Erasmus exchange for teachers

Do you want to develop in your role as a teacher and gain international experience? The Erasmus programme offers the opportunity to apply for funding to travel to a higher education institution abroad to teach and learn from another teaching cultures.

 

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Teachers can also apply for staff mobility through the Erasmus programme.

Application process

Contact the university, company or organisation you want to visit and make arrangements for the trip by yourself. 

You can submit your application at any time during the year, we process them all year round with the exception of:

  • 1 July – 10 August.
  • 15 December – 10 January.

Submit your application

  1. Read and follow the instructions on how to apply for teacher exchange via Solemove.
  2. The application must reach the International Office no later than one month before your planned staff exchange. The application needs to be complete with all the attachments uploaded well in advance of your exchange.

Selection process

The funds that Umeå University receives from the Erasmus programme are limited. Therefore all applications will go through a selection process. The selection is based on your work plan. 

Exchanges that lead to new teaching materials, stronger contacts between Umeå University and the partner university or that prepare for future collaborative projects are prioritized when the International Office makes a selection of the scholarship payments.

Application conditions


These conditions apply in order to apply for teacher mobility through the Erasmus programme:

  • Your manager must approve your mobility period.
  • The duration of the mobility shall be a minimum of two working days and a maximum of two months.
  • Mobility must be carried out in one place over a continuous period.
  • You are employed at Umeå University
  • Teacher exchange must include at least eight teaching hours per week.
  • There is an agreement between the department where you are employed and the receiving university.
  • You attach a continuing education program, Work Plan, to your application. It can, for example, contain a schedule that describes the exchange, as well as justification to why this is relevant to your work. You are welcome to include information about how you will spread your future gained experiences or knowledge when you return.
  • The exchange takes place within the framework of your employment.

Where to go

The countries participating in the Erasmus programme are:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Turkey. 

Exchange agreements

An Erasmus exchange agreement is required to go on a teacher exchange. Your can go on an exchange through you departments own agreements or another department's agreements.  If you want to go on an exchange through another department's agreement, contact that department to get consent. 

Our Erasmus agreements can be found in the the exchange agreement database Solemove. Some of the agreements only apply to student exchange. If you want to go on a an exchange through a student exchange agreement, please contact the international contact person at your department. They can send a request to the partner university to ask if the exchange also can include teacher exchange.

Teaching exchange as a pedagogical merit

A teacher exchange can be a significant pedagogical merit from an international context. Feel free to bring any specific questions that you would like to investigate or learn more about during the exchange. If these are documented in an extended teacher report, this can be included in your pedagogical portfolio.

What counts as teaching

All types of teaching aimed at students counts as teaching. For example:

  • lectures
  • seminars
  • individual supervision
  • examinations
  • parts that are an integrated part of a study programme at the host institution.

Book your travel

We recommend that you use the university's travel agency when going on an exchange.
Read more about how to book business travel through the university's travel agency

After your exchange

To be able to complete your exchange application and calculate the compensation, you need to fill in a travel report (which will be sent to you electronically) and upload the following documents in Solemove:

  • a copy of the travel expense report from PASS (uploaded in Solemove)
  • a signed certificate (Certificate of Attendance) from the foreign higher education institution/organization stating that you have visited them and during which period.

Instructions for how to complete your exchange in Solemove kan be found here:

Application for Erasmus teacher

How the scholarship payment works

The scholarship is paid to your department. They will receive it after you have uploaded the requested attachments in Solemove according to the section above.

The scholarship is paid out as a lump sum that will help cover some of the expenses you have in connection with your teacher exchange, such as travel costs and increased living costs. The scholarship does not cover all additional expenses.

The length of stay, physical distance, and which country you have visited determine how large the scholarship will be.

Other international opportunities

STINT Teaching Sabbatical

Nordplus for teachers

Contact

International Office
erasmus.staff@umu.se

Experiences from teacher exchange

Carla Collevecchio från Umeå School of Architecture and Thomas Mejtoft from the Department of Applied Physics and Electronics, talks about their experiences from going on a teacher exchange.

Petra Käck
9/14/2023