Erasmus loans for masters students will greatly expand mobility

By Adam Tyson. Recently University World News carried a report on the call by the European Students' Union to scrap the proposed new European study loan guarantees and to use the funds instead for traditional Erasmus grants. The ‘Erasmus Master Student Loan Guarantee’ is one of the entirely new proposals to support the higher education sector – along with the extension of Erasmus mobility to the world and the creation of Knowledge Alliances to promote more intensive cooperation between higher education and business – in the European Commission's proposal for the next generation of education and training support, Erasmus for All.
Let us be clear. The Loan Guarantee is an entirely additional action. It will not replace traditional Erasmus grants for credit mobility, which will continue to be by far the largest part of Erasmus and which we will also expand in the new programme. The new mechanism responds to feedback from students and student groups, which highlights that finding adequate funding to take a full degree programme – as opposed to short-term Erasmus credit mobility – in another country is a real problem for many. Erasmus grants are currently around €250 (US$320) per month with an average duration of one semester. Read more...