Erasmus + Programme

I guess those of you, who are interested in studying abroad, have heard of the Erasmus Mundus Programme. It was a wide cooperation scheme between European universities. But, unfortunately, it ended in 2013. But don’t worry, because all the current master and doctoral partnerships will continue for the academic year 2014/2015. From 2014, a new programme starts, called Erasmus+. It will provide new scholarship opportunities for all that are interested.

About Erasmus – its purpose is to support participations in the fields of Education, just like Erasmus Mundus so far, but also training, Youth and Sport in the period 2014-2020.

Erasmus+ represents several programmes gathered together

• the Lifelong Learning Programme (Erasmus, Leonardo da Vinci, Comenius and Grundtvig)

• the Youth in Action programme

• five international cooperation programmes (Erasmus Mundus, Tempus, Alfa, Edulink)

• new sport action.

There are grants, provided via Erasmus + for a wide range of actions and activities. The opportunities are given to students, trainees and volunteers to spend certain time abroad in order to increase their skills. It supports organizations to start a transnational partnership and to share new practices in the required fields. The sport actions will include different challenges, such as doping, racism and violence.

The Erasmus + programme actions are separated in decentralized actions and centralized actions. The decentralized actions are available in each programme country by its National Agencies appointed by the local authorities. The centralized actions are available in Europe by the Education Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA) that is located in Brussels. It is in charge to take care of the project’s management, it promotes the programme, regulates the monitoring of the projects, and at the end it reviews the programme’s results.

Most of all, the Erasmus+ programme helps you improve your skills and employability, by providing modern education or training. This programme will be given a budget of 14.7 billion.

The programme will provide opportunities for over 4 million Europeans to achieve their goals in the different fields offered. A bridge between the countries is built that you may take advantage of. Erasmus + will also support the efforts for modern Education, Training, and Youth systems.