The European Physical Society (EPS) is an independent body funded by contributions from National Physical Societies, other bodies and individual members. It has over 80,000 members and can call on expertise in all areas where Physics is involved. One declared aim of the EPS is to help Physics and Physicists in Europe.

1. The Object of this Position Paper
To alert members of the European Parliament, and associated civil servants and other policy formers, to issues regarding Student Exchange.

2. The Importance of Student Mobility
Although there has been a long tradition at least in physics - physics is international - that physicists from one country do part of their training in another, it is only in recent years that the we have come to appreciate the value of student mobility. The success of the ERASMUS exchange programmes is evidence that most universities now fully realize the importance of study abroad in undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate training.

3. The EPS Scheme: EMSPS
In 1992, the European Physical Society created the European Mobility Scheme for Physics Students (EMSPS), a network of European universities that grant a degree in physics or physics related subjects. The EMSPS now has over 180 participating institutions in 30 countries around Europe; a student can choose among anyone of those participating institutions for a study abroad. In the past the student had the possibility of getting an ERASMUS grant in the framework of an ICP (Inter university Co-operation Programme) for the mobility between EU universities or a TEMPUS grant for the mobility between universities of Central end Eastern Europe and EU universities. Since its creation, more than 1600 students have used the EMSPS as monitored by its governing board, the Mobility Committee (MC), and a secretary. In 1995 the EC sponsored a conference for all ICP's in physics. It was held in Gent, Belgium, with the proceedings: "Physics studies for tomorrows Europe." describing the structure of physics education in the European countries. At the conference it was recommended to create the European Physics Education Network EUPEN a Thematic Network with among others the objective of collecting information on physics studies in Europe, while the EMSPS continued with the objective of facilitating and encouraging student mobility.

4. The SOCRATES Scheme
In the SOCRATES programme the concept of the ICP was abandoned and TEMPUS stopped to support student mobility. Instead the concept of Institutional Contracts (IC) was introduced with an emphasis on bilateral agreements. Simultaneously, the number of SOCRATES eligible countries was enlarged. At present, bilateral agreements for student exchange and the EPMPS coexist, and indeed, many students continue to benefit from the EMSPS by ease of obtaining a place at many of the EMSPS institutions. However, to obtain financial support from the SOCRATES programme a bilateral agreement is required. To the extent possible, EMSPS institutions will agree to enter a bilateral contract to make the financial support possible. Bilateral agreements must be signed at least 1 year in advance, with the disadvantage of severely limiting the choice of universities for student mobility and imposing on the one hand extra administrative burden on the EMSPS co-ordinators and on the other a very long planning horizon for the student. It should be noted that the choice of the host institution is in physics, as in other disciplines, made by the student. The choice of the host institution is made according to the courses offered. With the bilateral contract, it is often the case that the designated partners cannot offer the courses that the students require. A large, open network like the EMSPS offers many alternatives, and in fact as experience shows, favours universities in small countries as host institutions.

5. Our Request
We would therefore request that the EU and the DG Education and Culture open the SOCRATES programme to networks such as the EMSPS in their IC. This would greatly enhance flexibility for students and lessen administrative burdens on scientific staff as the exchange could be co-ordinated by the EMSPS secretariat that exists and is supported by the EPS. This is in no way contrary to the other goals of SOCRATES and indeed it should enhance the value of this programme. We are of course aware that in any given year not all EMSPS institutions are active either as host or home. Once EMSPS could be included in the IC, no additional financial support will be required for the organization of student mobility except a very modest support for those 14 universities to which the members of the EMSPS steering committee belong.

The EPS Executive Committee