Regulations
The students must be registered in a higher education institution and enrolled in studies leading to a recognised degree or other recognised tertiary level qualification (up to and including PhD). The first year of studies must be completed at the sending institution (this does not apply to Master or PhD students).
Type & length of the exchange
• Studies and combined mobility (including traineeship): 3 to 12 months.
• Traineeship (work placement) : 2 to 12 months (including the traineeship by recent graduates that needs to take place at the latest 12 months after the end of the study period).
Cycles
The same student may receive grants for studies or traineeship up to 12 months maximum per each study cycle:
• During the first cycle (Bachelor or equivalent)
• During the second cycle (Master or equivalent)
• During the third cycle as doctoral candidate
The duration of the traineeship by recent graduates counts towards the 12 months maximum of the cycle during which they apply for the traineeship. This means that a student who has been on exchange for 12 months during Master level cannot apply for the traineeship by recent graduates after graduating from the second cycle. Total accumulated duration of Erasmus+ student mobility can be 36 months (12 during the first cycle, 12 during the second cycle and 12 during the third cycle).
Before the Mobility
Step 1
Institutional call for applications
The IRC (International Relations Coordinator) of the home institution can organise an annual information event to raise the students’ awareness of the exchange possibilities, application process and necessary documentation.
Step 2
Grant application submitted to the National Agency
The grant application needs to be submitted by the yearly call for proposals to the National Agency (NA) of the country of the applicant organisation. The application period usually takes place in March. Please follow the information given by your NA concerning the annual call for proposals.
Step 3
Student mobility application package compiled and sent to the host institution
The application package should include:
Student application form for credit mobility
The sending institution can set its internal selection criteria (e.g. based on grade-point average). All applications have to be sent by the IRC of the home institution to the IRC of the host institution. This ensures that the home institution approves the exchange.
Note that different institutions have different deadlines for incoming exchange applications. Please consult /members/our-members for more information.
Learning Agreement for studies / Learning Agreement for traineeship proposal
Studies:
• The Learning Agreement for studies (LA) is a document that indicates the precise courses that the student will be studying and needs to be approved by the student, the sending and the receiving institution. This guarantees the sending institution recognises the Erasmus exchange as part of the studies. Therefore the LA form includes an additional table for the recognition plan. The actual LA needs to be finalised before the exchange but does not have to be sent with the application package in order to avoid multiple changes.
• The LA proposal can at the first stage include a list of courses the student wishes to attend. The first draft can be sent to the receiving institution by email for them to add the information such as link to the course catalogue, name of the responsible person, planned dates of the mobility period, etc. It also provides an opportunity for the receiving institution to comment on the proposed study programme and number of credits, and to make suggestions for additional or alternative courses.
• The LA should be signed at the stage when the study plan is satisfactory for all parties. Changes to the already approved LA should be made in exceptional cases only.
• It is recommended to work on the electronic the LA by using google.docs https://www.google.com/docs/about/ and use digital signatures for signing.
• For convenience, LA for studies is divided in 3 parts Before mobility, During mobility, After mobility and also includes annex and guidelines how to complete the LA.
• 1 part: before mobility part includes information about student, sending and receiving institutions. Table A of the LA describes proposed mobility programme: course components (subjects/modules), duration of the course (semester/term, academic year), assessment mode (important information for further recognition), and number of credits.
• Sending institution by signing LA confirmes that all courses and credits indicated in the Table B will be recognised and counted towards students degree.
Traineeship:
• The Learning Agreement for traineeship sets out the training programme and activities to be followed as approved by the student, the sending and the receiving institution. This guarantees the sending institution recognises the outcomes of the traineeship. The LA also includes the required information for the Traineeship Certificate that the receiving institution must issue within a maximum of 5 weeks after the successful completion of the traineeship.
• The receiving institution can be an enterprise of any size (small, medium or large) legally acting in any EU or EU Economic Area country. The host organisations may include HEIs, music festivals, concert organizations, cultural organisations, professional associations and also international relations offices of conservatoires or the AEC Office. Enterprises are not requested to hold ECHE and PIC if they are not higher education institutions.
For convenience, LA for traineeship is divided in 3 parts Before mobility, During mobility, After mobility and also includes annex and guidelines how to complete the LA.
Step 4
Evaluation process and result of application given to student and IRC
Upon receiving an incoming exchange application the IRC of the receiving institution follows the internal institutional rules in forwarding the application (e.g. to the teacher of the main study/specialisation, head of department or jury etc.)
Information about the result of the application should be sent both to the IRC of the student’s (sending) institution and the student.
It is highly recommended to send the application results (also in case of negative results) to the sending institution as early as possible. The timeframe is determined in the IIA (Chapter E) and the institution should set a realistic time period for application processing.
Step 5
Finalisation of the Learning Agreement
Upon confirmation from the receiving institution, the LA needs to be concluded and finalised in cooperation with the student and responsible persons in both sending and receiving institutions.
Step 6
Grant agreement signed by student and home institution
Students may be awarded an Erasmus+ EU grant to help cover the travel and subsistence costs incurred in connection with the study/training period abroad.
The amount of the scholarship depends on the country of the receiving institution. The NA of the home institution and the home institution are responsible for setting the exact grant amounts for each of the three country groups (p.43) and for publishing the information on their websites . The same level of grant must be given to all students going to the same group of countries for the same type of mobility. Students carrying out traineeships will receive an additional top-up from the EU grant of an amount between 100 and 200 EUR per month. The exact amount will be determined by NAs and/or higher education institutions. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds may apply for an additional Erasmus grant between 100 and 200 EUR per month. Additional grants are not available for international credit mobility. A grant agreement covering the mobility period will be signed between the student and the sending institution. Different payment schemes are possible (e.g. payment by semesters or by a two-month period).When international credit mobility is organised, HEI in programme country concludes agreements for both outgoing and incoming students. In addition to grant for studies international credit mobility students also receive travel grant.
Zero-EU grant student mobility:
Zero-EU grant students are participants in mobility actions who do not receive an EU grant related to travel and subsistence, but otherwise fulfil all student mobility criteria and benefit from all advantages of being Erasmus+ student. Zero-EU grant students may receive a regional, national or other type of grant to contribute to their mobility costs. Their number counts in the statistics for the performance indicator used to allocate the EU budget between the countries.
Step 7
Language assessment/courses
Starting from 2014, the European Commission will gradually launch a European online linguistic support service that will provide a tool for participants in credit mobility activities to assess their knowledge of the language they will use to study abroad as well as to follow an online language course to improve their competences.
Online language assessment is mandatory for each student both before and after the mobility period if the working language of the institution is English, Dutch, German, French, Italian or Spanish. The home institution may offer online language courses (2-12 months) for the outgoing student if the student’s level is below the recommended level. For other languages the institution can offer courses from Organisational Support (OS) funds.
The sending institution is obliged to guarantee the necessary language preparation for mobility participants.
Step 8
Providing the Erasmus Student Charter to the outgoing students
Erasmus Student Charter (ESC) is a document setting out the student’s rights and obligations regarding the study period abroad.
During the Mobility
Exceptional changes to the proposed mobility programme (Learning Agreement)
Please note that the time for processing amendments is limited to four to seven weeks. The use of scanned signatures is advised. When advising the student, please stress the importance of his/her own responsibility in case of changes to the study plan. Communication between the student, study counsellor and IRC is important.
Step 10
Monitoring
In case of problems during the exchange period the student can turn to the IRC of the sending or receiving institution. It is advisable for the IRC of the home institution to check upon the student at least once during the exchange period.
LA for studies: during mobility registers changes of the proposed mobility programme: Table A2 includes deleted or added courses/modules. Table B2 registers changes for recognition by Sending institution.
LA for traineeship: during mobility registers changes of the proposed mobility programme: Table A2 includes exceptional changes in the agreement for traineeship.
After the Mobility
Step 11
Recognition documents submitted to the home institution
The sending institution must give full academic recognition for satisfactorily completed activities during the mobility period as agreed in the Learning Agreement, by using ECTS credits or an equivalent system. The mobility period should be included in the final record of student achievement, in the Diploma Supplement or equivalent.
| ECTS GOLDEN RULE FOR RECOGNITION must be respected by all partner institution: „All credits gained during the study period abroad or during the virtual mobility as agreed in the Learning Agreement and confirmed in the Transcript of Records – should be transferred without the delays and counted towards the students degree without any additional work by or assessment if the student“ (ECTS guide, p. 34). |
After mobility LA for studies. Minimum requirements to be included in the sending institution’s study register concerning the recognition of the exchange studies are provided in the LA (Table C). The receiving institution must provide the student and the sending institution a confirmation that the agreed programme determined in the LA has been completed, marking the number of ECTS credits and obtained grades.
A Transcript of Records printed out from the receiving institution’s study register can replace Table D in the LA if the content is the same. Confirmation of the study period is an integral part of the After mobility LA and separate confirmation document therefore should not be requested.
The sending institution is required to provide the student’s results within the period stipulated in the IIA. This should be done within five weeks after the publication of the student’s results at the receiving institution.
Students have to pass the 2nd online language assessment after the mobility.
Confirmation of stay is required both in the case of studies and traineeship. After mobility LA for traineeship Table D includes a traineeship certificate by the receiving institution/enterprise, and a confirmation of the training period.
It confirms the start and end date of the mobility period and therefore serves as a verification that the payment of the grant was in accordance with the actual length of the exchange. The start date is the first day of attendance in an institution, e.g. orientation or language training. The end date is the final date the student is required to be present in the institution. NB! No extra days for travel or relocation can be included into the length of the mobility period anymore.
Step 12
Report to ECAS – Mobility Tool
Mobility Tool is a web platform for collaboration, management and reporting of mobility projects under the Erasmus+ programme. The IRC is responsible for entering the mobility data and participant details into the system.
Mobility Tool automatically sends out requests for participant reporting after the end of the mobility period, as indicated in the “End date” field of the mobility details. The participants receive an invitation to fill in the report on their mobility.
The participant report is in the form of a web-based questionnaire with single choice, multiple choice and matrix- type of questions.
Step 13
Evaluation
It is expected that host and home institutions will monitor the mobility and evaluate its quality. Success of every single activity is very important for further successful cooperation between the two institutions. It is expected that good practice and success stories will be disseminated at least at the home institution. The IRC of the sending institution is advised to meet with the students after the exchange as a follow up. Information can also be sent to the NA at their request.
