What is the Erasmus process?

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What is the process to go on Erasmus?

Do you know what the process is to be able to go on Erasmus? So, here I am going to explain what the process is like for each of the different paths that you need in order to go out and get yourself a place, from my experience.

Image: International Offices ULPGC.

First things first, you have to look at the application dates in order to do everything before the deadline. Also, I would advise you, in order to secure your place and be able to go to the country you would like, you need to have at least a B1 level of English, even though not all the universities require it. This depends on the country that you are going to. You will have to discuss this with your university coordinator so that they can show you the destinations avaliable to you. At my University, there is a languages classroom which has facilities to credit your language skills for that purpose, so you can ask at your University with time to spare before your application so that you have time to credit your skills if you haven't yet.

If you already have a high level of English or another language credited that your destination accepts, you must have a minimum number of credits to pass during your time, normally 60 credits and you must have an average grade higher than than the one required by the Erasmus year.

If you have all these primary requirements, you can opt for a place first by filling in the application that the University gives to you. Look at the starting dates and the whole process on the Universities web page.

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Choosing your destination University

In my case, my University published a list of avaliable Universities. Take into account that not all of the partner Universities have all the courses, and not even in all of the countries do they have the right courses, and for this reason they will give you the list of degrees. In this list they will have the country, code, web-page, Erasmus code, number of months stay and the places avaliable. Take into account the place they offer you can be different from every university.

You will go crazy looking at Universities one by one, but you have to do it. You must make a list of priority. Put the Universities that you would like to study at first and take all of those, consider that some people will have higher requirements than others and put them in order of those requirements. You can end up not going to one that you would like, so make sure to put down a minimum of 7 Universities that you would want to go to.

Prioritised list

When you fill in the application, the University makes a list with the average grades of each one of you and will prioritize you based on your language skills, like if you are English, German, French, Italian, etc. These lists are going to be the for the first meeting that assigns the places.

On the day that they assign the places, there were people who could speak three language who of course were at the top of the list and they could choose where they wanted to go. You will be really nervous on this day. The meeting, or at least this time, it was in the function room of my University. They called each student one by one by their language preference, in a loud voice. I had to get up and go to the list to write where I wanted to go, I chose Italy.

Once the meeting finishes, they tell you the paperwork process.

Mobility Online and other platforms

The next stage of the process is to accept your place on the Mobility Online website, which can take a week. For this you will have to enter with your username and password, the same that you used to access the application and accept the place taking into account that all the dates are correct. Once you have accepted the place, you have to add your personal information on the system and all of your bank details.

Image: International Offices ULPGC.

The second meeting

It will be approximately two weeks later after your first meeting, in this one they will explain the whole procedure and the paperwork you have to fill out.

The most important is the learning agreement, which is the agreement you will have with your destination University and your home University. Here you will fill out the subjects you would like to take in the country. For that, you will have to have done an internal learning agreement with your university and personal coordinator, you will have to enter the destination University website and look at the teaching projects and compare them with those of your own University. They should be really similar so that they accept your subjects and confirm them. It is really important. Once this is all correct, your coordinator will sign and hand it over to you so that you can give it to your destination University as well as all the other necessary documents. In my case, the destination University that I went to asked me for "the learning agreement, my a photocopy of my ID, and my application form. ". Take into account that these documents need to be sent before a certain deadline that the destination University will have on their website. Before this process, the destination University coordinator should be in contact with you in order to tell you that you are accepted, and to give you the link to all of the documents you have to fill in. It is all explained in the meeting.

Other important documents

You will have to acquire the TSE card, or the EHIC card for European Health for if something unexpected comes up while you are away and you will need to upload a photocopy of it onto the same platform online. You will also have pay a private fee "Oncampus" and upload that, too. It is not expensive, they are fees for Erasmus students.

Provisional academic proposal in the learning agreement

Your home University, when you have the first meeting, should tell you that you have to hand over an internal academic proposal in order to revise it and see if it is correct, which they will then send to the Commission for Academic Exchange and Recognition Programmes so that they can give the confirmation that it is correct and that your subjects match with the ones in your University. The University can give you a document that you have to fill in, or in my case, the document was a bit useless. I asked to see if I could do my own where I added in subsequent sheets and the teaching projects of each subject that I wanted to take, so I was told that I could. Here is an example of how I did my academic proposal for my University so that it may help you.

The first Learning Agreement Draft

The learning agreement draft, application form and ID photocopy day has arrived. My destination university has made the deadline to be on the 15th June 2016 to get all of the documents sorted. Up until this day, I did not have anything accepted by my home University until the 15th. To speed up the procedure, I would advise you to, after you confirm your place, start to get moving and inform yourself about what you have to fill in, like writing to your destination University to enquire about the subjects that they offer, the semester times that you could join, and all types of information that you see necessary and useful. You will despair a little because you want to know all the information as soon as possible, so that you can organize your next year and go looking for a house or apartment. However, I have to say that the process is somewhat slow, and nobody will tell you the exact date when the lists will be published. At least, I haven't received exact dates with any specific information, only the information in the meetings with my coordinator, who is very involved, but they cannot control everything for all the incoming and outgoing students.

It is for this reason that I tell you to start to find out information soon so that you can speed up the process and not leave it all to the last day. It is important that all the paperwork is done as early as possible. It is good advice!

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Scholarships, registration and accommodation

After a long month awaiting news, they have communicated with us by email we were going to have a meeting to clarify the whole procedure from now on, and also to clarify the subject of scholarships, and leave us more informed.

The day of the meeting arrived and they told us about how to receive scholarships. From the start they told us that the scholarships will not arrive when you arrive and start your placement, so I can confirm the rumour now that all Erasmus students ask. When will my money arrive? They told us clearly, the money will not arrive when you start your stay in your host country, but it will arrive about two or three months in. You will have to save money before you go. So if you plan to leave, what you can do is go and put money in your piggy bank. Of course, afterwards, they give you 100% certainty that you will receive the scholarship in the end.

They also made clear the procedure for increasing your scholarship. You need to made the effort to do all of the paperwork and I'm telling you, the sooner you deliver the paperwork the better. This experience needs to be quite serious.

Another topic that they spoke to us about was the cancellation of places for different reasons. Given that the most common reason for the cancellation of places is due to economic problems, they encouraged us to not be scared to fly into the unknown. In my university, if you cancelled without a good reason, they will penalise you in the next year and you will not be able to get an Erasmus placement, so if you start the process, make sure that you want to go to another country to study, have the idea fixed, unless during the process something happens that prevents you, like as I mentioned before, for economic problems.

Furthermore, they spoke about when you arrive at your destination country, you are no longer the responsibility of your home University and you need to take your own responsibility, and for this reason you must learn to resolve problems by yourself and with your host University.

At the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in order to fix issues with the Learning Agreements, there are exclusive coordinators for each faculty, and for problems with scholarships there is another email to use.

They spoke to us about language tests as well, they are obligatory. The test is called OLS and it is a European Union test that has been done since 2015. You do two tests, one before you leave and one after you come back. They told us that if you do no tdo these tests, you cannot recieve the scholarship.

After doing the OLS test, they gave us an option to continue with the language depending on the level of the course.

At the end of the trip, we will have to do a find questionnaire answering questions about the experience, which is also obligatory. This questionnaire and the OLS test is a way of bettering the Erasmus language system. They insist that the notice emails from the University can go directly to the spam folder of our email, so we have to be continuously checking all the junk folders of our mail.

In terms of the certificate of arrival, which is the document that you have to upload to prove that you have arrived, we have to hand it over as soon as we step into our destination country, they give us one month but they reccommend to do it before this. Remember that all of your documents need to be uploaded to the online platform, except the notification of arrival, before you catch the plane to your destination. The certificate of arrival will confirm everything to your coordinator.

In terms of the financial contract, the electronic signature must be removed in order to sign the digital certificate. I had to do it and it's easy. In Spain, what you have to do is go with your electronic ID to a police office where there is a machine to renew your ID if you do not remember the password. Then you will have to follow the instructions step by step that you send in an email to your University, and install it in the browser that you use. It's long but it's not complicated at all.

In terms of registration for the course, all Erasmus students have to do that from their own home University. Never pay anything to your destination University unless they offer you some type of course. Only pay your home University.

At the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, ULPGC, where there are progress and term rules, being exchange students we are excluded from those rules and so we can choose whatever subject from any course.

About accommodation, they give us many things to inform us, but basically, they tell us that we are looking to find accommodation there by ourselves, since we share apartments with real estate agents or through university residences.

Dates in August

Regarding the financial agreement, they will send you the document with all the details of the scholarship that they will give you, the amount and the date of your stay in your host country. You will have to follow the instructions to sign it electronically and upload it online, previously you have to have already installed the certificate in your computer. Be careful and follow the instructions closely of the certificate because it depends on the platform, some work better with one browser or another. In my case I was advised to install the certificate on Internet Explorer 11, so it is advisable to install the certificate in the browser that will be good for you. Remember that the scholarship will not be given to you before you leave for the country of destination. Remember that when you arrive in the country of origin, you have to sign the arrival confirmation and then obtain the scholarship as soon as possible. Also, during the month of August the administration of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria do not attend University, because they take vacations, so finish everything before that month arrives so you don't have to wait until the last moment.

Finding accommodation

With less than 19 days to catch the plane and land in Italy I do not have a flat to stay in Cassino yet, but for the first few days I have found a shared room, until I find something with Spanish students who I have contacted through Facebook and WhatsApp. I recommend that you get in touch with people who go to the city where you are going to stay so that it is easier to look for a flat. Normally people make groups to get to know each other and be informed of everything that happens in the Erasmus world. Finding a flat is a task that you need time for, at least in Italy. You have to be especially careful when reading the ads, because they can tell you that the apartment has three rooms, but it does not, since they are counting a room like the living room. Everything has to be questioned thoroughly.

More reccommendations

If you are going by yourself, like in my case, and you do not know anyone else who comes from your University, I would reccommend that you find a group on the internet to join like Erasmusu and through social media like Facebook. You can find groups created by the University and then you will not be so alone. I was searching and found a group in my destination, where I introduced myself and then they put me in a WhatsApp group where we got to know each other virtually until until we meet at Cassino when we arrive.

And that is all I can tell you because I am still in the process myself, I hope that I was helpful and I will continue telling you updates when I have something new.

Until next time!

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