ETUCE comments on the 30th Anniversary of the Erasmus student exchange programme
Published:
Following the year-long celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Erasmus exchange programme, announced by the European Commission in 2017, ETUCE prepared a statement suggesting the ways to strengthen Erasmus in the future. The ETUCE Committee adopted the ETUCE statement on the Erasmus programme on 23-24 October 2017.
ETUCE considers the Erasmus exchange programme overall a successful programme that promotes the value of the internationalisation of higher education and has a positive effect on the employability of mobile students in Europe and beyond.
However, the current data shows that the majority of mobile students come from privileged socio-economic and academic family backgrounds, while the insufficiency of Erasmus grants provided for studying abroad is mentioned by many students as the main obstacles to participating in Erasmus programme. Therefore, ETUCE calls on the European Commission to make the Erasmus programme as inclusive as possible and to increase the financial assistance to Erasmus students in order to provide people from disadvantaged backgrounds with more opportunities to access quality higher education.
As a defender of teachers’ interests, ETUCE is deeply concerned about the working conditions of the teachers who work with Erasmus students and urges the European Commission to pay more attention to building a supportive environment for teachers and other education personnel and providing additional financial support and sufficient continuous professional development for academic staff and researchers who teach international students.