The European University Alliance (EUA) has drafted its wish list for improvements to Erasmus+, as a three-month consultation on the EU education programme draws to a close.
In its feedback, the alliance of more than 800 universities and national rectors’ conferences urges the European Commission to simplify the programme and fix IT issues that have been plaguing it.
Michael Gaebel, director at the EUA, says the change that could make the most difference in the administration of the programme is a revamp of its IT system. “It creates a lot of double work, confusion and delays,” he says. “That’s the feedback that we get from the vast majority of the institutions.”
Some of the issues are a mere annoyance, such as a national agency inputting data to the platform one day and the next day not being able to recover it. But for years these hiccups have been costing participants and administrators in member states delays, extra hours, money and frustration.