Erasmus+ Program: Goals and Activities
Program Overview
Erasmus+ is the European Union's program for education, youth, and sport. Erasmus+ encompasses the existing EU programs for lifelong learning, youth, and sport, as well as the European cooperative programs in higher education. The program contains three key actions:
- Key Action 1 – Learning Mobility of Individuals
- Key Action 2 – Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices
- Key Action 3 – Support for Policy Reform
Erasmus+ is equipped with a 14.8 billion Euro budget. More than four million people will profit from EU funds up to 2020. The seven-year program aims to boost skills and employability and modernize education, training, and youth work. You can find information about Erasmus+ on the European Commission's website.
The funding will strengthen mobility in Europe and starting in 2015, in other parts of the world on a smaller scale. By 2020, around two million students will have profited from Erasmus+, including a quarter of a million from Germany. Students at all levels of study including doctoral studies, who would like to complete a portion of their studies or internship abroad, are included in the program. For the first time students in Bachelor, Master, and doctoral studies can be funded for up to twelve months.
Mobility Stipend Increase
In order to increase the financial incentive for a stay abroad, the monthly mobiity stipend will be increased for students, particularly for host countries with higher costs of living. Internships abroad after completion of an academic degree will also be possible in the future. Finally, Erasmus+ offers students, who want to complete an entire Master's degree in Europe, the possibility to take out a loan with low interest. The existing Excellence funding from Erasmus Mundus, which completely supports the Master's studies of outstanding students in selected European Master's programs with a joint degree, will be continued under Erasmus+.
Additionally, Erasmus+ contributes to the futher internationalization of universities by funding short-term lectureships and continued education stays for instructors and administrators. Furthermore, universities can invite corporate staff from abroad to teaching stays and now participate with other European partners – even in the non-academic sector – on multilaterial strategic partnerships and develop innovative projects together, for example in curriculum development or interdisciplinary topics.
Erasmus+ offers funding in the new science alliances for collaboration with industry. Universities, who wish to be involved in capacity-building in non-EU/EEA countries, can do so in the program's international university partnerships.
Funding for 33 Program Countries
Funds for most of mobility measures and strategic partnerships will be allocated in 33 program countries, including 28 EU countries, Iceland, Lichtenstein, North Macedonia, Norway, and Turkey, by national agencies. In Germany, this responsibility falls to the German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD. The following mobility measures are funded under the umbrella of the EU education program Erasmus+:
Student Mobility for Studies, SMS
Student Mobility for Placements, SMP