The CRUE-Internationalisation and cooperation seminar (5 and 6 May) and the SEPIE seminar on Higher Education Mobility (14 to 16 June) have provided all the necessary information on changes to the call for proposals for this year’s Erasmus+ programme

The working sessions organised by the CRUE (Congress of Rectors of Spanish Universities) featured talks by representatives of the organisation, information on changes to the call for proposals, and reports and conclusions by different groups from the sector, which specialises in the internationalisation of Spanish universities.

Among the speakers was the Spanish Universities Minister, Marcial Marín, who announced an increase in the Erasmus+ programme’s budget through the addition of the Erasmus.es Grants, which are intended to be a complementary grant to the EU-funded Erasmus grants. Other important developments are the new Inter-ministerial agreement to encourage foreign students, professors and researchers to come to Spain.

The KA107 seminar involved an analysis of the first edition of the International Erasmus+ Programme, which has opened up the possibility of taking university mobility beyond European frontiers to the wider world.

The same information was also given during the seminars on Higher Education Mobility between Erasmus+ Programme and Partner Countries (KA107) and between Programme Countries (KA103), which were organised by the SEPIE (Spanish Service for the Internationalisation of Education) and held at the Universidad Pública de Navarra from 14 to 16 June 2016.

Among the principal changes to the 2016 call for proposals for the KA103 programme are the increase in the budget, which has gone up by 51.53% compared to the last call after the MECD contributed a further 29 million euros to 59.88 million euros already provided by the European Commission, making a grand total of 88.88 million euros.

Another change is the maximum number of month’s funding for a mobility visit, which has increased from 5 to 7 months.

In addition to these changes, the Online Linguistic Support programme (OLS) announced the addition of 12 new languages to its platform and an initiative to offer free licences for OLS language courses to refugees to help them integrate into their new host countries.

The main change to the 2016 call for proposals for the KA107 programme is the 11.72% increase in its budget, which now has 13.86 million euros for funding this type of mobility.

After Andalusia, Catalonia is the second autonomous region in Spain in terms of the number of KA107 projects approved among its universities.