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13 June 2007
EU praise Sheffield exchange scheme
The University of Sheffield has been hailed as one of the most successful in the European Commission's Europe-wide Erasmus student exchange programme. Among 2,500 higher education institutions taking part across Europe, Sheffield was the only UK university to make the top 20.
Erasmus, the European Community Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students, is the European Commission's educational programme for Higher Education students, teachers and institutions. The scheme, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, gives European students and staff the chance to spend time studying or working at other universities in Europe.
As part of the University of Sheffield´s Erasmus scheme there are 270 exchange agreements with 25 Universities across Europe. During the 2006/07 academic year over 270 students from the University went on exchange programmes in Europe and 470 students from Europe came to study at the University.
Professor Bob Boucher, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sheffield, said: "We are delighted to have been recognised for having one of the most successful Erasmus schemes in Europe. This is a great achievement and I am very proud of the staff who have been involved in running the scheme. This acknowledgement confirms Sheffield´s position in the global academic community and demonstrates our commitment to providing our students with an international dimension to their studies."
Belén Bernaldo de Quirós, Head of Unit for Erasmus at the European Commission, said: "I would like to congratulate the University of Sheffield for being one of the success stories of our brochure "Erasmus success stories". While there are many ways to define excellence, for our first brochure the fairest and most transparent way was to look at mobility figures for incoming and outgoing students and lecturers and to assess the level of innovation with curriculum development. The University of Sheffield had the highest number of incoming and outgoing students in the academic year 2004/2005 of all the UK universities.
"I would like to thank the University of Sheffield for the effort already undertaken so far and I hope that the Erasmus scheme at the University will continue to prosper in the coming years."
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