ERASMUS: possibly the best education mobility programme in the world

by David Philips

Introduction

Erasmus the man was the original and most brilliant back-packing scholar; he spent time at the Universities of Cambridge, Paris, Basel, Leuven and Venice, and in his honour the European Commission named what is possibly the best education mobility programme in the world.

With its motto of "Bringing students to Europe, bringing Europe to all students", the Erasmus programme has since 1987 promoted the mobility and exchange of students and teaching staff, and now operates in 31 countries[1] and approximately 2,000 higher education institutions.

Erasmus is open to every type of institution within higher education, all academic disciplines and all levels of higher study up to, and including, Doctorate level.

The most recent figures show that approximately 1.2 million students have benefited both personally and professionally. It is widely described as "the chance of a lifetime".

The UK and Erasmus

The success of Erasmus has been historic and the EU is planning to accommodate its growth into the foreseeable future. But, comparatively, the British are missing out: despite the many administrative bodies and associations testifying to the benefits of Erasmus, the figures indicate a consistent decline in response, with 7,000 applications last year, or less than 5% of the student/teacher community.

This is not only considerably lower than in other countries in which the programme operates, where numbers are also increasing, but also reflects a disparity in the status of the scheme which is elsewhere so highly prized, in part because it is recognized with such approval by so many employers.

Fortunately the UK Erasmus Students Committee (UKESC) has finally decided to fight back against cultural prejudices, the guilt of 'nothing as good as this can be so easy' and its sceptical twin 'there has to be a catch'. A conference[2] was organized at the European Parliament in Brussels dedicated to exploring new ideas of how to involve more UK students.

The keynote speaker at the conference was European Commissioner for Education Ján Figel', who outlined his vision for European Student Mobility in the next decade. Other speakers at the conference included Ewa Krzaklewska, Vice President, European Student Network, Robert Evans MEP, and John Reilly Director of the UK Socrates-Erasmus Council. The conference provided a valuable opportunity to learn from the success of Erasmus in other European countries, and has started to foster new and increased cooperation.

Erasmus scholars

Current UKESC member and former Erasmus scholar is Uju Obi. It is not hard to see why she is a dedicated Erasmian: her progression from the University of East Anglia, during the third year of a Law degree, to Uppsala University in Sweden was effortless: when her university's Erasmus co-ordinators had done all they could, their Swedish counterparts simply took over. But wasn't language a problem? Uju said: "I had no previous knowledge of the language but after a month's intensive tuition. I was able to pick it up as I went along - and I was taught in English anyway."

Most significantly Uju did not follow the obvious career path into being a lawyer. She is now happily employed by an international organisation as a Case Manager specializing in Alternative Dispute Resolution - while also developing her talents as a textile artist: she recently won a Textile and Design prize from the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

"Erasmus gave me the confidence to discover career paths that I never thought existed. Employers are very interested in people who have international experience and can show initiative and have the confidence to live and study in anther country. Unfortunately most UK students don't realise this and lose out."

"I've kept in touch with a lot of people I met during my Erasmus year. A lot of people have visited London and I've had the chance to catch up with them and we all send emails as often as possible. I've also been to visit friends in Spain and France".

Another former Erasmus scholar is Lisa Ardley, who went to Bordeaux from Nottingham, is also on UKESC and attended the conference in Brussels. She is very keen to promote the financial viability of Erasmus.

"I found it was the least expensive year of my degree. Under University agreements all tuition fees were waived and so I paid nothing to my home institution for the year. The European Commission provides all Erasmus students with a grant which was more generous than I had anticipated. I also got a larger loan from the UK because I was studying abroad"

Lisa is very happy with UKESC's future projects, largely awareness-raising, which were endorsed in Brussels. "There is a determination to raise the number of UK students to 43,000 by 2012. There are plans to use Student's Unions to create a network of Erasmus societies. These will be dedicated to promoting Erasmus, whether through social events, advisory facilities or regular visits to local secondary schools and sixth forms. There will be a handbook explaining how to set up such a society".

Further sources of information

The UK Socrates Erasmus Council (UKSEC) is responsible for the Erasmus Programme in the UK. UKSEC manages the distribution of grants to UK higher education institutions. It holds workshops and conferences to promote and support the programme, and produces a variety of publications giving information on and promoting Erasmus. UKSEC's website has a comprehensive list of links and statistics and details on other programmes such as Erasmus Mundus.

UKESC also has a new website: www.ukerasmusstudents.info. Here you will find a great deal of advice and fact files on living and studying in all member countries. These combine with discussion boards to provide comprehensive profiles on each country, covering everything from climate and cost of living to insurance.

The Erasmus Student Network (ESN) is a student organisation founded in 1990 for supporting and developing student exchange. They operate in 220 Higher Education Institutions in 28 countries. They aim to improve the social and practical integration of exchange students, to represent the needs and expectations of exchange students on the local, national and international level, to provide relevant information about academic exchange programmes and help with the reintegration of homecoming students.

Footnotes

[1] Participating countries include:

• EU25 (Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden, United Kingdom;
• 3 European Economic Area countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway), and
• Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey

[2]To see how the BBC reported the story of 'UK missing out on foreign study', go to BBC NEWS http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/education/4814696.stm