Concept Paper of the ASEM-DUO Fellowship Programme

I. CORE PRINCIPLES

This project, aimed at promoting a balanced increase of student and teacher contacts and exchanges between Europe and Asia, is based on three core principles

◑ Pairing of exchanges (two students or two teachers) between two establishments, in the framework of a cooperation project.

◑ Standardised stay duration units: one month for teachers and six months for students.

◑ Grants are to be calculated on a single basis, whatever the countries concerned, and paid to the educational bodies where exchanges take place 6,000 euros for an exchange of 2 teachers for a period of one month, and 12,000 euros for an exchange of 2 students for a period of 6 months.

ASEM Partners wishing to participate in the DUO Programme will be able to choose from two statuses, namely that of donor or that of participant.

II. "PARTNER CONTRIBUTOR" STATUS

Partners who choose the status of contributor will be the true architects of the programme since they will in effect be able, through their contribution, to assign to the exchanges they wish to finance the orientations, priorities and operating rules they deem necessary.

It is therefore suggested to Partner Contributors that they create their own component of the programme (callde DUO - partner's name). In addition to the common core of DUO principles referred to above, this component would include the specificities they would like to have applied to the exchanges they wish to finance.

Partner Contributors will, in particular, be able to determine the following for their own component of the DUO Programme:

◑ the ASEM Partners with whom they wish to undertake exchanges in the DUO Programme framework;

◑ the types of institutions with which they more particularly wish to conduct ;exchanges, such as secondary schools, lycees, universities, institutes, etc;

◑ the academic level on which they wish to focus, i.e. students or teachers;

◑ the disciplines they especially wish to support.

◑ the selection criteria agreed for choosing cooperation projects: joint degrees, joint professorships, recognition of part or all of the degree course, publication, etc;

◑ the selection procedure: a Partner Contributor will be able to establish a national Selection Committee with its own experts or to delegate the entire process to the Seoul-based Secretariat. It will also be able to opt for any other middle solutions, such as short-listing candidates locally and then entrusting the final decision to Seoul. It may also make possible an intervention by chosen partners.

◑ other criteria such as the age of candidates, the academic benefit to be reaped from exchanges, the linking of projects with the working world, etc.

For exchanges to reach a significant volume, the programme should be endowed with a large budget. For instance, the project presented at the Seoul Summit put forward the hypothesis of a global budget of 25.8 million euros for the next five years, corresponding to exchanges of some 1,000 teachers and 4,000 students.

France and Korea are each planning to make a contribution accounting for 10% of this global budget and invite ASEM Partners to contribue the amount they to this budget with a view to creating their own DUO Progamme component

III. "PARTICIPATING PARTNER" STATUS

ASEM Partners who are not prepared to make a financial contribution will nonetheless be able to take part in the DUO Programme, since whenever a Partner Contributor chooses a country to conduct exchanges in the framework of its "component", it enables that country to become a DUO participant.

The Secretariat will inform each Participating Partner of the DUO Programme components to which they can have access, according to the information received from all Partner Contributors

It will therefore be possible for a non-contributor country to be chosen by several Partner Contributors and associated with the DUO Programme in the framework of several "components". It will be for that country, if it so wishes, to determine the modalities for its participation together with the Secretariat and the Partner Contributor by whom it was designated.

IV. STRUCTURES

The idea of the DUO Programme was born of a pragmatic vision of educational exchanges between Europe and Asia. The programme's success will depend on its being implemented easily and rapidly. That is why the setting up of a cumbersome structure was not envisaged.

It was suggested setting up:

◑ a small Secretariat based in Seoul, which will be in charge of the administrative work relating to the programme and regarding, inter alia, relations with the Partners, the convening and organisation of selection meetings, and the financial transfers by Contributors to the education bodies concerned (end).