European Programs/ Erasmus

ERASMUS is the higher education Action of Life Long Learning Program (formerly SOCRATES). It seeks to enhance the quality and reinforce the European dimension of higher education by encouraging transnational cooperation between universities, boosting European mobility and improving the transparency and full academic recognition of studies and qualifications throughout the Union.
ERASMUS consists of many different activities; student and teacher exchanges, joint development of study programmes (Curriculum Development), international intensive programmes, thematic networks between departments and faculties across Europe, language courses (EILC), European credit transfer system (ECTS).  
ERASMUS action is targeted at higher education institutions and their students and staff in all 25 Member States of the European Union, the three countries of the European Economic Area (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway), the three candidate countries (Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey).
Currently 2199 higher education institutions in 31 countries are participating in ERASMUS. Since the creation of ERASMUS in 1987, 1.2 million students have benefited of an ERASMUS study period abroad. The ERASMUS budget for the year 2004 is more than € 187.5 million.
ERASMUS is open

  • to all types of higher education institutions (for which the term “universities” is generally used)

 

  • in all academic disciplines and all levels of higher education study up to and including the doctorate and

 

  • to those emerging from the 31 countries participating in LLP (formerly SOCRATES), as well as to students emerging from any other country, who are officially recognised by a Member State as refugees, stateless persons or permanent residents.

 
In order to participate in ERASMUS higher education institutions have to apply for an ERASMUS University Charter. This Charter entitles them to apply to the Commission for centralised ERASMUS funds and to their National Agency for decentralised mobility funds.
While the promotion of ´physical mobility´, mainly of students, constituted the main thrust of ERASMUS Phase I and II, the higher education Chapter of SOCRATES seeks to integrate such mobility into a wider framework of cooperation activities which aim at developing a “European Dimension” within the entire range of a university´s academic programmes. “Bringing students to Europe, bringing Europe to all students” is the new spirit of ERASMUS: while student mobility retains a position of central importance within the programme, stronger incentives are now available to encourage universities to add a European perspective to the courses followed by students who do not participate directly in mobility.
More emphasis is consequently placed on teaching staff exchanges, transnational curriculum development and pan-european thematic networks. Wider dissemination of and participation in the results of this work are sought through specific support.
ERASMUS also encourages universities to associate other public and private bodies from their surrounding regions with their transnational cooperation activities, thereby enhancing opportunities for inter-regional cooperation between the participating countries (statistics).
From 1987/88 to 2003/2004, more than 1 million university students had spent an Erasmus period abroad and 2,199 universities (or other Higher Education institutions) are presently participating in the programme.
The EU budget of SOCRATES/Erasmus for 2000-2006 amounts to around 950 Mio € (of which approximately 750 Mio € for students grants).
Additional funds are provided in each country by public authorities, by the universities themselves and by other organisations. Erasmus grants are mobility grants destined to cover the additional costs of a study period abroad rather than the entire cost of the stay.
The second phase of the Socrates program ended at the end of 2006 and starting from 1 January 2007 the new program, Lifelong Learning Program has been started. The Lifelong Learning Programme comprises four sectoral programmes on school education (Comenius), higher education (Erasmus), vocational training (Leonardo da Vinci) and adult education (Grundtvig), and differtiating from Socrates Program it has a transversal programme focusing on policy cooperation, languages, information and communication technology and dissemination and exploitation of results. Finally, a Jean Monnet programme focuses on European integration and support for certain key institutions and associations active in the field. The programme budget is € 6,970 million for the total period 2007-2013.
The aim of the new programme is to contribute through lifelong learning to the development of the Community as an advanced knowledge society, with sustainable economic development, more and better jobs and greater social cohesion. It aims to foster interaction, cooperation and mobility between education and training systems within the Community, so that they become a world quality reference.
As regards the four sectoral programmes, quantified targets have been set in order to ensure a significant, identifiable and measurable impact for the programme. These targets are as follows:

  • For Comenius:
    To involve at least three million pupils in joint educational activities, over the period of the programme;
  • For Erasmus:
    To contribute to the achievement by 2012 of three million individual participants in student mobility under the present programme and its predecessors;
  • For Leonardo da Vinci:
    To increase placements in enterprises to 80,000 per year by the end of the programme;
  • For Grundtvig
    To support the mobility of 7,000 individuals involved in adult education per year, by 2013.