Erasmus: Record numbers of students receive EU funding to study or train abroad

More students than ever went abroad for studies and company placements with EU support through the Erasmus programme in 2008/09. According to new figures released in June, almost 200 000 higher education students received grants to study or train abroad. This represents an overall increase of 8.7% on the previous academic year and means that more than two million young Europeans have benefited from Erasmus funding since the programme's launch in 1987.

Erasmus studies
168 200 students received Erasmus support to go abroad for studies and spent an average of six months in the host country, which is an increase of 3.4% compared to numbers in the previous year.

Erasmus company placements
Since 2007, Erasmus has offered students the opportunity to go abroad for placements in businesses or other organisations. This saw an increase of more than 50% on the previous year, to 30 400 students in 2008/09. A desire by students to increase their job prospects through practical work - as shown by a Eurobarometer survey in 2009 - is seen as a main reason behind the increasing popularity of Erasmus company placements.

Highest number of Erasmus students
The countries sending the highest numbers of Erasmus students were France (28 300 students), Germany (27 900) and Spain (27 400). As a share of their student population the top performers were Luxembourg (15.5%), Liechtenstein (3%), Austria (1.9%) and the Czech Republic (1.7%). The most popular destinations for Erasmus students were Spain (33 200 students), followed by France (24 600) and Germany (22 000).

Staff mobility
During the academic year 2008/2009, Erasmus supported more than 36 000 exchanges of staff from higher education institutions (up 13.6%). In 28 600 cases teachers received grants to teach abroad and in 7 700 cases staff spent time in another country for training in businesses or partner institutions.

Read more on http://ec.europa.eu/education/news/news2418_en.htm