Education is at the Heart of the Transatlantic Relationship
The education relationship between the European Union, its Member States, and the United States is simply the strongest in the world. We are each other’s most popular destination for studying abroad — whether for a summer, a semester, or a full degree. Academics and researchers on both sides of the Atlantic collaborate across the hard sciences, social sciences, and the humanities, supported by funding from both the EU and US.
That’s why we’ve decided to launch a new education series dedicated only to the EU-US education relationship, all the way from K-12 primary/secondary education all the way through to advanced post-graduate study and research. This publication will feature educational programs managed by both the EU Delegation to the United States in Washington, DC and the Directorate General for Education & Culture in Brussels as well as highlight some opportunities available for Americans to engage with the EU through education.
You can look forward to posts on the EU’s flagship Erasmus+ program, which has supported the mobility of European students and other nationalities(including Americans!) around the world for decades. You can learn about the Jean Monnet program, named for one of the EU’s ‘founding fathers,’ that supports the teaching, study, and research of the European Union at universities across the United States, including seven Centres of Excellence. You’ll also hear about the Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellowships for scientific research across all scientific disciplines.
The EU collaborates closely with the US State Department on the Fulbright Schuman program. It supports Europeans and Americans to travel to the other side of the Atlantic to undertake a fellowship that could include graduate or post-graduate research, study, or lecturing on any aspect of EU policy, EU-US relations, and the EU institutions. For younger students, keep an eye out for stories on the annual EuroChallenge competition.
EuroChallenge brings together teams of high school students to study EU monetary and financial policy and gives them the opportunity to present to a panel of distinguished judges on an economic challenge facing a country in the Eurozone. Regional winners get to travel to New York City for the semi-finals and finals, and the overall winner gets a trip to Washington, DC to visit the EU Delegation as well as important financial institutions like the IMF and the Treasury Department.
There’s plenty to talk about in education, so “watch this space” as we shed some light on the deep and enduring education relationship between the EU and the US.
