Boost the proportion of graduates spending at least one semester abroad or in industry. Allow students to make use of national loans and grants wherever in the EU they decide to study or do research Bring procedures for the recognition of academic qualifications in line with those for professional qualifications and make European degrees more easily recognised outside Europe. Introduce training in intellectual property management, communication, networking, entrepreneurship and team-working as part of a research career Refocus courses to allow greater participation at later stages of the life-cycle, thereby addressing the skills needs of ...[+++] Europe’s workforce, and ensuring that universities are able to adapt to Europe’s ageing population. Review national student fee and support schemes so that the best students can participate in higher education and further research careers whatever their background. Review systems for funding universities, to be more focused on outputs and give universities more responsibility for their own long-term financial sustainability, particularly in research. Allow universities greater autonomy and accountability, so that they can respond quickly to change. This could include revising curricula to adapt to new developments, building closer links between disciplines and focussing on overall research areas domains (e.g. renewable energy, nanotechnology) rather than disciplines.

Action Plans will cover two broad areas: first, commitments to specific actions which confirm or reinforce adherence to shared values and to certain objectives in the area of foreign and security policy; secondly, commitments to actions which will bring partner countries closer to the EU in a number of priority fields.

Support for research activities (participation in the joint implementation of national programmes, networks of excellence and large-scale targeted research projects) would focus on priority themes grouped by main areas.

The part dealing with the future focuses, among other things, on: - the practical arrangements for the future partnership (its place in the Union's foreign policy, the strengthening of its political dimension, the degree of flexibility in the cooperation framework, its geographical scope, the coordination of Europe's efforts etc.); - the priorities of aid policy (the social and economic dimension, the institutional dimension, trade arrangements and investment promotion); - technical and financial assistance (the nature of aid and the procedures for granting and managing it) Four key issues: geographical scope, competitiveness of the ACP countries, role of the State and trade arrangements Four issues ...[+++]stand out: . Geographical scope. The Green Paper finds that the ACP countries are, strictly speaking, neither a political grouping nor an economic body.

The programme "Marine science and technology" Endowed with a budget of ECU 228 million for the period 1995-1998, MAST III comprises three major fields of research: . marine sciences: where the objective is to understand the basic processes which govern marine systems, including the extreme marine environments (deep sea, seas covered with ice etc) and certain specific European basins (the Baltic, the Mediterranean etc).

CONTENT: A RENEWED THEMATIC FRAMEWORK -------------------------------------- Two major fields Using the principle of subsidiarity as a basis, the areas for research pinpointed by the fourth framework programme can be divided into two major fields.