22 Helsinki 1975 engaged in activities in education and science, bearing in mind the need both for flexibility and the fuller use of existing agreements and arrangements; • promoting the conclusion of direct arrangements between universities and other institutions of higher education and research, in the framework of agreements between governments where appropriate; • encouraging among persons engaged in education and science direct contacts and communications including those based on special agreements or arrangements where these are appropriate. (b) Access and Exchanges To improve access, under mutually acceptable conditions, for students, teachers and scholars of the participating States to each other’s educational, cultural and scientific institutions, and to intensify exchanges among these institutions in all areas of common interest, in particular by: • increasing the exchange of information on facilities for study and courses open to foreign participants, as well as on the conditions under which they will be admitted and received; • facilitating travel between the participating States by scholars, teachers and students for purposes of study, teaching and research as well as for improving knowledge of each other’s educational, cultural and scientific achievements; • encouraging the award of scholarships for study, teaching and research in their countries to scholars, teachers and students of other participating States; • establishing, developing or encouraging programmes providing for the broader exchange of scholars, teachers and students, including the organization of symposia, seminars and collaborative projects, and the exchanges of educational and scholarly information such as university publications and materials from libraries; • promoting the efficient implementation of such arrangements and programmes by providing scholars, teachers and students in good time with more detailed information about their placing in universities and institutes and the programmes envisaged for them; by granting them the opportunity to use relevant scholarly, scientific and open archival materials; and by facilitating their travel within the receiving State for the purpose of study or research as well as in the form of vacation tours on the basis of the usual procedures; • promoting a more exact assessment of the problems of comparison and equivalence of academic degrees and diplomas by fostering the exchange of information on the organization, duration and content of studies, the comparison of methods of assessing levels of knowledge, and academic qualifications, and, where feasible, arriving at the mutual recognition of academic degrees and diplomas either through governmental agreements, where necessary, or direct arrangements between universities and other institutions of higher learning and research; • recommending, moreover, to the appropriate international organizations that they should intensify their efforts to reach a generally acceptable solution to the problems of comparison and equivalence between academic degrees and diplomas. (c) Science Within their competence to broaden and improve co-operation and exchanges in the field of science, in particular: