Happy Birthday, Erasmus!

The Erasmus Programme celebrates this year its 25th anniversary. Created in 1987, it is the world’s most successful student exchange programme and one of the EU’s biggest success stories.

Since its launch in 1987, almost 3 million students and staff  have benefited from a study period  or a work placement abroad on an Erasmus exchange.  In 2011 a quarter of a million young people went to study or train in another country on an Erasmus exchange.

The programme is at the heart of the European Commission education policy and its strategy to combat the crisis and youth unemployment by focusing more on skills development.

Androulla Vassiliou,  European Commissioner for Education, Culture and Youth, who launched the celebrations  for the Erasmus anniversary, said on the occasion of the launch: “I am convinced that Erasmus and our other mobility programmes can be part of the solution to the problem of youth unemployment”

“The impact of Erasmus has been tremendous, not only for individual students, but for the European economy as a whole,” Commission President José Manuel Barroso highlighted. Barroso emphasized Erasmus’s impact on economy by developing closer links between academia and employers and a European dimension by giving “young people the confidence and ability to work in other countries, where the right jobs might be available”.

To celebrate Erasmus’s silver anniversary events  are being  held all over Europe under the slogan : “Changing lives, opening minds” , a slogan that fits to the programme as 3 million people shared this experience that  opened their minds and loosened boundaries in Europe.

In the current academic year, more than 250,000 students will benefit from the Erasmus programme, with a majority of students heading to Spain, France, United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. The EU has allocated some €3 billion for Erasmus for the multi-annual financial period 2007-13.

A new programme, called “Erasmus for All” has been proposed by the Commission. Starting in 2014, it would bring together all current EU and international schemes for education,  training, youth and sport, replacing seven existing programmes with one. This will increase efficiency, make it easier to apply for grants, as well as reducing duplication and fragmentation.

To read more: http://ec.europa.eu/education/news/20120130_en.htm