Erasmus+ is the European Union’s flagship educational exchange programme, which was set up to encourage student mobility within Europe, boost skills and employability, and support the modernisation of education.
It can provide students with wonderful, life-changing opportunities to either study and/or work abroad in Europe as part of an undergraduate or postgraduate degree at the University of Reading. Similar opportunities are available for University of Reading staff through the Teaching and Training streams of the Erasmus+ programme.
The Erasmus+ programme offers a framework and finances to encourage a range of cooperative education projects and activities (including student and staff mobility), thereby promoting transnational cooperation projects among universities across Europe and beyond.
Practically, there are generous financial grants provided to participants by the European Commission through the University (to support student and staff mobility) as a contribution towards any extra costs incurred by undertaking a European placement.
The programme consists of three main strands:
| Key Action 1 | Learning Mobility of Individuals |
| Key Action 2 | Co-operation for Innovation and Exchange of Good Practices |
| Key Action 3 | Support for Policy Reform |
Impact of Brexit
The UK remains a programme country of the current Erasmus+ programme until May 2023 as part of our funded KA103 project (2020-23). UK higher education institutions will not join the new Erasmus programme (2021-27).
Student and staff exchanges with our European partner institutions can continue during this period, if both the University of Reading and the partner institution agrees. Students and staff will be updated about available funding. Discussions are ongoing with our partners regarding future arrangements.
Click here to learn more about how the University of Reading plans to engage with the UK’s replacement programme, the Turing Scheme.
Erasmus+ KA103
The University of Reading is proud to be a beneficiary and participate in the Erasmus+ KA103 programme – this provides opportunities for students and staff to undertake study and training placements at another university / organisation in participating programme countries:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, UK.
These placements provide chances for participants to learn, acquire new skills and competencies, develop intercultural understanding and a multitude of soft skills.
| Year | Participants |
| 2019/20 | 201 |
| 2018/19 | 216 |
| 2017/18 | 180 |
| 2016/17 | 166 |
| 2015/16 | 142 |
| 2014/15 | 146 |
It is our institutional ambition to continue to increase and create opportunities for mutually beneficial mobility to and from our European partner institutions.
Erasmus+ KA107
KA107 International Credit Mobility takes place between HEIs in Programme and Partner Countries. Varying levels of European Union funding is available to support mobility activities to most regions of the world. Further information can be found at
The University of Reading has been awarded funds for two KA107 projects
- Project KA107-023688: University of Reading and Nazarbayev University,
Kazakhstan (2016-18) - Project KA107-035914: University of Reading with HEIs in Iran and Iraq (2017-19).
- Project KA107-078541: University of Reading with HEIs in Canada, Indonesia, Israel, Philippines, Russian Federation and Thailand (2020-23)
ECTS Credit System
ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) is the credit system used by universities in the European Higher Education Area. This includes all countries engaged in the Bologna Process. The credit system aims to make study programmes easier to understand and compare.
Credits are assigned to modules based on the student workload required to achieve the objectives of the particular course of study. A full-time workload for one year of undergraduate study is equivalent to 60 ECTS. The simple conversion from ECTS to the UK credit system is: 1 ECTS = 2 UK credits.
For further information about ECTS, please view:
- EU Commission’s ECTS Online Users’ Guide 2015
- Downloadable ECTS Users’ Guide 2015
Documentation produced by the Erasmus & Study Abroad Office relating to incoming study abroad students’ placements at Reading (Erasmus+ or otherwise) will refer to ECTS as the standard default credit system. This includes Learning Agreements and Transcripts.
All module descriptions available from the Erasmus & Study Abroad website and online application will refer to the credit value of a given module in ECTS. The main University of Reading module description pages will refer to ECTS and UK credits.
Students who study abroad within Europe as part of the Erasmus+ programme will be awarded ECTS as part of their transcript of studies, which will be transferred into the student’s degree programme.
