The Erasmus programme was launched in the EU in 1987. Hungarian universities, including UD, joined the initiative that allows students to study abroad in 1988. The key objectives have not changed in the more than 30 years that have passed since hat time: to provide students with an opportunity to gain international experience, to improve their language skills, to find out how their subjects and fields of science are taught at foreign universities, and to have a broader perspective.

- The history of this kind of cooperation certainly goes back much further – as early as the 1600s and 1700s Debrecen was already famous for sending students of the Reformed College to partner institutions abroad. This means that ”legatio” has a centuries-long tradition at UD – Orsolya Jánosy told hirek.unideb.hu. The head of the International Office highlighted that so far almost 4,000 students from UD have participated in foreign study or internship programmes in the framework of the Erasmus programme. In the academic year 2014/2015 the Erasmus+ was started. In the framework of the programme UD has made bilateral agreements on student and lecturer exchange with over 350 European partner universities, creating about 1,000 places every year.

Students’ primary destinations are European countries. Most students prefer to travel to Germany, Spain or Italy, while Great-Britain is especially popular among those willing to complete their internship. However, the programme also allows students to study at universities overseas in countries like the US, India, Cuba, South America, or even Australia.

Students can spend 12 months abroad in every academic cycle. This means they can go abroad every summer irrespective of whether they attend a bachelor or a master programme, or they can choose to spend an entire academic year at a partner university. They can also complete their mandatory or optional internship abroad.

- The university accepts the credit points collected and internship completed abroad. Every year about 300 students go abroad in the framework of the programmes, half of them to study, while the other half is to do their internship, which has become increasingly popular – said Orsolya Jánosy. The head of the Office highlighted that while earlier it used to be a problem that the scholarship did not fully cover travel costs, today the Campus Mundi programme supports its grantees with HUF 350,000 per month when travelling to overseas countries. The programme even covers part of the travel costs to certain countries.

The International Office of the university works in close cooperation with the Student Self Government, which has been involved in this recent promotion as well. Most importantly, students who had already participated in the Erasmus programme talked about their experience.

The deadline for submitting applications for study scholarships is 30 March 2019. Applications for internship can be submitted any time to the International Office.

 

The opportunity to work abroad is also available for lecturers.

- In the framework of the Erasmus+ programme about 80 Hungarian lecturers go abroad every year to one of our partner institutions, and about the same number of lecturers come to Hungary to provide short training programmes. Besides, 50-60 of our colleagues rely on the Erasmus+ programme designed to support further training or establishing professional relationships abroad – added the head of the Office.

For many, the Erasmus+ is still a European partnership programme. But the fact is that since 2015 UD has cooperated with 18 countries outside the EU, mainly in the field of lecturer exchange, in the framework of the E+ International Credit Mobility Programme, including the US, Mexico, China, India, Jordan, Japan, Russia, Mongolia and Nepal. Besides, partner universities send 25-30 lecturers to Debrecen every year. This cooperation provides good opportunities for improving the relationship between universities, as well as for developing new educational and research projects.

Press Office