French, Turkish, Spanish, among largest groups of students on Erasmus scholarships to Romania

Over 5,000 Romanian students benefited from Erasmus scholarships in the school year 2012-2013, a growth of 9 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, the number of foreign students arriving in Romania on Erasmus scholarships was less than half the number of Romanians who went abroad to study. Romania welcomed 2,148 foreign students within the Erasmus program, the largest group of whom - some 415 - from France. The second largest group of foreign students to Romania came from Turkey - some 385, and the third largest group from Spain - 365 students. There were 219 students from Italy, 117 German students in Romania in the last university year, 160 from Portugal, and 106 from Poland. The full list of host and destination countries for Erasmus students is here (in pdf, in English). France was main destination of study – for over 1,000 students in Romania, according to the European Commission. Other destinations for Romanian Erasmus students were Italy – 600, Germany – 560 and Spain – 560. The choice of country of study was within the European trend. Across Europe, 270,000 students got scholarships in 2012-2013, as well as 52,000 academia staff. The largest number of Erasmus students who went to study abroad came from Spain - 39,200, and the second largest, from France - 35,300, while the third largest, from Germany - 34,800. Romania's neighbor Bulgaria had only 1,900 students abroad on Erasmus scholarships, while Hungary, 1,124. Full data on outbound countries is here (in pdf, in English). The average value of an Erasmus scholarship was of EUR 272 a month, which is usually also supplemented by national, regional or institutional funds. The new Erasmus + program will offer scholarships for four million people, including 2 million students and 300,000 employees. editor@romania-insider.com