The President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, said: “ERASMUS has developed beyond just being an educational programme. It gives many European university students the chance of living for the first time in a foreign country, and it has reached the status of a social and cultural phenomenon. It is an excellent example of what coordinated European action in the field of education can achieve, and bodes well for the success of the recently proposed European Institute of Technology, which – like Erasmus 20 years ago – is a brand new concept that represents a vision and a belief that concerted European action has a larger added value than the sum up of excellent independent initiatives.”
Jan Figel, European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture, and Multilingualism said: “Erasmus has been and remains a key factor in the internationalisation and somehow “Europeanisation” of the EU’s higher education systems. Those months spent abroad are also a turning point in the lives of thousands of individuals: 80% of the participants are the first in their family to undertake a period of study abroad”. To conclude: “Among the challenges left, the ERASMUS grant remains far too low to allow students from less favourable financial backgrounds to enjoy the benefits of the Programme. Also the Commission is calling for Member States to increase their support for ERASMUS, to open it up to even more students, especially those from less privileged backgrounds.”
In the year 2007 also the student organisation Erasmus Student Network is organising celebrations around Europe. They will consist of Erasmus Days in several locations around Europe, and the Erasmus Van touring around more than 30 countries!
We invite everybody to the ESN 20 Years of Erasmus website www.20erasmus.eu
On the website, you can: • upload your personal living story about Erasmus and contribute to create a strong documentation to leave to the next generations of Erasmus students. • read other Erasmus students’ testimonies • find your Erasmus Friends by connecting with those who were Erasmus in the same place, in the same year, had similar experience
See here:www.20erasmus.org/experiences/browse
We are celebrating 20 Years of Erasmus Programme... and what is a celebration without presents? Every month the nicest, most original, most moving, most funny experiences will receive prizes.
Lets celebrate Erasmus!!!!!
Ewa Krzaklewska
Coordinator
20 Years of the Erasmus Programme Team
Erasmus Student Network
www.esn.org
Share Your Erasmus Experiences!
Posted by: 20 years of Erasmus in Europe by ESN students! | Thursday, 01 February 2007 at 07:19 PM