On 13th June the European Union will be celebrating 30th anniversary of Erasmus – the most successful programme for education, training, youth and sport. Currently, 33 states participate in academic exchange.

Its task is to bring people together, help them to get a job, enable them to learn new languages, and be more open-minded and sympathetic. The Erasmus programme has been enriching lives for the past 30 years.

First exchanges were in 1987. Approximately 3 200 students from 11 countries went abroad. Over 30 years, the programme developed. In 2015, 678 000 people from 33 countries – members of the EU and Turkey, Macedonia, Iceland, Norway and Lichtenstein. Nowadays, people can take part in volunteering, trainings, mobility programmes etc. 9 million people who have gone abroad supported by Erasmus+ programme.

Poland has been participating in Erasmus since 1998. At the beginning ca. 1 500 students went abroad. Today, about 17 000 take part in it. Altogether 225 000 Poles took advantage of that programme. Around 15 000 students, most of them come from Turkey, Spain and France, visit Poland annually.

The University of Warsaw is the most active Polish university regarding mobility. It received many awards.

From 1998 to 1999, 176 students and 37 teachers went abroad and 23 students came to Warsaw. The budget for mobility equalled EUR 442 000. Presently, the University of Warsaw has 1 400 outgoing and 900 incoming students. The budget for mobility – EUR 3 million.