On 28 January 2026, MEP Bogdan Zdrojewski (EPP), member of the CULT Committee and rapporteur for the European Parliament’s upcoming position on establishing the Erasmus+ programme for the period 2028-2034, hosted a hearing with representatives of the higher education sector. The hearing provided stakeholder organisations with the opportunity to present their recommendations for the future Erasmus+ programme. The meeting was also attended by MEPs Sabrina Repp (S&D), Benedetta Scuderi (Greens/EFA) and Annamária Vicsek (PfE), who raised a series of very pertinent questions on the scope, priorities and implementation of the future programme.
A total of 24 higher education stakeholder organisations took the floor through targeted short interventions, presenting their main proposals for the future programme. Across these contributions, a broad consensus emerged on several key elements:
- While welcoming the European Commission’s proposal to increase the budget of Erasmus+ to EUR 40 billion, all stakeholder organisations stressed that this level of funding would be insufficient to match the ambition of the future programme. They underlined the need to continue supporting Erasmus+ core actions, most notably mobility and institutional cooperation, including the European Universities alliances, while also accommodating new priorities and initiatives, in line with the Union of Skills, the proposed strategic scholarships, and additional support measures for STEM fields. The sector therefore called for a minimum core budget of EUR 60 billion, arguing that this level of funding is necessary for Erasmus+ to be able to remain the face of the European Union vis-à-vis the citizens and directly contribute to advancing the Union’s competitiveness and resilience objectives.
- Several organisations also strongly advocated for safeguarding and further strengthening the international dimension of Erasmus+, stressing that it should remain an integral component of the programme rather than an option. In this context, they supported the allocation of an additional EUR 2.2 billion from external action instruments, notably NDICI – Global Europe and IPA III. The unified message was that European higher education institutions need to be able to engage globally in order to remain competitive, while Europe needs graduates with strong international awareness and understanding. The international dimension of the programme was therefore widely recognised as providing essential opportunities to meet both institutional and broader societal needs.
- Words of caution were also raised on: (1) seeing the programme as a tool to prepare skilled graduates exclusively for the current labour market, stressing that both the programme’s mission and the broader purpose of education are significantly wider. In this context, concerns were also expressed about a narrower focus on STEM fields, which several organisations considered to be at odds with the nature of the programme; and (2) the directionality of policy- and programme-setting at EU level, which risks endangering the bottom-up character of the programme and alienating its core beneficiaries. Similar reservations were expressed regarding the proposed ‘strategic scholarships’, a concept which many organisations felt requires a clearer rationale and could risk diverting funding away from actions that have already proven to be effective, unless the related budget were provided through the European Competitiveness Fund.
- Calls were also made for better funding synergies with the Horizon Europe (future 10th framework programme) and with Structural Funds, with concrete examples provided on how this can be done in specific national contexts.
Following hearings with the other education sectors, the CULT committee will publish its report in summer 2026, with a vote in the plenum of the European Parliament expected in autumn 2026.
