Doctor PhD Ospanova A.N. , The Fourt year student, majoring in Regional  Studies Zharkov N

L.N.Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Kazakhstan

The development of the higher education system through the participation in Tempus programme

Tempus is one of a number of European Community programmes designed to help the process of social and economic reform and development in Central Asian states.

The Tempus program focuses on the development of higher education systems in these countries through co-operation with institutions from the Member States of the European Community. The programme is based on the understanding that higher education institutions are of particular importance for the social and economic transition as well as cultural development; they are also pools of expertise and of human resources and provide for the training of new generations of leaders [1].

The first Tempus programme lasted from 1990 until 1994. The programme was consolidated and renewed for the 1994-1998 and 1998-2000 periods and, again, for the 2000-2006 period. It has become customary to refer to these periods of the programme as «Tempus I», «Tempus II», «Tempus II bis» and «Tempus III».

The TEMPUS program is designed to help the transition and reform processes through a range of mechanisms addressed to the higher education sector. This programme will allow to project participants and institutions of higher education to solve the following problems:

·        to render assistance in establishing new courses, or reform existing ones.

Thus, Tempus can help to create a new university legal instruction programme or to help medical institute to introduce new courses. It can facilitate the introduction of modern teaching methods, which put the student at the center of attention.

·        to render assistance to educational institutions in restructuring.Tempus can help universities in reforming engineering faculty or introducing modern techniques for University management and academic planning;

·        supporting institutions and individuals involved in higher education in the design and implementation of reform policies and the development of strategies. For example, Tempus can contribute to the development and introduction of a credit system or a strategy for university-industry co-operation at university and national level;

·        encouraging institutions (academic and non-academic) to work together in a particular discipline. For example, Tempus can help institutions to set up networks on gas and oil engineering technology;

·        to render assistance to higher education institutions in assisting the transition process in the wider social, economic and political community outside the strictly-defined academic field – for example, by developing, organising and delivering training courses for customs officials;

·        Providing material aid, but only, it should be stressed, in so far as it is needed to achieve the objectives of Tempus-funded projects. Tempus can help, for example, in reconstituting libraries, with subscriptions to academic journals, purchase of computers and other teaching materials.

It should be noted that the Tempus programme is not designed to support research.

The Tempus programme works in three distinct but inter-linked ways:

·        by co-financing, through grants, projects and activities;

·        by encouraging co-operation between institutions and between countries;

·        by encouraging exchanges, of individuals and of know-how, between the Member States and Central Asian states.

The Tempus programme currently awards three sorts of grants:

·        joint European Projects are structured projects to achieve clearly defined objectives over two, or three year periods, and for which grants are awarded primarily to groups of institutions – universities – co-operating together (‘consortia’);

·        structural and Complementary Measures are shorter-term support activities, targeted at specific needs, with grants awarded through a relatively light selection and award procedure. These activities can have a duration from a few weeks to one year;

·        individual Mobility Grants are awarded to individuals – professors, lecturers, members of staff or ministry officials – in order to help them to travel to other countries for work related to a particular reform process.

Two basic groups of countries participate in the Tempus programme:

·        the Member States of the European Community (currently twenty five): Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Nothern Ireland);

·        the Partner Countries – currently including the Western Balkan Countries such as Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia, and Serbia and Montenegro; the Eastern European and Central Asian Countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan; and the Mediterranean Partners, consisting of Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, Syria and Tunisia [3].

Institutions from the following groups of countries may participate in Tempus projects, but on a self-financing basis:

·        The remaining Candidate Countries (currently three – Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey); Bulgaria and Romania also participated in Tempus from 1990-2000 as Partner Countries and have a wealth of experience and positive results which could prove useful to project consortia;

·        Members of the Group of 24 (other than the Member States of the European Community); currently Australia, Canada, Iceland, Japan, Liechtenstein, Norway, New Zealand, Switzerland and the United States of America. Institutions and organisations which may participate in the Tempus programme range from higher education institutions through to non-academic institutions such as non-governmental organisations, business companies, industries and public authorities.

The Tempus programme is managed by the European Commission (Directorate-General for Education and Culture), which is based in Brussels, Belgium. Technical assistance is provided to the European Commission by the Tempus Department of the European Training Foundation, which is based in Turin, Italy. The European Commission relies on a network of offices and officers in the Member States and Partner Countries as follows:

·        each European CommunityMember State nominates a National Contact Point whose roles include acting as a reference point, providing information, and otherwise helping participating institutions from that particular Member State as well as facilitating co-operation with the Partner Countries;

·        in the Western Balkans, in Eastern Europe and in Central Asia the European Commission and the local authorities have together established National Tempus Offices to perform a similar role. In the Mediterranean region the establishment of such offices is currently under way [2].

The European Commission is assisted in establishing overall political guidelines by the Tempus Committee, composed of representatives of the Member States.

Within the European Commission, three separate entities are involved in the policy development and technical assistance underlying the Tempus programme:

·        the Directorate General for Education and Culture is in overall charge of the programme;

·        the Directorate General for External Relations co-ordinates the external relations activities of the European Commission;

·        EuropeAid Co-operation Office, a service of the European Commission established in 2000, is responsible for the execution of most of the external aid instruments of the European Commission.

Finance for the Tempus Programme is drawn from the three general programmes for the regions involved.

The participation in this project develops the system of our higher education and will allow to solve the following problems:

1.     to work out new study courses;

2.     assistance in organization of structural reforms of high school (introducing of modern methods of management and planning in University);

3.     elaboration and introducing of the policy of structural reforms’ organization and elaboration of strategic plans of development;

4.     the programme will allow students and professors to get individual grants.

 

 

References:

1.     Saletsky A.M. Strategy of work execution on the scientific and methodological support of the education system in MSU. Moscow, 2005.

2.     Slavskaya M.G. Information technologies in education pocess, http://window.edu.ru.

3.     Tutorial – fundamentals of the Kazakhstan credit system of education./ Abdygaparova S.B., Akhmetova G.K., Ibatulin S.R., Kusainov A.A., Myrzaliyev B.A., Omirbayev S.M. under the editorship of Kulekeyev Zh.A., Gamarnik G.N., Abdrasilov B.S./ - Almaty: Kazakh University, 2004-198 pages.