The Erasmus program for student exchange

Erasmus is the programme of the European Union for student exchange. Officially it is now called Life Long Learning, but still it referred to as Erasmus by many people. Erasmus makes it possible to carry out a part of your study programme at a university in another country. Typically, students will follow courses during their exchange period but it is also possible to carry out your master thesis at another university. Sometimes it is useful to bring your external training under Erasmus. Of course you need consent from your study advisor for any exchange program. All countries of the EU take part in Erasmus plus Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, and Turkey.

Contracts between universities

To make an exchange possible, a bilateral agreement is required between your department and the partner university, regarding your program. Agreements are defined for exchange between programmes.

See the database of the International Office for existing agreements. If no agreement exists for your programme with the university of your choice, it may be possible to use an agreement, regarding another programme.

For an external training, no agreement is necessary.

Period

Typically, a course programme will take place during the autumn or spring semester. In that case you will have to find room in your programme for a 30 EC workload. For an external training and a master thesis you and your supervisor are free to choose your period.

Learning Agreement

For your Erasmus stay, a learning agreement must be concluded between your department and the partner university. In this agreement the program is defined that you will follow during your stay abroad. After you have finished your Erasmus stay you will be handed a Transcript of Records which will contain the courses you followed and the marks you obtained.

Finances

You can obtain a scholarship for an Erasmus stay, once during each phase of your study: bachelor, master and PhD. You can apply for this scholarship, using TMF.