Changes of ERASMUS under the Umbrella of SOCRATES

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Abstract
The largest program in Europe for the promotion of student mobility, ERASMUS, was expected to undergo major changes when it became a subprogram of SOCRATES, the umbrella program of the European Union for various educational activities inaugurated in 1995. Subsequently, though the number of mobile students supported increased, the emphasis of the programs shifted toward teaching staff exchange and curricular innovation. Moreover, the managerial thrust was substantially revised. Funds were not provided to networks of cooperating departments, but to individual institutions of higher education that were required to guarantee the quality of exchange through bilateral contracts with partner institutions and demonstrate the role their SOCRATES-supported activities should play in the context of the institutional policy through the formulation of a European policy statement. The SOCRATES 2000 Evaluation Study provides evidence that the changes during the first years of implementation were less substantial than called for. The quality of student exchange remained more or less stable in spite of substantial decline for support per student. The number of mobile teachers increased considerably, but the duration of the teaching period abroad became shorter. Moderate strengthening of institutional policies and some extension of curricular innovation activities could be observed.

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