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.

Erasmus Christopher (far right of pic), who was one of eight Erasmus students invited to the signing ceremony, said: “Our group made history in the Parliament by being the first ever outsiders to be allowed in the signature room to watch an Act being signed and put into force - ‘outsiders’ being non-politicians or members of the media - a choice President Schulz made personally.”

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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