BRUSSELS
The number of Turkish students in Erasmus, European Union's flagship educational exchange programme, has reached 10,000.
Turkish students mostly preferred Germany and Poland.
During the 2010-2011 academic year, 10,095 Turkish students have benefited from Erasmus programme. Out of the total amount 1,786 preferred Germany while 1,511 chose Poland to study.
Italy, Spain, Holland, France, the Czech Republic and England were the other countries that Turkish students mostly preferred.
On the other hand, during the same academic year, 4,288 European students, mostly from Germany, Poland and France, decided to study in Turkey as part of the Erasmus programme.
In total 231,410 students gained benefits of the programme last year in 27 EU countries, as well as Turkey, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Croatia and Liechtenstein.
With the latest figures, Turkey is the seventh country that sent most students to Erasmus.
Erasmus is the European Union's flagship educational exchange programme for Higher Education students, teachers, and institutions. It was introduced with the aim of increasing student mobility within Europe. Erasmus forms part of the EU Lifelong Learning Programme (2007-2013)
It encourages student and staff mobility for work and study, and promotes trans-national co-operation projects among universities across Europe. The scheme currently involves nine out of every ten European higher education establishments and supports co-operation between the universities of 33 countries. It gives many European university students their first chance to live and thrive abroad. Over two and a half million students have benefited from Erasmus since its introduction in 1987.
