We have compiled extensive information about Erasmus programs over recent years for European and foreign students studying abroad. This page contains 8 sections:<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/p>\n Erasmus + is the new European 7-year program for education, training, youth and sports. Within the time period of 2014-2020, it aims at enhancing the skills and employability of youth as well as modernizing Education, Training, and Youth work.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Participating countries<\/strong><\/p>\n The 28 Member States of the European Union and other non-EU countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden United Kingdom, and Turkey.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Who can participate in Erasmus+? <\/strong><\/p>\n Erasmus+ can provide opportunities for students, trainees, apprentices, pupils, adult learners, young people, and volunteers, as well as professionals in the field of education, training, youth and sports.<\/p>\n To participate as a higher education student in the Erasmus program, you must fulfill the following conditions:<\/p>\n be a student enrolled in a formal program of study at higher education level leading to a degree (including doctoral level) in one of the participating countries.<\/p>\n be a citizen of one of the participating countries (or be recognized as having an official status of refugee or stateless person or permanent resident).<\/p>\n have completed at least the first year of your university studies.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n How do I participate in Erasmus? <\/strong><\/p>\n You should contact the International Relations Office <\/strong> or the Erasmus + Office of your home university <\/strong>. These offices will provide you with information on all the exchanges your institution is involved in, i.e. which universities, which faculties, in which countries etc. You can also check on the website of your home university about its partner institutions.<\/p>\n You can study at selected partner institutions of your home university in one of the participating countries. There are a certain amount of places and grants available at each host university that are given to the students after a selection process organized by your home university.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Duration <\/strong><\/p>\n In the framework of the Erasmus+ program, you can spend between three months and a full academic year <\/strong> abroad. In general, students spend either the first or the second semester, or a whole year abroad. Academic calendars can vary in the different countries.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Deadlines <\/strong><\/p>\n There is no single deadline for the student’s demands, because each university organizes its selection procedure independently. Enquire at your university concerning its application deadlines.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Grants <\/strong><\/p>\n Erasmus grants are intended as a contribution towards covering part of the extra costs involved in studying abroad. They cover the period of study abroad (from three months to a full academic year).<\/p>\n The application procedure for an Erasmus grant varies from country to country. Contact the International Relations Office of your home university <\/strong> about the grant application.<\/p>\n The awarded amount varies significantly from country to country. In any case, don’t expect a full scholarship <\/strong>. It can be combined with additional funds provided by the university, by the member state or by other public or private bodies.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Contact<\/a> your National Erasmus+ Office or the International Relations Office of your home university about the possibilities to apply for other grants in your country <\/strong>.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Fee Payment <\/strong><\/p>\n Normal fees are payable to the home institution <\/strong> (if necessary).<\/p>\n No fees <\/strong> (for tuition, registration, examinations, access to laboratory and library facilities etc.) have to be paid to the host institution.<\/p>\n However, small fees may be charged for costs, such as insurance, student unions, the use of photocopiers, laboratory products etc., on an equal basis with local students.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Recognition at home for the study period abroad <\/strong><\/p>\n The Erasmus study period is an integral part of the program of study at your home university. Full academic recognition <\/strong> must be given for the study period abroad, as decided upon in the Learning Agreement.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Learning Agreement <\/strong><\/p>\n Erasmus students are expected to complete a Learning Agreement to be signed by themselves and the home and host institutions. The Learning Agreement is an informal contract that indicates precisely what modules you will be studying. It should be completed well before you arrive at the host institution. Subsequent modifications to the Learning Agreement are permitted as long as they are agreed by all parties concerned. At the end of the study period abroad, the host university will provide the exchange student as well as the sending university with a transcript reporting the results obtained in the agreed program of study.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n ECTS <\/strong><\/p>\n To facilitate academic recognition, the majority of European universities<\/a> have adopted the European Credit Transfer System <\/strong>. This system provides a common scale for measuring in credits the student workload required to complete course units (for example, one full year of studies generally amounts to 60 credits).<\/p>\n The key documents of ECTS are:<\/p>\n The regular Information Package\/Course Catalogue <\/strong> of the institution to be published in two languages (or only in English for programs taught in English) on the Web and\/or in hard copy in one or more booklets. It has to include information for host students from abroad.<\/p>\n The Learning Agreement <\/strong> contains the list of courses to be taken and agreed upon by the student and the responsible academic body of the institution concerned. In case of credit transfer, the Learning Agreement has to be agreed upon by the student and the two institutions concerned before the student’s departure and to be updated immediately when changes occur.<\/p>\n The Transcript of Records <\/strong> documents the performance of a student by showing the list of courses taken, the credits gained as well as the local grades and possibly ECTS grades awarded. In case of credit transfer, the Transcript of Records has to be issued by the home institution for outgoing students before departure and by the host institution for incoming students at the end of their period of study.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Language knowledge \/ Linguistic preparation <\/strong><\/p>\n You must have acquired sufficient knowledge <\/strong> of the language in which the courses you will attend will be taught. This can be through school qualification in a foreign language, foreign language courses at university or simply by having spent some time living abroad.<\/p>\n In general, you can follow preparatory language courses <\/strong> either at your home university before your departure or at your host university before the beginning of your study period abroad. Additionally you can take advantage of the Online Linguistic Support (OLS) for Erasmus+ mobility participants. This will only become available to you after you have been selected to participate in one of the programs. The languages available are Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Accommodation <\/strong><\/p>\n Often the cheapest alternative is to have a room on campus. You can contact the campus accommodation office of your host institution <\/strong> about this. Both Erasmus+ offices <\/strong> of your home and host university country might be able to help you also. You can also ask at your host university if they have any special places where they post accommodation ads <\/strong>. Generally there are ads in the local press <\/strong> too.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Examination procedure <\/strong><\/p>\n The examination procedure you will follow will be the one adopted by the host institution <\/strong>. This may involve written papers and\/or oral examinations. Unless there are good reasons to do otherwise, the language of the examination will be the one of the host institution. In general, you will not have to pass an exam a second time at your home university to receive academic recognition for it.<\/p>\n Privatewriting will be glad to professionally assist you with applications and essay writing<\/a>, including your Erasmus applications.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n When I wrote this article, which stresses some of the weaknesses in how the Erasmus program works, I did not intend to frighten the students that would like to participate in this program, but warn them since we all know that “You better be safe than sorry”.<\/p>\n It could discourage since it compiles many potential problems but in general, you will not face all the problems at a time and if you are lucky you will not even face any problem at all.<\/p>\n In any case, I strongly recommend international programs such as Erasmus. They are a great cultural and linguistic experience, provided you make the effort to speak the language<\/a> of the country where you are. Moreover it is nowadays fundamental to show that one is mobile in order to find an interesting job.<\/p>\n Before we talk about an Erasmus mobility, let’s review some of the terms used that may not be familiar to you. As follows you will find a short glossary in order to help you understand better these tips.<\/p>\n \u2022 Home university: <\/strong> the university in which you are studying in your country of residence.<\/p>\n \u2022 Host university: <\/strong> the university<\/a> where you will be studying in the framework of Erasmus.<\/p>\n \u2022 Plan of study: <\/strong> all the subjects that you are going to study and that will be listed in the Learning Agreement.<\/p>\n \u2022 ECTS: <\/strong> System that allocates a certain number of credits to a subject according to the workload it represents to the student. In order to be valid, your plan of study must be made of 60 credits a year, that is 30 credits a semester.<\/p>\n \u2022 Coordinator: <\/strong> teacher responsible for the recognition of your plan of study. You may turn to him\/her in case you have problems related to studies. You will have a coordinator in both your home and host universities.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Preparing your stay:<\/strong><\/p>\n To prepare your stay, you will probably look for information in your host university’s website. Be careful because it is possible that the information is not updated nor correct or incomplete.<\/p>\n Some examples: your host university is located in Madrid : until you look at a map, you will not know whether it is downtown or in the city outskirts.<\/p>\n It is also possible that the main faculties of your host university are located in Madrid but that others, smaller, lie 70 or 80 kilometers from Madrid (45-50 miles).<\/p>\n If you study languages such as Japanese or Chinese besides your main major, you may have to pay fees in order to assist to these classes in your host university; this is legal since they are not part of your plan of study.<\/p>\n It may also happen that your host university is implementing a new degree program. In this case, they only teach the first year classes but they post the whole curriculum on their website. This may cause you some problems, particularly in case you were exclusively interested in the second or third year classes.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n About grants: <\/strong><\/p>\n The European Union gives a grant to every Erasmus student. But its amount is really low and does not cover the expenses and charges of your stay. It hardly covers the rent for one month or two months at the most. This is why you need another financial support. Students that receive a grant from their National State are very lucky since they not only receive this grant besides the Erasmus one but in addition they are given a generous supplement from the European Union. This enables them to cover all their expenses and charges provided they manage their funds well. Other sources of financial support are a student loan or a line of credit that offer advantageous repayment terms provided you work or you have someone to stand guarantor for you.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n About fees and other costs:<\/strong><\/p>\n Tuition fees are to be paid in your home university but if you want to take additional classes that might interest you but that are not part of your plan of study, you will have to pay tuition fees. Sometimes, it may happen that you have to pay for class materials such as photocopies. Teachers often times demand certain books to be used in class and as there are not enough copies in the library, you may have to buy one.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n About coordinators:<\/strong><\/p>\n There is an evident lack of coordination between home and host universities. Sometimes even the transmission of grades can be chaotic. If you would have problems of any kind, tell your host university coordinator as well as your home university coordinator. Indeed, as they may not communicate between each other, you will always have to act as a link between them. You should be careful about what coordinators will tell you: they may assert that something can be done without checking that it can be done actually and you may have problems because of that. Erasmus coordinators are not paid to be coordinators (as far as I know), and most of the time they are told to be coordinators. This is why certain coordinators do not pay attention to their students, cannot be reached easily, do not answer e-mails\u2026 Actually there are coordinators that do their job well and always try to help their students, but not all of them do.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Choosing your subjects:<\/strong><\/p>\n If there is no equivalent in your host university for the major you are studying in your home university, you will have to compose your own plan of study by choosing subjects from various majors. For instance the major you are studying in your home university is made of mixed subjects such as Computer Science, English, Economics and History of Spain. If there is no equivalent in your host university, you will choose a Computer Science class in the Computer Science faculty (or in any other faculty that teaches Computer Science), an English class in the English Language and Literature faculty, an Economics class in the Economics faculty, and a History of Spain class in the Spanish Language and Literature faculty or that of History.<\/p>\n This poses a scheduling problem. If two classes are taught at the same time you will have to choose another class or even choose another subject.<\/p>\n It may also pose a level problem. If the major you are studying in your home country is made of so mixed subjects, the Computer Science level acquired will not be the same as the level acquired in a Computer Science major. So it may sometimes be difficult to understand the classes. Moreover if you have chosen a third-year class for instance, you will not have assisted to the first and second-year classes so that you will lack of a certain knowledge that the teacher will regard as known by every student.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n About the implementation of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS):<\/strong><\/p>\n The ECTS is used to facilitate the recognition in your home university of the classes to which you assisted abroad. This is how it works: every subject is allocated a certain number of credits according to the workload it represents to the student. An academic year represents 60 credits (a semester, 30). So, when you study as an Erasmus student, you compose your plan of study and once you have reached 30 credits a semester, you have enough subjects.<\/p>\n The problem arises when the home and\/or host universities do not implement this system. Every university should implement it but it is a recent system and this is why many universities still have problems with it.<\/p>\n This is an example of what can happen: your home university bases itself on subjects instead of credits. If the major you are studying in your home country is made of 10 subjects of 2 hours a week each one, you will have a 20 hour-a week schedule. When you choose subjects in your host university, you may find out that each subject has a 3 hour-a week schedule so that each one represents more credits and you will reach the number of credits you need with less subjects.<\/p>\n If your home university would implement the ECTS, this would not be a problem at all. But when it is not the case, your coordinator may assign you presentations or make you sit for exams when you come back to your home university. Eventually you will study a lot more than 20 hours a week and you will have to study by yourself the program of the subjects for which you will have to sit for an exam when you come back.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n About internships:<\/strong><\/p>\n If your major includes an internship, your home university devotes part of the academic year to it. When you participate in Erasmus, you have to be aware that your host university will not have any period dedicated to this internship. This is why your home university may exempt you from realizing it and this is really great because you will not have any problems in getting organized. On the other hand, if your home university still demands the internship, you will have two options. In case you have school only half of the day, you can dedicate the other half to your internship. Otherwise you will have to realize your internship during your summer holidays or other holidays you will have.<\/p>\n I hope this advice will be helpful for you to prepare your Erasmus stay. If you would face one of the problems I have just mentioned or others, take it easy and try to find the best solution you can. But do not lose heart because anyway an Erasmus stay is always useful. Indeed besides an academic year abroad, an Erasmus stay also means learning or deepening your knowledge of a language, learning about new cultures and meeting new people from which you will learn a lot as well. The Erasmus program is also a great way to study in one of the Universities in Spain<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Best wishes on your stay!<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n FOR EUROPEAN STUDENTS AND SCHOLARS<\/strong><\/p>\n Erasmus Mundus does not provide scholarships to European students and scholars for studying or working at European universities.<\/strong> However, selected Erasmus Mundus Masters consortia may enter into Erasmus Mundus Partnerships (Action 3) with third-country higher education institutions. Within the framework of these Partnerships, students enrolled in an Erasmus Mundus Masters Course and scholars working for an Erasmus Mundus Masters Course can receive a scholarship in order to spend a short period of study or work (normally three months) at the third-country partner university. In order to be eligible for these scholarships, students and scholars must be citizens of the European Union or third-country nationals who have been legal residents in the European Union for at least three years (and for purposes other than study) before the start of the scholarship.<\/p>\n The Erasmus Mundus Scholarships allow you to study in 15 countries inside or outside the European Union. Needless to say, Studying in Spain<\/a> is also an option provided by the Erasmus Mundus Scholarships.<\/p>\n European students can apply for an Erasmus\/Socrates scholarship under the standard Erasmus\/Socrates conditions and procedures. In practice, this means that the university in which the European student starts the Erasmus Mundus Masters Course can grant an Erasmus\/Socrates scholarship for the student’s study period at the second hosting institution within the Erasmus Mundus Masters consortium.<\/p>\n It is therefore not possible for European students to receive an Erasmus\/Socrates scholarship for the whole duration of an Erasmus Mundus Masters Course.<\/p>\n Neither can European students obtain an Erasmus\/Socrates scholarship at masters level if they have already had an Erasmus\/Socrates grant at undergraduate level.<\/p>\n AMOUNT OF THE SCHOLARSHIP<\/strong><\/p>\n Scholarships for incoming mobility<\/strong><\/span> (third-country students and scholars coming to Europe, Action 2<\/strong>): For each student the scholarship amounts to 21,000 Euros per academic year. This includes 10 monthly grants of 1,600 Euros and a fixed amount of 5,000 Euros for fees, travel expenses, relocation costs, etc. For Courses lasting two years, the student receives double this amount, i.e. 42,000 Euros. The amount of an average scholarship for scholars is 13,000 Euros. This includes three monthly grants of 4,000 Euros and a fixed amount of 1,000 Euros for travel expenses. The Erasmus Mundus Masters consortium pays the grants to students and scholars according to their own payment arrangements that are communicated to the grantees in advance.<\/p>\n Scholarships for outgoing mobility<\/strong><\/span> (European students and scholars going to third countries, Action 3<\/strong>): For each student the average scholarship amounts to 3,100 Euros for a three-month period. This includes a monthly grant of 700 Euros and a fixed amount of 1,000 Euros for travel expenses. The amount of an average scholarship for scholars is 13,000 Euros for a three-month period. This includes three monthly grants of 4,000 Euros and a fixed amount of 1,000 Euro for travel expenses. The Erasmus Mundus Masters consortium pays the grants to students and scholars according to their own payment arrangements that are communicated to the grantees in advance.<\/p>\n OBTAINING THE VISA<\/strong><\/p>\n Once third-country students and scholars have received an official confirmation from the Erasmus Mundus Masters consortium that they have been accepted to participate in the Course, they can obtain a visa in their home countries in the embassies of the respective European countries which are involved in the Masters Course. The international office of the Erasmus Mundus Masters Courses will advise third-country students and scholars on how to obtain their visas.<\/p>\n INSURANCE <\/strong><\/p>\n Only third-country students who receive an Erasmus Mundus scholarship are covered by a complementary sickness and accident insurance offered by the Commission. All other students enrolled in an Erasmus Mundus Masters Course and third-country scholars working for the course have to take out their own insurance (if necessary).<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n The Erasmus Mundus Scholarship is a great way to sponsor your graduate program in Spain<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n The European Commission published a first call for proposals relating to the year 2004<\/strong> in early April 2004 that covers Action 1 (Erasmus Mundus Masters Courses), Action 2 (scholarships) and Action 4 (enhancing attractiveness).<\/p>\nErasmus+<\/h2>\n
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Tips from a former Erasmus Student<\/h2>\n
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Erasmus Mundus Scholarships<\/h2>\n
How to Apply for an Erasmus Scholarship<\/h2>\n