In just five years, the world has changed and global challenges became more stringent. Climate change is accelerating, digitalisation and artificial intelligence are changing our societies, populism and misinformation are rising, Europe is impacted by demographic changes, European values such as freedom of the press or academic freedom are under threat in some European countries. And yet, the European Union has managed to react and stand strong in the face of these challenges.

This is in part due to the strong cooperation in education and training that has developed in the last 35 years thanks primarily to the Erasmus+ programme. Since 1987, Erasmus+ has offered life-changing experience to more than 15 million people to study, train, teach or learn abroad, and has reinforced the European and international dimension of learning and innovation in education through thousands mobility and bottom-up cooperation projects.

In 2021, Erasmus+ was reinforced to support the European Union’s efforts to making the European Education Area a reality by 2025. Its budget for the period 2021-2027 doubled thanks to the support of the European Parliament. With a higher budget, the programme has been able to step up its inclusive dimension, support the green and digital transition, and foster innovation and resilience in education and training in challenging context of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

In the field of higher education, the Erasmus+ programme provides new mobility opportunities and more financial support for those who need it. Students who for different reasons cannot go abroad for long periods may participate in blended mobility opportunities, combining a shorter physical stay abroad with virtual activities. Students having fewer opportunities now receive a higher grant in all countries.

The programme has also responded quickly to unforeseen events, enabling Ukrainian students to come and study in the Erasmus+ countries and the Ukrainian universities to receive support from their European partners.

In November 2023, the European Commission put forward a proposal called “Europe on the move”, which was adopted by the European Ministers of Education. It sets the following ambitions for the coming years: at least 23% of the European graduates of higher education should have benefited from a period of mobility abroad and at least 20% of these should be students with fewer opportunities.

Supported by the Erasmus+ programme, the European Universities initiative will gather by summer this year more than 60 alliances comprising 500 higher education institutions from all across Europe.

These European Universities alliances are transforming the European higher education landscape. By pooling together their resources, the alliances develop joint inter-university campuses with seamless mobility opportunities, student-centred pedagogies and flexible learning pathways, supporting transdisciplinary teams of students, staff, academics to work together with businesses, local authorities or civil society actors to contribute to tackle the most pressing challenges of our time. They act as catalysts for transformation of the higher education system, for the benefit of the entire higher education community.

The European Commission together with hundreds of stakeholders has worked intensively to make mobilities funded under the Erasmus+ programme easier to organise through digitalisation of information exchange. Thanks to the European Student Card initiative and its three components – Erasmus Without Paper, the Erasmus+ App and the European Student Card - universities and students participating in mobility abroad will be able to prepare all the steps in a simpler way online (receiving their digital learning agreement, exchanging tips on their sending or hosting university).

All of this has been possible thanks to the constant support of the European Parliament as a key actor in the European decision-making process.

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