I’m really surprised that there are places going begging on the UK part of the European Erasmus programme. Which when you hear about it you’ll want to tell your family and friends who have young people planning to go to university. Its such an amazing offer – so its worth knowing about it.
I’m really surprised that there are places going begging on the UK part of the European Erasmus programme. Which when you hear about it you’ll want to tell your family and friends who have young people planning to go to university. Its such an amazing offer – so its worth knowing about it.
You can study at university for a year without any tuition fees and with the added benefit of a grant of £235 a month, regardless of parental income. You would get the opportunity to travel and make new friends from across Europe.It may sound too good to be true but last year only 7,210 students from the United Kingdom packed their bags to spend a year of their courses at universities in other parts of Europe. It could have been more than double that number but for the reticence of the British to take up the scheme, a trait that is not shared by their counterparts in countries such as Germany, France and Spain which enrol 20,000 students annually.
An added impetus this year, however, will be the British Government's decision to waive the new annual tuition fees of up to £3,000 for the year in which the student is abroad. Also, the courses studied will count towards students' degrees at UK universities through the European Credit Transfer Scheme, which means it is in no way a delayed gap year.
The Erasmus programme was set up by the European Union nearly 20 years ago to promote mobility of students and staff across Europe. Though all the places at UK institutions have been taken up by students from the continent, young people in this country have never filled those available for them abroad. A study by the Higher Education Funding Council into why numbers have been decreasing since 1998 found that finance, worry about studying in a foreign language and fear of the unknown were the main concerns.
Erasmus is not confined to language or business students, however. Holly Hamilton shared the concern about learning in a foreign language until she found several countries where she could study for her law degree abroad in English. She opted to do a five-month course in Gothenburg, Sweden. "It was a great choice for me and you don't have to be good at languages," says Holly, who was studying law and human resources at Keele University but doubting her choice of subject at the time.
"It was just so different, and it gave me the boost I needed to carry on with my degree and get the most out of it. After the first year at Keele, I really didn't want to carry on with law, but I came back from Sweden much more committed because it really broadened my perspective.
"The courses were taught in English. A few Swedish students sometimes joined them, but it was a course specifically for Erasmus students, which meant I met some really good people from all over Europe - Italians, Germans, French and Bulgarians," she says. It came as a shock to Holly to find that many of the other students didn't even see the UK as part of Europe.
Universities in Finland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Turkey, Denmark, Austria, Greece and the Czech Republic run courses in English. Undergraduates of electronics and software engineering at Glasgow University can study in Sweden, for example, and those reading criminology and politics at Salford University can spend time in Turkey. Students studying tropical environmental science at Aberdeen University may opt for a period of study in Iceland.
There are 2,199 universities in 31 countries participating in the scheme and since 1987 there have been 1.2 million Erasmus alumni. Where courses are taught in English, students have a chance to go on intensive language courses in some countries, with the European Commission picking up the bill.
For more information, or to contact the Erasmus programme, see www.erasmus.ac.uk or telephone 01227 762712.
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