The Erasmus+ Program

Erasmus+ is the EU's programme to support education, training, youth and sport in Europe. It has an estimated budget of €26.2 billion. This is nearly double the funding compared to its predecessor programme (2014–2020). The 2021–2027 programme places a strong focus on social inclusion, the green and digital transitions, and promoting young people’s participation in democratic life. It supports priorities and activities set out in the European Education Area, Digital Education Action Plan and the European Skills Agenda. The programme also

• supports the European Pillar of Social Rights
• implements the EU Youth Strategy 2019–2027
• develops the European dimension in sport

The programme also includes the European cooperation programmes in higher education:

• Mobility for individuals
• Partnerships and cooperation projects
• Policy support
• Jean Monnet Activities

You can find more information on Erasmus+ on the website of the European Commission.

Erasmus+ promotes the following types of mobilities:

• student mobility for studies (SMS)
• student mobility for work placements (SMP)
• teaching staff mobility (STA)
• staff mobility (STT)

Erasmus Charter for Higher Education

Every higher education institution that wants to take part in the Erasmus program needs to have a valid Erasmus Charter for Higher Education (ECHE).

The ECHE is awarded by the European Commission. It confirms that the institution fulfills all requirements for a successful participation in the Erasmus+ program.

The University of Mannheim was awarded the Erasmus+ university charter for the current period from 2021–2027 on the basis of the European Policy Statement and is thus entitled to participate in the program.

Erasmus+ supports several types of mobilities:

• studying abroad for students
• internships abroad for students and graduates

The University of Mannheim supports employees and researchers in gaining international experience. There are several funding options, depending on the type and duration of the stay abroad. Learn more on the stays abroad for researchers and employees at the University of Mannheim page.

For university staff with disabilities, special grants can be applied for to cover additional costs during an Erasmus stay. Please contact us as soon as you are planning a stay abroad.

By undertaking an ERASMUS+ teaching or training placement, researchers from the University of Mannheim can, for example, gain experience at a European partner university, share approaches and content with international colleagues, and take good ideas back home with them. Find out more on the teaching abroad with ERASMUS+ page.

For university staff with disabilities, special grants can be applied for to cover additional costs during an Erasmus stay. Please contact us as soon as you are planning a stay abroad.

Generally, all students and doctoral candidates who have been admitted to one of the Erasmus exchange programs at the partner universities of the University of Mannheim are eligible for funding through Erasmus. This also applies to participants of the European double degree programs. However, funding depends on the annual Erasmus budget of the University of Mannheim. So far, it has always been possible to grant a scholarship to every eligible student each year.

Students must be enrolled at their home institution and must have completed at least one year of (bachelor) studies. All full-time students enrolled at the University of Mannheim can apply for the Erasmus+ program regardless of their nationality.

All funding recipients participating in an Erasmus program have to submit the documents required for funding in due time. The International Office will inform you on the requirements in due time. After completing their stay abroad, students also have to write a report describing their experiences.

If you are interested in an Erasmus stay abroad, we recommend visiting the Introductory Study Abroad Meetings organized by the International Office. Here, you will be provided information on exchange programs, application processes and possible funding options. The staff of the International Office is happy to answer your questions.

As soon as you have received confirmation of your placement at a European partner university, you automatically enter the pool of potential Erasmus scholarship recipients. This also applies for participants of the European double degree programs.

You will receive information on all Erasmus documents and the deadline for submission of the Erasmus grant agreement, the basis for an Erasmus grant, via e-mail

• when going abroad in the Fall Term or for two semesters at the End of May/Beginning of June
• when going abroad in the Spring Term at the End of October/Beginning of November.

All necessary Erasmus forms will be provided in the Mobility Online portal in the download section as soon as they are available.

Generally, all students who have been admitted into the selection process for exchange programs of the University of Mannheim are eligible for funding through Erasmus+. Should the university’s budget for the Erasmus scholarship not cover funding for all students, there will be another selection process among the applicants according to the same criteria.

The grants for Erasmus+ stays are based on the differing costs of living in the receiving countries. The monthly rates may change every year. In addition, every higher education institution can determine a maximum funding period depending on their budget. That means that depending on the respective university’s financial resources, in some cases, only part of the stay abroad can be funded. For example, in some past academic years, the  maximum funding period was e.g. 102 or 145 days per semester abroad.

For outgoing students from German universities the following funding rates apply for three groups of countries in the academic year 2023/24:

Beginning with academic year 2024/2025, some countries have been assigned to a new country group and the monthly rates have increased for many countries in comparison to the previous year's rates. The monthly rates for Country Groups 2 and 3 are identical due to increases in the costs of living:

An Erasmus scholarship is not a complete scholarship, but a partial grant meant to balance out the additional costs of staying abroad. Erasmus students therefore have to secure funding from other sources to cover the basic costs of their stay abroad.

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BAföG recipients will receive the same amounts of funding as other students. As soon as the amount of Erasmus+ funding exceeds EUR 300 it will be deducted from the amount of BAföG the respective student receives. For further information please contact your BAföG office.

International exchange through physical encounters is a core value of the Erasmus program. At the same time, the Erasmus program aims to motivate participants to use environmentally friendly means of transport and thus contribute to reducing the ecological footprint of their trip abroad.

If you travel at least one way (outward or return) by a sustainable means of transport (e.g. bicycle, train, long-distance bus, carpool) to/from your host university location, you can apply for the Green Travel grant. All students who travel sustainably can receive funding for two travel days, or up to four days for particularly long trips. These travel days count as additional days of stay and are financially supported with the daily rate of your country group.

The increase in funding rates for most destination countries in the academic year 2024/25  and the possibility of additional funding of 250 euros per month for many students are also a contribution by the Erasmus program to financially enable students to use the most sustainable means of transport possible.

All information on how to apply for this grant will be automatically sent to Erasmus students of the University of Mannheim with the information on the Erasmus scholarship contract.

The Erasmus program intends to provide special support for students for whom a stay abroad may be more challenging. This includes students from a non-academic family background.

Studies have shown that students whose parents have not already studied themselves are less likely to consider a stay abroad. With additional funding, the Erasmus program aims to encourage these students to take the step abroad. In this case, students whose parents or caregivers do not have a degree from a university or university of applied sciences are considered first-time academics. For this group, an additional funding of 250 euros per month is available in addition to the regular monthly Erasmus grant.

A degree from a university-like university of cooperative education is considered an academic degree. Likewise, courses of study completed abroad count as academic degrees, even if they are not recognized in Germany. A master craftsman's diploma is not considered an academic degree.

This 250 euro supplementary grant can only be awarded once, even if several criteria for other special grant groups apply to you.

Erasmus students at the University of Mannheim automatically receive all information on how to apply for this grant with the information on the Erasmus scholarship contract. We will be happy to advise you on planning your stay abroad.

This additional support does apply to stays in the United Kingdom with the start of the Academic Year 23/24.

The Erasmus program intends to provide special support for students for whom a stay abroad may be more challenging. This includes students who earn a significant amount of their own living, as they are often unable to continue working while abroad and earnings are lost.

To alleviate this problem, there is now a top-up amount of 250 euros per month if the following criteria apply:

• employment or self-employment
• with net earnings of more than 450 euros and less than 850 euros per month (averaged, if applicable)
• continuously employed for at least six months during the two semesters prior to the stay abroad
  The activity must have taken place during this period:

Stay abroad in/from fall semester: 1 August of the previous year through 31 July of the year abroad

Stay abroad in spring semester: 1 February of the previous year through 31 January of the year abroad

The employment may be a single one or several immediately following each other. An interruption within the regular vacation period during employment is not a problem.

• the activity is not continued during the stay abroad, so that there is a loss of earnings

This 250 euro supplementary grant can only be awarded once, even if several criteria for other special grant groups apply to you.

Erasmus students at the University of Mannheim automatically receive all information on how to apply for this grant with the information on the Erasmus scholarship contract. We will be happy to advise you on planning your stay abroad.

This additional support does apply to stays in the United Kingdom with the start of the Academic Year 23/24.

The Erasmus+ program strives to promote equal opportunity and inclusion. This is why students who take their child or children with them during their stay abroad are eligible for additional funding. If this applies to you, please let us know as soon as you start planning your stay abroad. We are happy to assist you in planning your stay abroad.

Students who take their child or children abroad with them can receive an additional 250 euros per month. The prerequisite is that the child or children is/are taken along during the entire stay. The allowance is 250 euros per month per family, regardless of the number of children. The application is also possible if a caregiver (partner) travels along.

This 250 euro supplementary grant can only be awarded once, even if several criteria for other special grant groups apply to you.

If particularly high additional costs arise from taking your child/children with you for your stay abroad, a so-called “real cost application” can be submitted instead with a few months' advance notice, through which up to 15,000 euros per semester can be covered. It is also possible to receive a grant for a preparatory trip to explore the local conditions. This requires a lot of time in advance, so we ask students to seek advice early.

For stays in the United Kingdom, this type of special funding is available with the start of the Academic Year 23/24.

The Erasmus+ program strives to promote equal opportunity and inclusion. This is why students with a degree of disability (GdB) of 20 or higher are eligible for additional funding. We are happy to assist you in planning your stay abroad.

Students with a degree of disability of 20 or more or a proven disability due to which there is an additional financial need can receive a top-up on their grant of 250 euros per month.

This 250 euro supplementary grant can only be awarded once, even if several criteria for other special grant groups apply to you.

If particularly high additional costs arise due to your stay abroad, a so-called “real cost application” can be submitted instead with a few months' notice, through which up to 15,000 euros per semester can be covered, e.g. for an accompanying person. It is also possible to receive a grant for a preparatory trip to explore the local conditions. The trips are usually intended for potential beneficiaries with a disability and their accompanying persons, who need to explore the local conditions in order to assess whether a longer stay is possible.

This requires a lot of time in advance, so we ask students to seek advice early.

For stays in the United Kingdom, this type of special funding is available with the start of the Academic Year 23/24.

The Erasmus program intends to provide special support for students for whom a stay abroad may be more challenging. This is why students with a chronic illness that leads to additional financial needs for the stay abroad can receive an additional 250 euros per month.

This 250 euro supplementary grant can only be awarded once, even if several criteria for other special grant groups apply to you.

If particularly high additional costs arise due to your stay abroad, a so-called “real cost application” can be submitted instead with a few months' notice, through which up to 15,000 euros per semester can be covered, e.g. for an accompanying person. It is also possible to receive a grant for a preparatory trip to explore the local conditions. This requires a lot of time in advance, so we ask students to seek advice early.

For stays in the United Kingdom, this type of special funding is available with the start of the Academic Year 23/24.

With Erasmus+, students can receive funding for studying and internships abroad during every phase of their studies (bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral program) for up to twelve months. If you are studying in a long-cycle degree program (for example a state examination program), you can receive funding for up to 24 months.

Like all other exchange programs offered by the University of Mannheim, stays abroad with Erasmus include:

• exemption from tuition fees at the host university
• academic recognition of the coursework and examinations completed abroad through so-called “Learning Agreements”
• language-, culture-, and organization-related support during the preparation phase

In addition, the Erasmus+ program offers:

• funding through the Erasmus scholarship
• special funding options for students with children and students with disabilities
• online linguistic support

The Online Language Support (OLS) aims to support students in acquiring the language skills they need for an Erasmus stay abroad. As part of OLS, the language tests assess the language proficiency level of the participant for the courses. OLS makes language support accessible in a flexible and uncomplicated way, helping to promote language learning and linguistic diversity.

Online language support is available to students for three years, giving them the opportunity to improve their language skills before, during as well as after your stay abroad. A total of 24 languages are currently available at different learning levels. Access to language courses includes a wide variety of interactive and customized activities. Students can take language courses in any of the languages available on OLS with no limit on the number of languages or learning units and improve their language skills over a total period of three years.

This learning offer is voluntary. At the present time we cannot check the test results, so the OLS language test is not mandatory.

Agreements between partner universities on certain levels of language proficiency are therefore not the same as the OLS test. That is why students need to supply other proofs of their foreign language skills throughout the selection process.

If you have any questions regarding your stay abroad, here you can find the respective competent contact person at your school. They will advise you on any study-related aspects of your stay abroad, including the question of when a stay abroad can be best integrated in your degree program.