The Erasmus+ Application: Through Your Own University

Where does the application go?

Erasmus+ student mobility runs on the Erasmus budgets and bilateral agreements held by the universities themselves — so the application goes to your own university’s International Relations / Erasmus office. That office opens a call each year, publishes the partnered universities and announces the quotas. Which Italian universities are open to you is limited to your department’s agreements — the first job, then, is learning your department’s Italian agreements.

Step 1 — Follow the call and apply

Your university’s Erasmus call generally opens at the academic year’s start or middle, for the following year’s mobility. The application takes your grade average and your foreign-language score; selection combines the two in set proportions. You apply ranking your preferences (the Italian universities you want) — and a high average with a good language score is your best odds of landing your preferred school.

Step 2 — Selection and placement

Applications assessed, a ranking is made and students placed against the quotas — your school following your preferences and your rank. Placement done, the “nomination” goes to your Italian university and you complete that university’s own application/registration process; at this stage the Italian side wants a few documents and an online registration of its own.

Step 3 — The Learning Agreement

At Erasmus’s heart sits the Learning Agreement — the document fixing in advance which of your own programme’s courses the Italian ones will count for, approved by the three parties (you, your university, the Italian one). The equivalences built right from the start are the return without credit lost. The agreement generally runs in English, so no translation — but match the course contents with care. The document in full is on our Learning Agreement page.

Step 4 — Documents, residence and departure

Erasmus’s document load runs light beside the full programmes: the Learning Agreement and the grant contract in English. But stays past 90 days can bring Italian residence work (the permesso di soggiorno), and at that stage documents like the civil registry extract can need translating; the host university can want a transcript translation besides. A document needing translation, upload it and take the price the same day. For non-EU students the visa and residence rules apply — plan them early.

Step 5 — The return and the recognition

Mobility done, the Italian university’s Transcript of Records passes to your own, and the courses are recognised against the Learning Agreement — Erasmus’s most important output: the Italian term counted towards your degree, nothing lost. To keep it that way, any in-term change to the Learning Agreement (a course closed, changed) gets updated and approved on time.

The checklist

• Your department’s Italian Erasmus agreements learned
• The Erasmus call applied to (grades + language score)
• Placement and nomination completed
• The Learning Agreement prepared and approved
• The visa/residence and any translations planned
• The transcript and the recognition followed on return

The language condition and the certificate

In the Erasmus application, language is part of the selection score and of the host’s conditions both. Your own university counts your foreign-language score (generally English) into the ranking; your Italian university can require a level matched to your courses’ language — B1–B2 English for English-taught courses, the relevant Italian level for Italian-taught ones. Some schools want an official certificate, some accept your own university’s attestation. Learn the host’s language condition before the nomination — a certificate missing can hold the placement up.

Finding the housing

Housing is where Erasmus students struggle most. Many Italian universities give exchange students priority for halls or partnered housing — ask the host’s international office early; the ESN communities and the student groups share dependable listings besides. Try those channels before the expensive listing sites. In the big cities (Milan, Rome) the competition runs high and early movement is essential; the smaller cities breathe easier. And keep the starting budget for the deposit and the first rent.

Common mistakes

• Aiming at a school your department holds no agreement with
• Building the Learning Agreement’s equivalences weakly
• Leaving the language certificate to the last moment
• Hunting the housing late (in the big cities above all)
• Not getting the in-term course changes approved

Not missing the Erasmus calendar

The Erasmus calls open long before the mobility — generally the application runs the year before the mobility year. That early calendar is the most-missed point: students decide on Italy only to find the application period long closed. Follow your university’s Erasmus office’s announcements through the year, and stand ready when the call opens; the grade average and the language certificate prepared in advance are the application made without a scramble. Erasmus rewards the student who plans early.

The opportunities after

The mobility over, the experience isn’t. The academic connections built in Italy become the references and the ideas behind a later master’s, a MAECI application or a doctorate; many students return to full-time Italian study through a professor or a programme met on Erasmus. The experience is strong proof of international adaptability and language besides. Treat Erasmus, then, not as an end but as the start of the Italian relationship — and the term returns its most.

Frequently asked questions