Funded by the European Union (EU), Lifelong Learning Program (LLP) Erasmus serves the aim of enhancing cooperation between higher education institutions across Europe. It enables students to study and work abroad each year, as well as university staff and academic staff to visit partner universities. METU has been participating within the framework of the LLP Erasmus since 2003-2004 academic year, when the program was introduced as a pilot project in Turkey.
The aim of the Erasmus Program is to increase the quality of the Higher Education in Europe, and strengthen the European Dimension in the Higher Education in Europe. Actually, Erasmus is mostly related with the "mobility of university students". Erasmus is a program funded by European Union (EU), established to link universities in the member states of the European Union. Erasmus is one of the major branches of the EU- Lifelong Learning Program (LLP) that covers undergraduate and graduate studies in universities. It would be explanatory to quote from the key objectives of the LLP Program, determined by the LLP Bureau in Brussels:
To achieve a significant increase in student and staff mobility between European Higher Education Institutions,
To promote broad and lasting inter-institutional co-operation,
To contribute to the concept of a people's Europe,
To contribute to the economic and social development of Europe through the creation of a significant number of higher education graduates with direct experience of intra- European cooperation.
Starting from the 2003-2004 academic year, universities in Turkey applying to the European Commission (EC) for getting Erasmus University Charter (EUC), which gives the right to participate in the activities supported by Erasmus Program, have been eligible to take advantage of the Erasmus activities. Some of these activities are: Student Mobility (SM), Student Placement/Internship, Teaching Staff Mobility (TS) / Staff Training (ST) Mobility, Thematic Networks (TN), Intensive Programs (IP), Curriculum Development (CD) (Source;http://ico.metu.edu.tr/llp-erasmus).
Mugla Sıtkı Kocman University has been part of Erasmus program since 2004. At that time, there are bilateral agreements with two universities, and just 5 students and 2 instructors had attended to this program. From the March of 2013, MSKU has more than 150 bileteral agreements with almost 90 universities in Europe. Only 40 deparments in MSKU can benefit from this program.
In our deparment, there are 7 agreements with universities in Europe;
| University (Country |
Cycle/Level (outgoing) |
Cycle/Level (incoming) |
Number of Students |
Duration (Month) |
Traineeship |
| Poitier (FR) |
2,3 |
1,2,3 |
4 |
12 |
N/A |
| Rouen (FR) |
2,3 |
2,3 |
4 |
12 |
N/A |
| Lisboa (P) |
1,2,3 |
1,2 |
1 |
12 |
1x3 |
| Jagiellonian (PL) (2014) |
1,2,3 |
2,3 |
2 |
9 |
2x3 |
| Sofia (BG) (2014) |
1,2,3 |
1,2,3 |
1 |
9 |
1x3 |
| Warsaw (PL) (2014) |
2 |
2 |
2 |
10 |
N/A |
| Ostrava (CZ) (2015) |
1,2,3 |
1,2,3 |
3 |
10 |
1x3 |
| Bonn (DE) (2016) |
1,2,3 |
1,2,3 |
2 |
6 |
N/A |
Cycles: 1: undergrad (BSc); 2: post-grad (MSc); 3: doctorate (PhD)
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
MSKU Study Abroad Office: http://www.uik.mu.edu.tr/tr
MSKU Erasmus Homepage: http://erasmus.mu.edu.tr/tr