second important point represents the promotion of the mobility of students and lecturers. The request formalities and permissions are highly simplified and finacially support is offered.

ECTS

The European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) aims at the acknowledgment of academic achievements and the transfer of abroad achieved study results. ECTS should make studying abroad more transparent and more calculable for the students. Thus, the acknowledgment of the academic achievements by the home university can be supported by the ECTS system; among other things by the fixed points of charge (30 ECTS points per term). ECTS does not determine even over contents or equivalence of academic study achievements, since these quality questions must be specified directly by the university.