HC Deb 04 April 1990 vol 170 cc615-6W
Dr. Thomas

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what exchange and collaborative research and educational development programmes exist between the United Kingdom and Belgium.

Mr. Jackson

The Department, through the central bureau, provides funds to support and encourage exchange activity in the following areas:

  1. (i) A school links programme: there are currently some 11 schools known to have links with Belgian schools.
  2. (ii) A foreign language assistants programme: in the current academic year there are 10 British language assistants working in Belgium and eight Belgian language assistants working in the United Kingdom.
  3. (iii) Vocational and technical education links: there are five colleges of further education with links with establishments in Belgium. In addition, under the auspices of IAESTE (the International Association for the Exchange of Students for Technical Experience) there is a small-scale annual programme of course-related practical training placements for higher education students.
  4. (iv) Teacher exchange programme: it is hoped that the 1990–91 academic year will see the first post-to-post teacher exchanges with Belgium.

In addition, there are arrangements for exchange and collaborative activity with Belgium under European Community programmes such as COMETT, ERASMUS and ARION.

United Kingdom scientific research collaboration and exchanges with Belgium occur mainly through common membership of a range of multilateral schemes. These include the European Science Foundation, the European Space Agency, CERN (the European particle physics organisation), the NATO science programme, and the European science exchange programme, as well as the various programmes within the European Communities research and development framework.

In addition, the British Council, under the cultural convention with Belgium, promotes exchanges and collaborative research in scientific and educational fields. Activities are agreed at biennial meetings of the mixed commission, the most recent of which, the 26th meeting, was held in December 1989. All activity with Belgium is fragmented, in that the Flemish and francophone communities function completely separately. Formal statistics of links are not kept because activity is agreed rather in terms of particular projects and budgets.

Professional visits between Britain and Belgium are arranged to study developments in education at all levels. These have led, for example, to the Belgian Ministry of Education seeking council assistance in the introduction of computers in schools, and to a project in drama education with the Brussels circus school. The Flemish universities and the Open university have collaborated to set up a Flemish open university with British inputs and materials. Long-term joint projects at university level are also encouraged in fields such as science parks, engineering, medicine and criminology.

In 1989, new Government funding enabled a programme of academic and professional exchanges to be established. For example, groups of British engineers and environmental scientists visited both Flemish and francophone universities. The links between the university of Gent and the university of Newcastle in linguistics and English literature, and the Vrije universiteit Brussel and Huddersfield polytechnic, in human ecology, have been particularly successful. The latter will now receive funding as part of the mixed commission cultural agreement. A double degree awarded jointly by the university of Liège and Cranfield institute of technology has also been established as part of a major link. All links have attracted matching funding from the Belgians.

In March 1990 two senior British academics headed a mission to Belgium, and the Netherlands to initiate further collaborative programmes. This follows a recent pattern in Europe, where programmes have been established with Spain, Portugal, France, Germany and the Republic of Ireland.