ACA has always attached a high importance to the European Union’s programmes in education, training and research. This goes particularly for the Erasmus Programme, the Union’s flagship scheme in education. In the year 2002, ACA published an evaluation of Erasmus conducted by Professor Ulrich Teichler, which looked, among other things, into the effects of the integration of this programme into the wider Socrates scheme, and of the introduction of the very controversial ‘institutional approach’. It found that the programme had survived all of its recent ‘improvements’, and that it was found as beneficial as ever by students. A few weeks ago, a new evaluation of Erasmus came out: The Professional Value of Erasmus Mobility. Again, the editor and main author is Ulrich Teichler, Europe’s undisputed top researcher in all matters relating to internationalisation in higher education.

The present evaluation looks into a particular aspect of Erasmus mobility: its impact on the careers of former students and academic staff. The key findings of the study indicate both continuity and change. Students rate the immediate benefits of an Erasmus study period as high as ever. They stress the eye-opening effect of a contrasting learning experience abroad. But they see much less of a career impact of the Erasmus period than earlier participants in the programme. The authors explain this with the heightened degree of internationalisation in European higher education today, which has ‘robbed’ the programme of its exceptionality. They argue that “more ambitious curricular thrusts” might be needed to once again turn an Erasmus study abroad experience into a clear added value.

The book can be ordered from Lemmens Publishers, via the link below.

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