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LIFELONG LEARNING PROGRAMME

 ERASMUS PROGRAMME

GENERAL INFORMATION

The European Commission has integrated its various educational and training initiatives under a single umbrella, the Lifelong Learning Programme. With a significant budget of nearly EUR 7 billion for 2007 to 2013, the new programme replaces the existing education, vocational training and e-Learning programmes, which ended in 2006.

The new Lifelong Learning Programme enables individuals at all stages of their lives to pursue stimulating learning opportunities across Europe. It consists of four sub-programmes: Comenius (for schools), Erasmus (for higher education), Leonardo da Vinci (for vocational education and training) and Grundtvig (for adult education).

A transversal programme complements these four sub-programmes in order to ensure that they achieve the best results. Four key activities focus on policy co-operation, languages, information and communication technologies, effective dissemination and exploitation of project results.

Finally, the Jean Monnet programme stimulates teaching, reflection and debate on the European integration process at higher education institutions worldwide.

 The aim of the ERASMUS sub-programme is to help improve the quality of education and strengthen the European dimension in education through promoting transnational cooperation between the universities from different countries, as well as expanding the European mobility and fully academic recognition of the study periods within the European Union.

Thousands of students and lecturers are awarded mobility grants. The students have the opportunity to study abroad for a period of between 3 and 12 months in a foreign university on the basis of preliminary signed bilateral agreements between the home and host university. The bilateral agreements point out all parameters of the student mobility – level of education, duration in months, subject areas, specialisms. After completion of the study period, the host university is supposed to give information about the training modules and the results from the use of the grant. Both the home and the host universities are obliged to fully recognize the training modules of the students before and during the mobility period.

The ERASMUS grant covers the travel expenses and the living costs of the student in the host university. The size of the grant varies per country per month and is being annually defined by the National Agency according to the European Commission grant.