Students celebrate the unification of the Erasmus programme, but they consider it insufficient

CREUP, the Spanish National Student Union (NUS), celebrates the withdrawal of the Erasmus.es programme, as well as the creation of a single framework of European mobility grants. This implies the withdrawal of the languages requirement, as well as broadening the funded months from 5 to 7.

“We are happy to see that the ministry pays attention to our petitions. The Erasmus.es programme was elitist, punishing the students with different backgrounds and without the opportunity to get deeper in the knowledge of a language”, declares Gorka Martín, CREUP’s president. Anyhow, this measure is considered insufficient due to the fact that Spain is one of the countries with smaller grant amount of the Erasmus project. The actual situation excludes systematically the students with lesser incomes, thus promoting elitization and exclusiveness of the programme. The budget destined to mobility programmes should increase so the grant covers the full stay of the student, both in short and long mobility stays.

“Funding is still nowadays the greatest barrier to mobility, therefore being a barrier to internationalization of Higher Education. Assuring the funding to all students benefits all society, transforming it into a richer, internationalized and multicultural society”, says Martín.

More information can be found in CREUP’s policy paper on Mobility and Internationalization : http://www.creup.es/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/20150228-Posicionamiento-Internacionalizaci%C3%B3n-y- Movilidad.pdf