Exchange students

Bilateral agreements are the agreements that SLU have together with a university outside of the so called Erasmus region, (EU/EEA/EFTA countries + candidate countries Turkey and Croatia). The agreements often include student mobility on bachelor and master level, but can also be connected to PhD studies and research cooperation's.

There is strong emphasis on balance in the exchange within bilateral agreements. This often implies that SLU is restricted from sending students to other universities unless the partner institution also sends students to SLU.

Exchange students that come to SLU through the bilateral agreements usually come without scholarships. The students within a bilateral exchange agreement pay possible tuition fees at their home institution but no tuition fees at the receiving host university.

SLU may apply for funding from the Erasmus+-programme International Credit Mobility (ICM) to exchange students and staff with selected non-EU universities for a three-year long project period. The purpose of the program is to enhance educational quality through exchanges of students and faculty. Students may study or do internships and staff may teach, engage in educational development or exchange experience with colleagues.

SLU can only submit one joint application. This joint application is administerred by the Dividion of Educational Affairs, which also assists with the implementation of approved projects. Every autumn, an internal invitation is sent out to submit proposals for mobility projects. Departments at SLU may propose projects that include student and/or staff mobility.

The Division of Educational Affairs submits SLU's application based on all approved mobility projects, usually at the turn of the month January-February.

Target group

Teachers, researcher, departments, divisions or programme boards are welcome to suggest mobility projects with universities outside EU/EES to be included in SLU’s next proposal for Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility.

The suggested mobility project should have a clear connection to ongoing activity and should include mobility both to and from SLU. Concerned Programme boards should be informed by the proposer.

Projects with a clear focus or aim have greater chances of funding than merely financing ongoing collaboration. The proposer writes the proposal in coorperation with the coordinator at the Division of Educational affairs, which compiles SLU’s application.

The proposed projects will go through internal evaluation. In the beginning of January the proposers will be informed which projects that are to be included in the final proposal from SLU and if further additions to the text are needed.

Erasmus is a mobility cooperation programme within the EU/EEA region. Erasmus is a part of the LLP – Lifelong learning programme which ends in 2013. The EU Commission is expected to launch a new programme, Erasmus for All, during 2013 which will start in 2014. The countries that are a part of the Erasmus network are:

• EU 27
• EEA/EFTA countries; Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland
• Candidate countries; Turkey and Croatia

The so called Erasmus University Charter, EUC is a requisite for all universities in order to participate in the Erasmus cooperation's.

In order for SLU to receive a student within Erasmus it is required that there is an established agreement between SLU and the sending/receiving institution.

SLU has a policy not to establish an agreement for individual incoming students; rather an agreement should be based on long term academic contacts. Read more about this in the instructions document Quality Assurance of the Agreement Process - Kvalitetssäkring av avtalsprocessen (only available in Swedish).

An Erasmus exchange should last of minimum 3 and maximum 12 months. An exchange can never extend over two academic years. A student can only go on one exchange within Erasmus during their studies, even if they change home university.

Students that participate in an Erasmus exchange receive a scholarship from their home university. The size of the scholarship varies between countries and sometimes between universities within one country.

Since the academic year of 2010/11 all students that are admitted to a university that holds an Erasmus University Charter EUC can participate in the Erasmus programme, independently of nationality and citizenship.

Students coming to SLU in their second-forth semester within an Erasmus Mundus Action I or II programme are considered exchange students during their time at SLU. This means that they receive the same support and service from the Division of Educational Affairs as all other incoming exchange students. If they are studying their first year of the programme at SLU, they need to be admitted to the consortium and through universityadmissions.se, and are hence considered full time students at SLU.

In all Erasmus Mundus Action I programmes in which SLU participates there is a coordinator for the programme working at SLU. The coordinator is the responsible person for the programme at SLU. The Division of Educational Affairs are service providers regarding general questions such as admissions and applications.

According to rules set by the EU Commission, the students have a right to access language courses in Swedish. The department/faculty involved in the programme is in charge and responsible to buy the service of a language course. There are several institutions and companies offering Swedish courses to foreign students, such as Folkuniversitetet, Sensus or other educational institutes.

There are several programmes within this category of cooperation. The most known ones are between the EU and third countries such EU-USA Atlantis, EU-Canada but also the programme Tempus that focuses on capacity building in target countries.

When there is a cooperation agreement incoming students through these programmes are also considered exchange students at SLU.

If you wish to enter an externally financed cooperation programme the faculty must approve the participation and the application must also pass by the Division of Educational Affairs for consultation. The letter of intent or letter of mandate needs to be signed by the legal representative of SLU which is the Vice-chancellor or deputy vice-chancellor. Make sure to communicate with the faculty and the Division of Student Affairs and Learning Development in due time before the last day of application.

Since such cooperation's often lead to double degrees or joint degrees from SLU it is important to consider the pre-requisites and entry requirements of the students.

SLU participates in joint master programmes within the EU and the ELLS network, EnvEuro.

The students decide to study either the first or second year at SLU, depending on the format of the programme.

When the students decide to take the second year of studies at SLU they are considered incoming exchange students. If they choose to take the first year at SLU they apply and become admitted to the programme at SLU. The admission process must be carefully examined and planned before an agreement for a joint programme is signed.

Nordplus is a cooperation programme financed by the Nordic Council of Ministers. The Nordplus network applies for continued financing once a year.

There are two types of mobility within the Nordplus programme, express mobility and full semester mobility. Students can hence be mobile for one individual course up to a maximum of one academic year.

Students within the Nordplus programme receive a scholarship which is distributed through the coordinating university of the network.

There are no requirements for certain citizenships within the Nordplus programmes, all students that are admitted to a university which is a member of the Nordplus network are eligible to apply.