Mobility Grants 2013-2014

				Erasmus	Mercator	FAME

The information below is intended for students selected by their faculty for: either a study period in a higher education institution (Study mobility), or an internship in a higher education institution or in any other organisation (Internship mobility). Depending on the host country, these two types of mobility projects may be supported by: the European Union’s Erasmus programme, which finances mobility to member countries, as well as to some other participating countries (Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Turkey and Croatia); the Mercator programme of UCL’s Conseil des relations internationales, which finances mainly mobility outside of Europe.       Both programmes are co-financed by the French Community of Belgium, in particular via the Fonds d'aide à la mobilité étudiante (FAME). This document is not intended for students who want to go to Flanders under a mobility project; those students are financed via the Prince Philippe Foundation’s Erasmus Belgica programme.

1. Eligibility criteria
2. Amount of the grant
3. Special cases
4. Administrative formalities
5. Payment
    

1. Eligibility criteria

For a student to qualify for mobility financing, the following conditions must be met:

• students applying for a grant must be duly registered with UCL in the year and programme which prescribe the study or internship period;
• a study period must be carried out in one of the countries specified in the directory of partnerships under the Erasmus or Mercator programme;
• an internship may be carried out in any company or organisation engaged in economic activity in the public or private sector, whatever their size, legal status or the economic sector in which they operate, or their types of economic activities, including the social economy; more specifically for Erasmus destinations, this programme only provides financing if the host organisation provides a linguistic and cultural environment which is different from that of the student’s country of origin; the following organisations are explicitly excluded as host organisations and are therefore not eligible for a mobility grant:
  European institutions;
  institutions which manage European Union programmes;
  diplomatic representation of the student’s country of origin in the host country.
• students must be exempted from the payment of registration fees at the host institution;
• the study or internship period must be for an uninterrupted period of not less than three months (91 days);
• training activities during the mobility period must be part of the UCL study programme and must have full academic recognition; credits will be transferred or granted in accordance with ECTS standards, which implies in particular the signing of a valid Learning Agreement or a signed Internship Agreement prior to the student’s departure;
• the student’s departure may not be called into question for academic reasons; in this regard, the selection criteria must include as a prerequisite that the student has successfully passed his or her June 2013 examinations (or exceptionally, a very strong presumption that he or she will successfully pass the examinations organised in September).

2. Amount of the grant

Grants are intended to finance additional mobility costs, that is to say, travel, linguistic preparation expenses and possibly part of the student’s living expenses. As a general rule, they are therefore not intended to cover all mobility related expenses.

The amount of the grant is composed of a maximum of three allowances:

• a travel allowance (a lump-sum amount depending on the distance) which will be paid to all students selected by their faculty; students do not need to complete any specific formalities to receive this allowance;
• a linguistic preparation allowance (a lump-sum amount between 75 and 125 Euros) which will be automatically paid to all students whose mobility period is spent with a non-French-speaking institution;
• a subsistence allowance which will be calculated and allocated according to the student’s social situation; to receive this allowance, students must submit an application to the Service d'aide (Rue des Wallons 10, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve) which will classify applications in six categories. The basic amounts of each category will be determined after receipt of all applications. Students whose application is approved will receive a subsistence allowance, the amount of which will in all likelihood vary between 200 and 1 800 Euros per semester. For Erasmus destinations, this amount will be indexed according to the host country on the basis of a cost of living index provided by the European Commission.

Important: Although the amount of the subsistence allowance varies according to the applicant’s social situation, this allowance cannot be considered as social assistance, as the ceiling above which no assistance is provided is considerably higher than that which applies in the case of traditional social benefits. However, above a certain level of income (by way of example: total taxable income of approximately 93 000 € for a family with two children), students will receive only the lump-sum amounts for travel and/or linguistic preparation expenses.

3. Special cases: concurrent mobility grants and financing of a second mobility project

     a. Concurrent mobility grants

All mobility financing obtained from other funding organisations must be declared. Any public funds received (e.g. AWEX) will be deducted from the Erasmus or Mercator mobility grant. If the mobility financing is  combined with a grant from private funds, only part of the amount will in principle be deducted, since part of the private funding is exempted.

     b. Financing of several mobility projects

Within the strict framework of the Erasmus programme, students may not receive more than two grants, one for a Study mobility period and the other for an Internship mobility period. In addition to these two Erasmus financings, students may receive an Erasmus Belgica grant and/or a mobility grant, fully or partially provided by the Student Mobility Aid Fund (FAME).

At UCL, to support the internationalisation of masters degrees, the Administration des relations internationales has adopted the principle of guaranteeing one mobility financing by academic cycle, at the levels of the 1st and 2nd cycles. Therefore, provided that they have been selected by their faculty, masters students are certain to obtain a mobility grant, even if they have already received financing during their undergraduate studies (1st cycle). If, pursuant to the rules of the financing organisation, the second grant can no longer be disbursed under the Erasmus programme or the Student Mobility Aid Fund, it will be covered by the UCL-Mercator programme.

As regards successive mobility periods within the same academic cycle, the financing possibilities will continue to be those authorised by funding organisations, as summarised above.

4. Administrative formalities

Various formalities must be completed by those responsible for organising the exchanges and by students:

• those responsible for organising the exchanges must validate in the IT application by Wednesday 15 May 2013 at the latest the names of the students pre-selected for a mobility project;
• by letter sent at the beginning of June to the student’s home address, the Administration des relations internationales (ADRI) will inform students about the procedure for applying for a grant and in particular the formalities to be completed in order to obtain a subsistence allowance; a subsistence allowance application form will be enclosed with the letter; a copy of the letter will be sent to the student’s email address @uclouvain.be
• students who want to receive a subsistence allowance must submit their application to the UCL Service d’aide, by Friday, 5 July 2013 at the latest;
• those responsible for organising the exchanges will confirm, via the IT application, by Friday, 5 July 2013 at the latest, the names of the students selected on the basis of the results of the June 2013 examinations.

Moreover, all students,

• having previously benefited from a mobility grant or
• benefiting (or eligible to benefit) from another mobility subsidy,

must report this information to the Administration des relations internationales, using the electronic form accessible on www.uclouvain.be/278417, in order to ensure that the amount of the mobility grant is correctly calculated and applied in accordance with the funding organisation’s rules.

Towards the end of July, students will be informed of the amount of the grant awarded to them and the formalities to be completed in order to receive payment. They will receive a grant agreement to be returned to the Administration of International Relations in the month prior to their departure.

5. The grant agreement, the Learning/Internship agreement and payment of the grant

By signing the grant agreement, students undertake to participate in the programme specified in the ECTS Learning Agreement (Study mobility) or in the Internship Agreement (Internship mobility). This document is annex I to the grant agreement and, as such, is an integral part thereof. In order to guarantee academic recognition, the learning agreement must be managed in accordance with ECTS standards, using an IT tool (mob-i), which students can access via the My Mobility tab on the virtual desktop.

Under the condition that all steps mentioned below are realised on due time, the payment of the grant will be made as follows: