Problems Of The Erasmus Programme And Their Solutions

The Erasmus Programme is an educational programme oriented towards cooperation at the higher education level within the scope of Lifelong Learning Programme (LLP). Among its goals are notable issues such as exchanging students and faculty members between the higher education institutions of European Union countries and candidate countries, increasing the quality of higher education, and cultivating tolerance towards different cultures while nurturing intercultural interaction. Our university has been participating in this programme since the year 2002 and conducts mutual student and faculty member exchanges with the European universities with which an agreement is signed. The purpose of our study is to determine the problems encountered by students who went to France within the framework of the Erasmus programme, before they departed, during their education abroad and after they returned, and provide solutions to these problems. Our study was conducted with a total of 40 students in the Department of French Language Teaching of Atatürk Faculty of Education at Marmara University who went to France as part of the Erasmus Programme. In our study, a qualitative research design was used, and a questionnaire with open-ended questions prepared for the students was administered. The research data were gathered through the interview form between the academic years of 2008 and 2012, and the collected data were analyzed through the coding method. Data obtained through the framework of qualitative research were categorized and analyzed. It was determined that the most important problem encountered before going abroad is the late arrival of documents from the universities abroad, the most important problem encountered during their education abroad is the lack of sufficient foreign language competence, and the most prominent problem after their return is the matching of courses. Linguistic and personal growth was observed in all students as the most useful gain of this programme. As a result of our study, despite existent problems, it is thought that student exchanges within the framework of the Erasmus programme are highly beneficial in terms of linguistic and personal development and that such educational programmes should be supported.

Keywords

Erasmus programme, students of the Department of French Language Teaching, problems, solutions