Primrose Kitten

Erasmus

This scheme has a really little name. And hiding behind that fancy small name is a long name, and a fantastic opportunity to work, travel, live abroad as part of your degree.

Erasmus is the European Region Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students. If you decide you want to work or study, volunteer overseas during the time that you are doing your degree, and it's not integrated into your course already, then the Erasmus Scheme will let you do that. If you're confident that you want to work abroad or study abroad, then you might want to consider not using the Erasmus Scheme, but applying for a course that has a year overseas already integrated into it. Because the Erasmus Scheme, you apply to when you're already at university, once you're already on a degree course. You apply to it during your first year, but there's no guarantee you're going to be accepted. You apply via your university Erasmus or international office, and you have to apply for something that is relevant to your course. You can't be studying architecture, and want to spend a year in Italy studying creative writing.

If you get to the course, your university will help you find accommodation while you're there. It will help you fill in the forms which might be in a completely different language, one that you're not familiar with. And it will take you through the university process of picking modules, picking courses for you to study while you're there. The placement can last anywhere between three months and 12 months, and you can go on more than one Erasmus placement during your time. The total time that you're on placement cannot be more than 12 months. The exceptions for this would be extended courses like medicine or architecture, where you can spend up to 24 months on placement. If you want to apply to a school both the university that you're currently at and the college, you're applying to needs to be part of the scheme. You'll need to be doing your placement in your second, third, fourth, or fifth year; you cannot do it during your first year.

There is some financial support available, via their grant scheme, but not everybody's going to get the grants. While you're on your Erasmus placement, your host university won't be charging you tuition fees, but you may still have some other associated expenses, like lab fees that you have to pay.

Even though it is called the European scheme, there are loads of countries outside the European area, that are involved in this project.

Countries that can participate fully are;

Austria

Belgium

Bulgaria

Croatia

Cyprus

Czech Republic

Denmark

Estonia

Finland

France

Germany

Greece

Hungary

Iceland

Ireland

Italy

Latvia

Liechtenstein

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Malta

Northern Macedonia

Netherlands

Norway

Poland

Portugal

Romania

Slovakia

Slovenia

Spain

Sweden

Turkey

United Kingdom

Countries that have limited participation;

Albania

Algeria

Azerbaijan

Belarus

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Egypt

Georgia

Israel

Jordan

Kosovo

Lebanon

Libya

Moldova

Montenegro

Morocco

Palestine

Russia

Serbia Armenia

Syria

Tunisia

Ukraine

For the moment, Brexit is not going to impact the U.K.'s involvement in the Erasmus Scheme. The advantages are wide-ranging. This is going to be a fantastic opportunity for you, to go and live, to go and study, volunteer, work to experience the culture in a completely different country. It is going to look amazing on your CV, your application form after university. You're showing that you can work independently, that you can experience new things, that you can travel, and that you can work well with a wide range of people.