The EU's student exchange scheme, Erasmus, has reached its 3 millionth participant since the programme was set up in 1987, the European Commission said on Monday (8 July). The statistics also show that in the academic year 2011-2012, more than 250,000 students went to study abroad or take up a job training for six months.

Political leaders in central and south America are looking to Maori as a way to enhance their own traditional communities. Federation of Maori Authorities' chair Traci Houpapa visited a number of countries in Latin America earlier this year with the prime minister. She was asked by leaders there why Maori have become so economically and strategically sophisticated, and how they can empower their first nations peoples.

On 12 July, Malala will be joined by hundreds of students from more than 80 countries in a unique Youth Assembly, where diplomats will take a back seat as young people take over the UN. They will gather to issue a global call for quality education for all. Education is a fundamental right, a Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and crucial to mutual understanding and global citizenship. Many of us did not have to learn this lesson from a book. We lived it.

A GROUP of students who travelled to Japan on an educational cultural exchange program returned to Fiji earlier this week. The group of 19 post-graduate students were part of USP's JENESYS 2.0 project which sent them to Japan between June 9 and June 21 this year.

Tjanara Talbot will be travelling to Canada this month as part of an artist residency program between Parramatta and Montreal called the Urban Indigenous Artist Exchange Program. She will stay at the Darling Foundry in Montreal for three months, fully paid. To date, three artists have taken part in this work program which developed with the idea of expanding Indigenous artistic practice internationally.

In the desert city of Al Quweira, Jordan, Marines and sailors are making their best effort to maintain and renew regional cooperation with their Jordanian military counterparts through challenging training and in one particular case, through a spiritual gathering.

Werbel's new book Lessons from China: America in the Hearts and Minds of the World's Most Important Rising Generation chronicles her experiences in and out of the classroom. The book captures Werbel's Chinese students in their own words as they grapple with America's tragic and transcendent past and, in doing so, inevitably reflect upon their own country's past, present, and future.

The Erasmus exchange scheme is to be massively expanded under new EU plans. The programme will be renamed Erasmus+, and will encompass education, training, youth and sport initiatives, as confirmed by an agreement between Parliament and the European council on Wednesday.