When one university isn’t enough: The Erasmus scheme

Finding your degree hard? What about studying it in another language? It may sound like an idea verging on the masochistic, but thousands of students each year do it. They also swap their university, academic system and country. In fact 150,000 students across Europe packed up and left for pastures new in 2006, and all through the Erasmus programme.

Erasmus (named after fifteenth century philosopher, theologian and humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam) is now 20 years old. It was set up by the European Commission to encourage student mobility within Europe, and today its success is undeniable. “The best thing I’ve ever done,” and “the best time in my life” are common responses from Erasmus students asked about their time abroad.

A misconception about the scheme though is that it’s only open to language students. This isn’t the case. Due to the programme’s flexible nature, it is possible to study elsewhere for anything between three and 12 months, meaning non-language students can spend just one semester flirting with a different country. Sara Di Pietrantonio, for example, was studying Communications in Università degli Studi di L'Aquila, Italy (“studying abroad has always been my dream” she says) and attended Wolverhampton University for just five months.

In fact, the Erasmus programme is usually open to any student in a participating university who isn’t a fresher or finalist.

However you do need to be able to speak and understand a bit of your destination country’s language. Lisa Ardley graduated from Nottingham University in 2006 and spent her third year (out of four) in Bordeaux, France. Being a Law and French student, her classes were taught in French. But, she points out, “other places, like Finland or the Netherlands, often have classes in English.”

If your language skills are rusty, the good news is many universities provide language training. You can take part in one of the Erasmus Intensive Language Courses (EILCs), which are offered in 23 countries and are free for participating students. And as Lisa says, “you do pick up bits and pieces of the language even if you haven’t studied it before, just as a result of being immersed in the culture.”

Another concern: Think ‘year abroad’, think expense. But with Erasmus, this isn’t necessarily the case. You don’t pay tuition fees to your host university (and if you’re away for a year you don’t pay that year’s fees to your home university either) and funding is available. The Erasmus grant is designed to help cover the additional expense of living abroad, rather than cover the cost of the whole year. For an idea, you can expect to receive around £200 a month. Extra funding might also be available from public authorities, universities themselves and other organisations. Sara, for example, received 600 euros in 2006 for her stay in the UK, and a further 500 euros from an Italian institution.

Students with disabilities are also able to apply for further grants.

You should also be able to take up your maintenance grant and/or maintenance loan in the same way as if you were studying in the UK. But remember the year still can end up being more expensive than a year at home. Travel costs to and from the host university can rack up, and living expenses in some European cities may be more than you experience the UK.

Your university will be able to tell you more about funding, and also about the possibilities of where - out of the 2199 universities offering the scheme - you can go to study.

“The choice of where to go depends on the links your university and your department has with other universities,” says Lisa. “We had a choice of three places, which is fairly typical.”