The Erasmus + Programme is a community-action program for lifelong learning, offering students the possibility to study/work in another European university/company, obtaining academic recognition (as a part of the home university's study plan), or without academic recognition (in cases of extracurricular placements or placements for recent graduates)
The Erasmus + Programme mobility can happen within the following frameworks:
Erasmus Study Period – a period of studies in another European partner university;
Erasmus Placement – a placement in a corporate environment or in a Higher Education Institution/Research Center (only if there is no interinstitutional agreement at the level of Studies).
Students can benefit from both frameworks in the same academic year, as long as there is at least one day of separation between them. These are complementary opportunities for international mobility.
COMMON INFORMATION TO ERASMUS STUDIES AND PLACEMENTS
Exchange duration:
Your mobility period may last from two to twelve months. If you have had a mobility period before, you should be aware that the sum of the durations of those mobilities can never exceed 12 months per study cycle.
Enrolment and Fees:
Enrolment is carried out at the University of Minho according to the usual procedure.
Erasmus students do not pay tuition or enrolment fees to the host institution. However, exchange students continue to pay tuition fees to their home institution, in your case, University of Minho. Some fees may be charged such as school insurance, students' union membership fee, use of copiers and laboratory products, etc.
Erasmus Mobility Scholarship:
The value of the scholarships is determined annually. As an indication, you may refer to the table with the values of Erasmus Mobility Scholarships from the last academic year.
Being an Erasmus student does not necessarily imply receiving an Erasmus Grant. All students selected for an exchange become automatically eligible to receive an Erasmus Scholarship for study purposes. However, the budget allocated to the University of Minho may not be sufficient for all candidates.
All students that benefit from a grant from the Social Services are automatically entitled to receive a Supplementary Erasmus Scholarship, which can vary between € 100 and € 150 per month, depending on the value of the annual base scholarship awarded to the student. The amount to be allocated is included in payment of the Social Services Scholarship during the period of mobility.
Additional funding could be provided if your health, physical or mental status, do not allow the mobility to be carried out without this support. If you find yourself in this situation, you should report it to the International Relations Office (USAI) in order to be provided with further information about application procedures and mandatory documents to be presented.
1. ERASMUS STUDIES
Application:
Applications are made online at: Academic Portal > Electronic Desk > Mobility application (https://alunos.uminho.pt/EN/private/electronicdesk/Pages/Candidaturas-OUT.aspx).
If you wish to undertake a period of mobility in the first year of the doctorate, this will have to take place in the second semester. Application deadlines are the same for all students, so you will have to apply before being admitted to the respective course. In this case your application will be considered provisional and the mobility will be conditioned on admission to the doctorate.
Deadline: Information available at https://alunos.uminho.pt/EN/students/mobilityprograms/Pages/EstudosErasmus.aspx
Partner Universities: Information available at https://alunos.uminho.pt/PT/estudantes/programasmobilidade/Paginas/Parceiras.aspx
2. ERASMUS PLACEMENT
Types of traineeships:
- Curricular traineeship: traineeship recognized academically within the scope of the students' course, which are integrated in the work developed for the corresponding course unit (Internship / Project / Thesis);
- Extracurricular traineeship: traineeship carried out without academic recognition while you are a student at the University of Minho;
- Traineeship for recent graduates: traineeship without academic recognition that must be completed within one year after the end of your course at UMinho. The application for these traineeships must be made while still enrolled at the University of Minho.
Application:
Before formalizing the application, you should fill in the pre-application form available at http://goo.gl/forms/KvZZsOHU9W (Portuguese) or http://goo.gl/forms/9IbFniXwAF (English).
If you wish to undertake a mobility period in the first year of the doctorate, this will have to take place in the second semester. Application deadlines are the same for all students, so you will have to apply before being admitted to the respective course. In this case your application will be considered provisional and the mobility will be conditioned on admission to the doctorate.
Application deadline:
The complete application must be submitted to the International Relations Office (USAI) at least three months in advance of the internship starting date. The granting of the scholarship will depend on the availability of funding, so the sooner you formalize the application, the greater the likelihood of funding.
Countries/ Host Institutions:
You can apply for any of the 27 countries of the European Union (excluding Portugal), Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Macedonia and Turkey. The host institution may be a company or a Higher Education Institution (with no signed agreement for studies) or in a Research Center in one of those countries, provided that it is recognized and approved by its Academic Coordinator. From the UMinho's side, there is no need to sign any type of agreement or protocol to carry out the mobility.
The following types of organizations are not eligible as host organizations:
a) European institutions (including European agencies);
b) Management Organizations for European Programme.
Traineeship location:
You can choose from the following options:
- To make contacts directly with companies of your interest;
- To consult websites that have internship offers and send your application to those that may be of your interest:
- EURES: http://ec.europa.eu/
- Leo-Net: http://www.leo-net.org > Job Offer exchange
- Praxis: http://www.praxisnetwork.eu
- Europlacement: http://www.europlacement.com
- Expertise in Labour Mobility (ELM): http://www.labourmobility.com
- iAgora: http://www.iagora.com
- Interntown: http://www.interntown.com
- Placements UK: http://www.placement-uk.com
- ERASMUSINTERN: http://erasmusintern.org
- Placement Slovakia: http://www.placementslovakia.com
- To contact some lecturers/ course directors in order to obtain guidance on this and information on any international internship which they have;
- Search for the hashtag #EstagiosErasmusUMinho on Facebook to access the offers published on the official page of USAI in the social network. Alternatively, you can directly contact the USAI or the Internationalization Office of EEUM to consult the available information about internship offers.
NOTE: The information provided in this document does not exempt from consulting the information provided at https://alunos.uminho.pt/EN/students/mobilityprograms/Pages/default.aspx
In case of doubts or if you wish to obtain additional information, please contact the IRO (outgoing@usai.uminho.pt), responsible for implementing the Erasmus + program at UMinho.
