The Erasmus study abroad scheme has now expanded to become Erasmus+. Christopher Lewis-Laverty, a third-year law student, was one of a select group of EU students to witness the historic enactment of the new programme by EU President Martin Shulz.
The revamped Erasmus+ programme will fund grants for more than four million young people to train or study abroad in the EU. With a total budget of €14.7 billion, Erasmus+ now brings together the EU education, training and youth programmes Comenius, Erasmus, Erasmus Mundus, Leonardo da Vinci (professional training) and Grundtvig under a single umbrella. It also includes sport for the first time and will offer Master’s degree students a loan guarantee mechanism to get loans ranging from €12,000 (for one year) to €18,000 (two years) to study in another EU country.
Christopher is one of five third-year Glasgow law students at the University of Strasbourg on the Erasmus programme this year; he is simultaneously doing a one-year internship with Scottish Labour MEP Catherine Stihler.
Jim Murdoch, Professor of Public Law and recently-appointed International Dean for Mobility, says Glasgow’s School of Law has a particularly strong track record of students choosing to take up “Study Abroad” options. Currently, 65% of the school’s 170 third-year Honours students are studying abroad. While the vast majority are studying abroad for a full academic session, others are away for a semester or take part in intensive programmes (a summer school in Sardinia, and a comparative law research project in Mainz). This international dimension is now feeding into undergraduate applications for the full four-year degree, and this year’s applications come from no less than 48 different countries.
First published: 30 January 2014
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