Key results

Information provision

Vast majority of the students receive the information about Learning Agreement before the exchange (over 90%). Information about ECTS and/or local credit system is in general provided in time: 75.8% of students receive the information before the exchange. As for the grade transfer, only 41.1% of students receive the information before the exchange, whereas 19.5% during the exchange and over 30.7% after. Half of the Erasmus students receive the information about the exchange student recognition rights before the exchange and over 25% claims not to receive the information at all. The Erasmus Student Charter, which should be given to all of the outgoing students, is distributed in only 57.2% of the institutions.

Learning Agreement            

Almost all Erasmus students sign a Learning Agreement, however only 73% manage to complete the process of “collecting signatures” before the departure. Moreover, changing Learning Agreement after signing it is a common practice (73% of students claim to have done that).  The changes are done mainly due to personal choice but also due to non-availability of previously selected courses (58% and 51% respectively).

ECTS      

 96% of institutions surveyed are using the ECTS. 59% HEIs use them as the only credits system, whereas 37% together with national credit system.

Grade transfer            

Transfer of grades between host and home university tends to be a problem for many students.  Almost 20% of students feel that during the transfer their grades were downgraded.  It is also clear there is no common and transparent procedure to transfer the grades from host to home university. The universities use conversion tables prepared by institution or the faculty or convert them individually by professors or Erasmus coordinators. Sometimes grades are not transferred at all and are not recorded or are recorded as given by host institution.

Grants, portability and tuition fees      

Over 96% of students surveyed received the Erasmus grant. Moreover, 38% of the student received also additional financial support from other sources: regional or national institutions, home and host institution and private foundations. Despite that, in 10% of the institutions, students, when going abroad, may lose right to a grant they were receiving in home institution before exchange.

Recognition    

The PRIME study investigated the level of recognition of studies abroad Erasmus students receive in home institution upon return. The study shows that

• 73% of students receive the full recognition of the credits successfully gained abroad and previously included in the Learning Agreement,
• 24% of the students receive only partial recognition for certain courses,
• almost 3% do not get any of their credits recognised.
• 21.6% of students had to repeat at least some (or in 3.7% all) of their courses and/or exams upon return.

Remaining challenges to recognition          

The PRIME 2010 study identified six most common problems that Erasmus student still face during the recognition process. They are as follows:

• Incompatibility of study programmes
• Problems with credit calculation
• Problems with grade transfer
• Bureaucratic issues
• Attitude of certain professors
• Insufficient information provision