The Erasmus+ annual report presents detailed numbers on the year 2022. Switzerland was one of the top destinations for outside-Erasmus mobility.
On time for the end of the year, the European Commission (EC) published the annual report of Erasmus+ for the year 2022. With a staggering 1,2 million learning experiences, the programme reports its highest annual figure to date. This also shows that mobility is fully back and recovered from the pandemic-related drop in 2020 and 2021 (2020 saw a reduction of about 60% in learning mobility). The record number also reflects the strong Erasmus+ budget, as the current programme generation saw a significant increase in the seven-year budget compared to its predecessor. In annual numbers however, the 2022 budget is only on the same level as the 2020 budget with about €4 billion. This is due to the structure of the overall budget allocation: over the seven-year period the annual allocation is not linear but increases every year.
The Erasmus+ annual report puts forward specific figures related to the main priorities of Erasmus+. With regards to inclusion and diversity, the report states that about 134’000 participants with fewer opportunities (e.g. facing socio-economic difficulties or discrimination) were supported with additional grants. This represents 13,3% of all mobile learners in 2022. Germany put a special emphasis on inclusion and is using a share of their European Social Fund (ESF+) allocation for the purpose of providing more support for people with fewer opportunities in Erasmus+. In the programme guide for 2024, the EC also decided to increase the top-up provided for inclusion support as well. With regards to greening mobility, the annual report shows that 22% of all participants across the education sectors used green modes of transport. Finally, when it comes to fostering synergies, only 1,3% of all student learning mobility was undertaken by PhD students. In general, the ratio between learners and staff mobility was 77% to 23% respectively. Most of the mobility took place in higher education (35%), followed by school education (29%) and VET (18%). Youth mobility was at 16% and adult education at 2% of the total numbers of mobile participants.
In higher education specifically, out of the 420’000 participants that undertook a learning mobility last year, 12% were international mobilities including non-Erasmus partners. A novelty that was introduced in 2021 is that up to 20% of the mobility budgets can be used for outgoing mobility to countries outside of Erasmus+. The United Kingdom (UK) and Switzerland were the two most popular destinations in this regard, followed by Canada, the US, South Korea, Japan, Mexico, Australia, Brazil and Chile (a total of 115 non-Erasmus+ countries were chosen as destinations). With regards to new forms of mobility, 2022 saw the funding of 2’500 blended intensive programmes (BIPs), whereby 430 programmes were implemented in 2022. The BIPs combine a shorter physical mobility with virtual mobility components. Overall, 4,1% of participants carried out a blended mobility.
In vocational education and training (VET), it is noteworthy that the number of short-term mobilities has increased by 56% in 2022 compared to the previous year. And the possibility to use up to 20% of the funds for mobility outside of Erasmus+ was widely used (almost tripled compared to 2021). As in higher education, the main destinations were the UK and Switzerland, followed by Canada, the US, South Africa and Morocco. In Key Action 2, the report shows that the success rate for new proposals on Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) was at 17% with ultimately 13 new funded projects in 2022. This brings the total number of CoVEs to 38.
The report further includes data on school education, adult education, youth and sport.