The Commission presented a report on the mid-term evaluation of the Erasmus + programme (2014-2020), which draws on the national reports submitted by the programme countries, an evaluation report drawn up by an external independent contractor and over a million responses from all interested parties.
Erasmus+ is well on track to achieve its performance indicators, as set in the legal basis, with notably over less than three years, 1.8 million individuals taking part in mobility activities, and more than 240 000 organisations involved in cooperation projects.
Considering the baseline of the evaluation, between 2007 and 2016, the programmes under review funded learning mobility for more than 4.3 million young people and more than 880 000 practitioners. In addition, many more people benefited from cooperation projects involving 940 000 participating organisations.
Effectiveness: the evaluation found that Erasmus+ is highly valued by its stakeholders as well as the general public, which identifies the programme as the third most positive results of the EU:
- for learners (students, apprentices, volunteers, young people, etc.), the evaluated programmes had, and continue to have, a positive effect on the acquisition of skills and competences, thereby increasing employability and entrepreneurship and shortening the transition from education to employment (13% higher, compared to individuals who did not take part in Erasmus+ or its predecessor programmes);
- for practitioners (teachers, trainers, youth workers, staff, etc.), participation translates into professional development — notably in terms of wider networking options (+22 percentage points) and greater use of digital resources (+5 points) — coupled with stronger attachment to Europe (+6 points).
The evaluation also confirmed that the programmes reviewed had an impact on the formulation and implementation of education, training, youth and sport policies, especially in the case of higher education where the relevant budget was large enough, or had an indirect effect by funding policy cooperation between authorities.
In the long run, the programmes have instilled in Europe the perception that learning mobility brings benefits to individuals and that its learning outcomes are to be commonly validated and recognised.
The Commission intends to:
- step up its efforts to make Erasmus+ more accessible to individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds or with special needs. It will take steps to facilitate the participation of schools and other small-scale actors in the programme;
- consider additional ways of fostering system-level effects and to mainstream successful project results at national level more effectively;
- explore options for developing and financing at larger scale (notably with the support of the European Structural and Investment Funds) those successful Erasmus+ projects;
- set out a vision for boosting the future Erasmus+ in all categories of learners (including pupils, students, trainees and apprentices) and teachers, with the aim of doubling the number of participants and reaching out to learners from disadvantaged backgrounds by 2025.
EU added value and relevance: in light of the outcomes delivered, the evaluation highlights the undisputable European added value of the programmes evaluated. The evaluation showed that Erasmus+ is better aligned with EU policies than its predecessors.
The future programme should continue to help implement the EU’s political priorities, while keeping the flexibility to adjust as needed and being highly relevant to participating countries. Some actions, notably those supporting partnerships, could be focused on fewer priorities.
The Commission is considering, inter alia:
- redesign Jean Monnet activities to cater for a wider target group (including schools) in order to raise awareness on its common European values;
- consider how to increase the focus of EU support for transnational activities in the adult learning sector;
- increase the focus of some sport actions, with particular emphasis on social inclusion aspects.
Efficiency and simplification: Erasmus+ mobility actions are clearly cost-effective, especially learners' mobility (with a cost for the EU of 15€ per day/learner).
A key challenge will be to improve the efficiency of decentralised actions with partner countries.
The future programme should further consolidate current efficiency gains, especially reducing the administrative burden by simplifying application and reporting procedures, making IT tools more interoperable and user-friendly, and increasing budget flexibility, while preserving accountability.