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About Eurydice

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Mission and activities

The mission of the Eurydice Network is:

To provide those responsible for education systems and policies in Europe with European-level analyses and information which will assist them in their decision making.

The Eurydice network primarily focuses on the way education in Europe is structured and organised at all levels. It provides a vast source of information, including

  • Detailed descriptions and overviews of national education systems  (National Education systems and Policies)
  • Comparative thematic studies devoted to specific topics of Community interest (Thematic Studies)
  • Indicators and statistics (Key Data Series)
  • A series of Facts and Figures related to education, such as national education structures, school calendars, comparison of salaries and of required taught time per countries and education levels (Facts and Figures)

All studies are available free of charge on this website or in print upon request. To be informed of our new publications, please register to the RSS feed available on our home page.

Organisation

The Eurydice network supports and facilitates European cooperation in the field of lifelong learning by providing information on education systems and policies in 33 countries and by producing studies on issues common to European education systems.

It consists of:

  • 37 national unitsbased in all 33 countries participating in the EU Lifelong Learning programme (27 Member States, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland as members of the Free Trade Area (EFTA), Turkey and Croatia)
  • a coordinating unit based in the EU Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency in Brussels

Since 1980, the Eurydice network has been one of the strategic mechanisms established by the European Commission and Member States to support European cooperation in the field of education. Since 2007, Eurydice has been included in the EU Action Programme in the field of Lifelong Learning in which, as part of the transversal programme, it helps to support the development of policies as well as cooperation at European level.

Cooperation with other partners  

Eurydice cooperates closely with several European and international organisations.

Since 1995, Key Data reports have been published on the basis of a partnership between Eurydice and Eurostat (Statistical Office of the European Communities). Eurydice has been cooperating with Eurostat to update and regularly renew this broad spectrum of indicators. Since 2005, CRELL (Centre for Research on Lifelong Learning) has also been an important partner in the field of indicators.

As a result of the increasingly close association between education and training, Eurydice cooperates closely with Cedefop (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training), for example in the joint publication of Structures of Education and Training Systems in Europe. Another partner of Eurydice, ETF (European Training Foundation), is also involved in the production of this publication.

Eurydice also cooperates with the European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education.

Finally, the European Unit of Eurydice supports the Commission in the work it undertakes with international organisations such as the Council of Europe, OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization).

 

Last update: 27/01/2012  Print | Top of page