The Birth of ERASMUS Programme in the Light of the European Higher Education Reform’s Starting Years

Abstract

Internationalisation of higher education is a key objective for the Member States of the European Union.
Student and teacher mobility is one of the most important areas of this. It is a strategic challenge to strengthen
the international character of the European Higher Education Area in order to increase the number of students
and teachers participating in mobility programmes, thus making the EU an internationally attractive destination
for learning and research and strengthening the competitiveness of the European Higher Education Area.
To achieve these objectives, the European Commission launched the ERASMUS programme in 1987. The
problems of national and international higher education cannot be understood without studying the role of the
European Union. While the education systems of EU countries have developed and functioned within closed
national frameworks, in recent decades there has been a significant opening up towards each other. History of
the birth of the ERASMUS programme is examined in the context of the reform of European higher education.
A brief historical overview is provided of international mobility, the education policy and Europeanisation
process of the European Economic Community, and the important stages in the creation and launch of the
ERASMUS programme.