Socrates/Erasmus

Official web site of the European Commision (Education/SOCRATES)

 

 

The SOCRATES II programme supports European co-operation through eight actions (Comenius, Erasmus, Grundtvig, Lingua, Minerva, Observation & Innovation, Joint Actions, Accompanying Measures), each of them addressing a specific target (from secondary school students to higher education and adult learning).

The higher education section of SOCRATES II (ERASMUS) continues and extends the European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students (the ERASMUS programme), established in 1987.

 

ERASMUS contains a wide range of measures designed to support the European activities of higher education institutions and to promote the mobility and exchange of their teaching staff and students.

 

Adopted on 24 January 2000 and spanning the period until the end of 2006, SOCRATES and its Erasmus action are now open to the participation of 30 countries: the 15 Member States of the European Union; the three EEA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) and twelve associated countries: Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia.

 

ERASMUS seeks to integrate such mobility into a wider framework of co-operation activities which aim at developing a European Dimension within the entire range of a university's academic programmes. Bringing students to Europe, bringing Europe to all students is the new spirit of ERASMUS.

 

Higher education students (Universities or extra-university institutions) may spend a study period (from 3 to 12 months) in another participating country in the framework of agreed arrangements between universities. They generally receive a grant to help offset the mobility costs of studying in another country, such as travel, language preparation and differences in the cost of living. Their award depends on several elements which vary from country to country.

 

Full academic recognition for the study period carried out abroad (but not of the final degrees) must be ensured before departure, generally by means of an ECTS Learning Agreement (now used by more than 1000 institutions across Europe).

 

The programme is open to all higher education students (up to and including PhD studies) from a participating country, except for students enrolled in their first year of higher education studies.

 

The European Commission also supports Erasmus Intensive Language Courses (EILCs) to enable Erasmus students to function socially and academically in a host country whose language is not widely spoken or taught abroad. The Univesity of Bucharest organises ILPCs during the month of September (for the autumn semester) and between mid January to mid February (for the spring semester).

Financial support is given to higher education teaching staff to spend a short period (one week minimum) of fully integrated teaching assignments in a partner University.