Introducing: Online Language Courses

Are you preparing your Erasmus stay abroad and are still a little worried about the level of your new home’s language? You just can’t quite get the full meaning of the university course descriptions, or are stuck with reading through the foreign information websites?

We are happy to serve you a solution to your language problems!

Erasmate has teamed up with LinguaTV to now offer you video-based language courses to help you with your Erasmus preperations. We have chosen the award winning online courses from LinguaTV to provide you with the most efficient way of learning English, French, German or Spanish (and much more to come!).

Check out the selection of all available online language courses on Erasmate! And be fast – the first 50 Erasmate users get a 10% discount on their course registration!!

The Erasmus Programme

Dear readers!

Do you know the history of the Erasmus programme? Which countries participate and how many students participated in the Programme over time? Here are your answers:

The Erasmus Programme is a European Union student exchange programme and gives you the possibility of doing an exchange period between 3 months and maximum 12 months to one of your University’s partner Universities.

The Programme, together with a number of other independent Programmes, was incorporated into the Socrates Programme established by the European Commission in 1994. After ending on 31 December 1999, Socrates Programme was replaced with the Socrates II Programme 24 January 2000, which in turn was replaced by the Lifelong Learning Programme 2007-2013 on 1 Janauary 2007. An Erasmus exchange student receives a grant from the EU to help cover the additional expense of linving abroad. The hight of the grant is decided per academic year. Currently, the annual budget is in excess of 450 million euro and more than 2.2 million students have participated since it started in 1987. Lastly, over 4 000 higher education institutions participate and more to come!

For studies as well as internships the following countries offer the possibility of doing your Erasmus: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey and United Kingdom.

New Homepage – What do you think?

Erasmate’s!

As you might have seen, Erasmate is having a new homepage. We hope this new welcome page provides our users with more valuable information and makes it even easier to guide through erasmate.com. As always, we are open for feedback and input of you. Would you like to see something being change? Let us know!

Enjoy your Tuesday!

UK students educationally disadvantaged during Erasmus?

A recent article in The Guardian discusses the political proposition of introducing a new two year degree in UK university education. On a site note, the paper mentions an interesting fact with regard to the Erasmus program.

As UK students “traditionally take fewer years to complete their studies [and] their courses are also often shorter and they average fewer hours of study per week” compared to students in other European cities, they consequently find courses taught during their Erasmus year more demanding than in the UK, while incoming students to the UK find the education on the island less demanding.

If this gap in educational quality is indeed existing, one possible disadvantage for UK students is a harder entry on to the European labour market, as employers see their European counterparts to be better educated, the article summarises the problem.

We are interested in your thoughts on this. Have you experienced something similar? How was the quality of education on your exchange period compared to your home university? Have you applied for a job but were rejected due to a UK education? Tell us your story in the comments!

Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs

While Erasmus is a great chance for Bachelor students to spend some time abroad, and Erasmus Mundus offers a similar opportunity for Masters, there is another program by the European Union that even goes a step further:

Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs offers people who are thinking about starting up their own business and those who are already a successful entrepreneur a similar way to exchange ideas and gain new experiences. Set up in early 2009, Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs “offers new entrepreneurs the opportunity to learn from an experienced entrepreneur who is running a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) in another EU country”.

We believe this is a great initiative and recommend anyone, who is interested in Entrepreneurship, foreign economies and cultures, and just enjoys spending valuable time abroad, to participate in Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs.

Erasmate’s ShirtShop

Dear all!

Recently, we added the Erasmus ShirtShop to erasmate.com and some new designs are just uploaded. Every now and then we’ll add designs, slogans and different kind of shirts to the shop. Make sure you check it out once in a while!

Any suggestions on what else to use? Let us know and we’ll make sure you can get your favorite Erasmus T-shirt soon after!

Erasmus exchange to Turkey? Read more…

We would like to share a valuable tip with all Erasmus students going to Turkey upcoming academic year.

During your exchange period you’re most likely using a local SIM card, as roaming is way too expensive. Very important to know is that all mobile phones that operate through a Turkish SIM card need to be registered. Make sure you do this as failing to register and using a local SIM will end up in your mobile phone being blocked.

The first possibility of registering is at the customs desk in the airport. In case you forget to do so, visit one of the stores of Turkish GSM operators like Turkcell, Vodafone or Avea. Bring your passport, pay the costs of registration (around 10-15 TL) and you can use your new local SIM card without any problems.

In case you have any other tips for students leaving to Turkey, feel free to share them as comments!

PS: If you still need a place to stay, check out our current offers for student accommodation in Turkey.

Wanted: User ideas, tips & input

Over time we have received some great feedback of our users. We keep reviewing the website and it’s features and as always we need to have your input as well.

• What do you think of the current Erasmate website?
• Which features need to be improved?
• Do you experience any errors or problems while using the website?
• What features would you like us to launch in the future?

Your input is highly appreciated and we’re looking forward to hearing from you!

The easiest way is to simply post your feedback here.

Erasmus & Erasmus Mundus

Ever wondered why you sometimes come across the term “Erasmus Mundus” when you search for information about your Erasmus stay abroad? Well, the answer is not all that difficult.

While Erasmus is the European Commission’s (EC) exchange program that gives Bachelor students across Europe the chance to spend a term of their studies abroad, Erasmus Mundus can be seen as its big brother. Launched in 2004, Erasmus Mundus was set up by the EC to enable Master students and PhD candidates to go abroad during their study program. Unlike the normal Erasmus prorgam, Erasmus Mundus is not limited to Europe but open to universities across the globe. Generally, up to 3 institutions from different countries and continents partner up to offer their students this unique study possibility.

To read some more background information about Erasmus Mundus and an example of how it has been picked up by British students so far, we recommend this article from The Independent to you.

Erasmate in Wageningen?

Today a news article was written about the expected shortage of rooms for international students in Wageningen. Real Estage Agency Idealis expects to be able to provide all first year students in Wageningen with a room, Erasmus students most likely have to search for themselves. Who knows Idealis wants to recommend Erasmate to all incoming students in Wageningen?!

Can you read Dutch? Check out the article!