If your Master in Management includes an exchange semester, the obvious next question is: how do I pay for a term abroad? For moves within Europe, the main answer is Erasmus+ — the EU’s mobility programme — usually topped up by your school’s own arrangements. Here’s how Erasmus+ and mobility grants actually work for a MiM, what they cover, and how they differ from a scholarship. (Amounts and eligibility are set by the programme and national agencies and change each cycle, so treat this as the framework and confirm the current figures with your university’s international office.)
What Erasmus+ is
Erasmus+ is the European Union’s programme for education, training, youth and sport. One of the things it funds is student mobility: spending part of your degree studying (or doing a traineeship) at a partner institution in another participating country. For a MiM, that maps directly onto the exchange semester many programmes offer — and an Erasmus+ grant can help fund it.
The key thing to internalise up front: an Erasmus+ grant is a contribution to your travel and daily living costs, not a full scholarship. It softens the extra cost of living abroad; it doesn’t pay your tuition or cover everything.
What the grant covers (and what it doesn’t)
A few facts worth getting straight, per the official Erasmus+ programme:
- It’s a living-cost contribution. The grant is toward travel and daily living costs for the mobility period. The amount varies with the destination’s cost of living, the distance you travel and the number of applicants.
- No second set of tuition fees. On an Erasmus+ exchange you’re generally exempt from tuition, registration, exam and library/lab fees at the host institution — you don’t pay the partner’s fees on top of your home tuition. (This is the same advantage we flag in the exchange-semester guide: you keep your normal arrangement with your home school.)
- You still cover the destination’s living costs beyond what the grant contributes. Budget for the destination’s cost of living, not your home city’s.
- Study periods are typically 2–12 months (with short blended options of 5–30 days), capped at 12 months per study cycle.
How long, and who can go
Erasmus+ mobility is open to students at participating institutions moving to another participating country. In practice, eligibility for your exchange flows through two gates: your home school participates in Erasmus+, and you’re selected for an exchange place (often allocated by grades or a selection process). The grant then attaches to that approved mobility.
How you actually apply
This trips people up: there is no central Erasmus+ application form, and you don’t apply to the EU directly. Erasmus+ student mobility is arranged through your home university’s international or Erasmus+ office, which holds the partnership agreements and administers the grants. The path is:
- Confirm your MiM offers an exchange and your school participates in Erasmus+.
- Get selected for an exchange place.
- Work with the international office on the paperwork — the learning agreement, the grant agreement, and any top-up applications.
Start early: exchange selection and the funding process both run well ahead of the term abroad.
Top-ups: extra support for some students
Beyond the standard grant, Erasmus+ provides additional support for certain students — for example those going on a traineeship, students with fewer opportunities, and students from the EU’s outermost regions. The exact extra amounts and eligibility are set by the programme and national agencies and change each cycle, so raise it with your international office if you think you might qualify.
Erasmus+ vs scholarships vs loans
Don’t confuse the funding types — they stack rather than substitute:
- Erasmus+ / mobility grant — a living-cost contribution for an exchange period abroad. Tied to the mobility, administered by your school.
- Scholarships — merit- or need-based awards toward your tuition or overall cost of the MiM itself. A different pot, applied for separately.
- Loans / personal funds — the rest of the gap.
A well-funded exchange usually combines an Erasmus+ grant with the school’s own mobility support and your own budget. And the cheaper your base programme, the less you need to raise overall — see low-cost and tuition-free MiMs in Europe.
A note on the UK
Since leaving the EU, the UK no longer participates in Erasmus+ in the same way; UK universities largely use the government’s Turing Scheme for outbound mobility funding instead. If you’re studying a MiM in the UK, or going on exchange to/from a UK school, check which scheme applies — confirm with the international office, as arrangements continue to evolve.
The bottom line
For a MiM exchange within Europe, Erasmus+ is the main funding route: a grant toward your travel and living costs, with no second tuition bill at the host, applied for through your home school’s international office rather than the EU directly. It’s a contribution, not a full ride — so combine it with any school mobility support, scholarships and your own budget, and budget for the destination’s cost of living. Amounts, eligibility and the UK’s separate Turing Scheme change each cycle, so confirm the current details with your international office. To plan the exchange itself, start with how the MiM exchange semester works, and map your application timeline on the deadline tracker.
Sources & how to confirm
The description of Erasmus+ here — that it is the EU’s programme for education, training, youth and sport; that its student-mobility grant is a contribution toward travel and daily living costs (varying by cost of living, distance and applicant numbers); that study periods run 2–12 months capped at 12 months per cycle; that there is no central application form and mobility is arranged through your home university’s international/Erasmus+ office; that students are exempt from tuition/registration/exam/library fees at the host institution; and that extra support exists for traineeships, students with fewer opportunities and outermost regions — is drawn from the official Erasmus+ programme pages (erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu), retrieved June 2026. Grant amounts, eligibility rules, national-agency procedures and the UK’s separate Turing Scheme are set by the programme and national agencies and change between cycles — no specific figure is asserted here; confirm the current details with your university’s international office and the official Erasmus+ site. Last checked June 2026.