Table of contents:
How much is the monthly grant (for students from Poland)?
- €500 for: Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Italy.
- €400 for: Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Greece, Spain, the Netherlands, Iceland, Luxembourg, Germany, Portugal, Slovenia, Turkey.
- €300 for: Bulgaria, Estonia, FYROM (the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary.
Which countries does the programme cover?
Basically all the countries of the European Union, plus: the Republic of North Macedonia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Turkey and Serbia.
Who can take part in the programme?
- Anyone with student status who is at least in their second year (this requirement only applies to bachelor’s students), as well as PhD students. The student can’t be on a leave of absence of any kind.
- For traineeships, you need to have student status at the time of recruitment. Keep this in mind especially if you plan to do a traineeship after finishing your bachelor’s degree. Between finishing the first cycle and starting the second, you don’t have student status. If that is exactly when you decide to apply, the university won’t accept your documents.
- A student can do a traineeship after graduating, as long as they applied for it while they still had student status. The traineeship has to be completed within 12 months of graduation. Note that the university gives priority to student placements, and graduate placements are only possible if there are unused funds left from the grant agreement. This means it may turn out that one university has funds for a 3-month placement and another for 12 months.
- A student taking part in an Erasmus traineeship has to prove that it is related to their field of study.
First steps
It’s worth visiting the website of your university’s International Relations Office and reading all the information. Every university has set recruitment dates. If you miss them, it will turn out that you can’t take part in the programme in that semester.
Go carefully through the list of universities you can choose from. Every university has its own list of partner universities in selected countries, together with the fields of study available. Your studies at the foreign university should be in the same field. In some cases, however, you can choose a similar field – the most important thing is that as many subjects as possible match those at your home university (so your grades can be transferred). If it turns out that the foreign university doesn’t offer all the subjects you need, you can arrange with your home university to pass some subjects after you return. In that case, when you get back you need to apply to the dean to extend your exam session. As for the foreign university, the most important thing is to earn 30 ECTS credits.
Once you have the right information, contact the Erasmus coordinator, who should explain which documents are required (e.g. first you declare that you want to go to the International Relations Office, then you fill in the “Learning Agreement” – the “Before the Mobility” part).
For traineeships, you first need to find a company willing to take you on as a trainee. Once you know the recruitment dates, you submit the “Learning Agreement” through the Erasmus coordinator (it includes, among other things, the place and duration of the traineeship, the tasks, the skills to be acquired and the signature of the traineeship coordinator with the date). Keep in mind that the host organisation can’t be funded by the European Union. This should be checked by the Erasmus coordinator, who, however, doesn’t always have time to check it at all.
What else is worth knowing
- Anyone who wants to improve their language skills should definitely take part in the programme. Besides studying in another language, the programme offers free language courses. It’s worth reading reviews of the universities. Sometimes they aren’t equipped to run classes in English, so classes may be taught in a language the student doesn’t know.
- The student must have the required language level. The level is set strictly by the foreign university – it often depends on the field of study. If the student doesn’t have a certificate confirming their language skills, the university will check them with a language test. Sometimes B1 is enough.
- The student should be patient and determined. Unfortunately, recruitment takes time and usually involves lots of complications. Exam sessions at different universities can fall at different times, and you often have to ask the dean to let you take your exams earlier. The sooner the better, because you can only be accepted for the exchange once you’ve passed all your subjects. On top of that, you have to deal with the paperwork. A good Erasmus coordinator and a well-organised university can save you unnecessary stress and complications. Unfortunately, at many universities the coordinator knows very little and the university itself isn’t very helpful. If you want to do a traineeship during the semester, it’s important to submit additional documents to get an individual study plan and the option of extending the exam session, so you can pass it after you return.
