Education and Science, Estonia, EU – Baltic States

According to Archimedes, this year's round of applications is unique for several reasons. A record number of people is to take part in learning mobility and competition has increased significantly.

"The interest in participating in Erasmus+ as an international knowledge exchange system is showing an upward trend. In many areas, such as the humanities and the arts, learning mobility has become an integral part," Rait Toompere, chairman of the management board of the Archimedes Foundation, said. "It is gratifying that internship opportunities are increasingly being used and valuable experience is being brought back to Estonia," he added.

According to Toompere, Erasmus+ enables many to gain their first international experience in study or internship. "New environments, understandings and knowledge are inevitably a phenomenon accompanying such learning mobility," he said.

This year, the Erasmus+ program is to support with 12.5 mln euros the learning mobility of at least 4,601 people of 92 educational institutions, which is a record for the application rounds of the program. There are altogether 4,120 people taking part in learning mobility within Europe and the global learning mobility projects of institutions of higher education are to support the posting of at least 481 people.

Compared with the previous year, competition has increased, with 67% of learning mobility applied for receiving support. Competition was most intense in the global higher education learning mobility, where only every third application, that is 31 percent of all applications, received support. Second in terms of competition was general education with 37 percent, followed by adult education with 43%.