The European Commission (EC) published its annual report for 2017 on Erasmus+ indicating that more people participated in the programme than ever before.
2017 was in different aspects a record year for the Erasmus+ programme. Almost EUR 2.6 bio. have been invested, representing an increase of 13% in comparison to 2016. Around 800’000 participants benefitted from the programme to study, train or volunteer abroad which is an increase of 10% compared to 2016. In higher education, 400’000 students, trainees and staff spent a period learning, teaching or training abroad in the academic year 2016/2017, including 34’000 students and staff with grants to go to or to come from partner countries. Almost 21’000 persons from disadvantaged backgrounds participated in the mobility in higher education, making the programme more inclusive and international. Disadvantaged people face obstacles that prevent them from having effective access to the programme, be it for economic, geographical, social, cultural or health reasons. The top three sending countries are France, Germany and Spain whereas the top receiving countries were Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom.
Going beyond the support of higher education, the budget in 2017 allowed the participation of 160’000 vocational training learners and staff, 158’000 young people and youth workers, 6’400 adult education staff in the programme and fostered cooperation projects with 47’000 teachers and staff and 110’000 pupils. Furthermore, 162 sport events have been financed in 2017. All these figures show that Erasmus+ 2014-2020 is well on track to meet its target of supporting 3.7% of young people in the European Union (EU).
A further initiative to take Erasmus+ further is the European Universities initiative. The Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC) and the Joint Research Centre (JRC) have published a study that maps examples of existing transnational collaborative partnerships involving European higher education institutions (Switzerland is not included in the analysis). Based on a literature review, a stakeholder consultation and feedback from higher education policy makers, the results show that the majority of cooperation occurs at a faculty level and that embedded mobility is mainly offered at master level. In addition, administrative and legal issues are being seen as obstacles for a more intense and sustainable cooperation which could be tackled through the European Universities initiative.