{Last Update: 24.12.2025}

What is international credit mobility and how can I apply?

International Credit Mobility (ICM) supports the mobility of individuals enrolled or working in a higher education institution (HEI) from a program country to a partner country or vice versa, namely:

• Mobility of students for study
• Mobility of students for internships
• Staff mobility for teaching
• Staff mobility for trainings

Who can apply?

A higher education institution from any program country that has an Erasmus Charter for Higher Education (ECHE) is eligible to apply for ICM funding to its National Agency (NA) either individually or by consortium application.

Erasmus+ partner countries eligible for international credit mobility

Eastern Neighborhood Region – the territory of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine as recognized by international law.

Authority of partner organizations

Only higher education institutions from program countries can apply for ICM and receive funding. Higher education institutions from all over the world can participate in ICM as partners, except for institutions located in regions 13 and 14.

Roles and Responsibilities

Organizations participating in the mobility project assume the following roles and responsibilities:

• The applicant organisation (always a higher education institution in a Programme Country) submits the application to its National Agency on behalf of the partner(s). The applicant may also apply on behalf of a consortium of several partners from one Programme Country. Once selected, the beneficiary organisation (always a higher education institution in a Programme Country) signs and manages the grant agreement and submits the accounts at the end of the project. The beneficiary is financially responsible for the entire grant.
• The sending organization (from the program or partner country) is responsible for selecting and sending students and staff abroad. This includes preparation, monitoring and recognition.
• A host organization (from a program or partner country) hosts students and staff from abroad and provides support during their stay.

Students and staff apply directly for the grant at the institution where they are enrolled.

The selection criteria for participation in mobility activities are determined by the higher education institutions involved in the project. These procedures are flexible and institutions can choose what best suits their needs, for example institutions can establish joint selection procedures. Selection criteria and procedures should be fair and transparent.

KA131 International Mobility

From the start of the 2021-2027 program period, an international dimension has been added to the classic Erasmus (Intra-European or KA131) scheme, although HEIs from partner countries can only host students/staff from program countries. In many cases, HEIs from partner countries also collaborate in the ICM/KA171 project, which allows them to send, not just receive, students and staff. The KA131 international mobility budget is 20% of the final project grant and should involve several international partners in a geographically diverse area. No additional institutional agreement is required if there is already one KA131 or KA171 for the mobility event. Details of the KA131 rules can be found in the Higher Education Mobility KA131 Guide.

deadlines

The selection of projects for the ICM is based on annual deadlines published by the European Commission and published on the Erasmus+ website before the start date of the projects in the autumn of the previous year. The application and selection process is managed by each country's national agency. This is the NA in the country where the applicant organization (or consortium coordinator) is based. Applicants must submit a grant application to their NA for projects starting on August 1 of the same year by the deadline specified in the call for proposals published on the Erasmus+ website. ICM projects can last for 24 or 36 months, and the duration is chosen by the applicant at the application stage. The start and end dates of all mobility activities must correspond to the start and end dates of the project.

Inclusivity and diversity

The Erasmus+ program aims to promote equality and inclusion by facilitating access for participants with fewer opportunities than their peers. To achieve this goal of international credit mobility, it is essential that partners consider inclusion and diversity from the start of the project.

Listed below are examples of barriers to participation in the Inclusion and Diversity section:

• Limited opportunities
• health problems
• Barriers related to education and training systems
• cultural differences
• social barriers
• economic barriers
• Barriers related to discrimination
• Geographical barriers

Application process

The HEI of the program country will complete the application form on behalf of its partners and submit the form to its national agency.

Finding a partner

In order to find a partner, we recommend checking existing or past cooperation agreements that your institution may have, both at the institutional level (usually through the Office of International Relations) and at the faculty level.

Organization ID (OID)

OIDs replace existing Participation Identification Codes (PICs) for decentralized events such as ICM (PICs will remain in effect for centralized events). The OID is an 8-digit unique identifier preceded by the letter E. The OID is required for applicants, as well as for all organizations involved in the ICM application, including non-academic organizations (for internships or staff mobility).

All organizations that already had a PIC during the previous program period (before the 2020 call) automatically received a new OID, which can be consulted on the organization registration website, where the PIC or other contact information of the organization is provided. Direct registration of new OIDs is also possible through this tool.

Partner country organizations to be involved in the ICM project application must also have an OID at the application stage. Otherwise, partners without OID (especially for non-academic internships/training) may be added later during implementation if they are active in the project country.

Please check carefully whether your institution or your partner has an OID before registering a new one.

Grant award decision

The national agencies inform the institutes about the final grant award decision. Successful applicants will be invited to sign a beneficiary grant agreement with their NA.

If you have not yet signed an institutional agreement with each of your partners, you should do so at this stage and in any case before starting the first mobility. You will find more information in the next section.

Before carrying out any mobile activity, your institution must sign an institutional agreement with the partner institution(s) involved in the project. It is necessary that the partners consider the content of the agreement from the moment of starting the preparation of the application. This agreement must be signed after your project is selected for funding and no later than before the first mobility starts. Inter-agency agreements should be available during the monitoring visits of the national agencies by the beneficiary USD.

Please use the template from the Erasmus+ website.

Only the central body of the institution can officially refer to the ICM and sign the application and documents related to the grant agreement of the beneficiary, not individual faculties or departments. This legal representative is usually the rector of this institution.

The signature of official documents may be delegated to another representative (such as the dean of the faculty) in exceptional cases and provided that the signature of duly delegated deans also binds other services of the institution, such as the reception office, the international office, etc.

Unlike partner HEIs, non-academic partners do not sign an institutional agreement. The rules and obligations of all parties should be detailed in the training contract or mobility contract

When applying for ICM funding for an internship, you may already have identified the status of the host organization for students and graduates. It is also possible for students and graduates to find employment themselves if approved by the participating HEIs. Erasmusintern.org, developed by the Erasmus Student Network (ESN), can help them find an Erasmus+ internship.

After completing the internship, the sending institution must recognize the internship in accordance with the arrangements agreed in the study agreement, if it is carried out within the scope of the study course (it is considered as a student degree). If necessary, the sending institution must provide a training certificate or record the results in a database (or other means) that will be available to the student, usually within five weeks of receiving the training certificate, without pre-agreed requirements. Recognition by the sending institution does not apply if the internship is undertaken on a voluntary basis (not mandatory for degrees/graduates), but the receiving institution must provide appropriate documentation.

Mobility arrangements

A mobility agreement for staff members specifies the training or education program to be followed and includes the rights and obligations of each party.

selection procedure

Usually, the sending HEI selects the participants and nominates them to be accepted or rejected by the receiving institution. Some institutions may establish joint procedures, such as joint selection committees, to ensure consistent selection of participants. The selection procedure must be fair, transparent and well documented, as they will be checked during monitoring visits by national agencies. The call for applications and the selection criteria (for example, the candidate's academic performance, motivation, relevant experience, etc.) should be made public. Sending and receiving institutions should have a common interest in the selection of participants and should define key deadlines and staff responsible for the nomination of students and staff. No charges shall be imposed on candidates for organizational or administrative matters. However, small charges may apply for things like insurance, student connections and the use of miscellaneous materials.

Any reported/complained cases will be carefully investigated by the European Commission and the relevant national agency and may lead to the suspension or termination of the ECHE (and therefore the suspension of the grant agreement). If this occurs in a partner HEI, the beneficiary HEI may terminate their partnership and seek alternative partner HEIs in the same country.

Participant support

Support should be provided by both sending and receiving institutions - before mobility (visa, residence permit, accommodation, language and cultural training, etc.), during mobility (institutional training, buddy systems with fellow students and graduates, etc.) and after mobility (recognition, transfer of records, etc.).

Visa

Participants in Erasmus+ projects may need to obtain a visa to stay abroad in the country hosting the mobility. Participating organizations are responsible for ensuring that all necessary authorizations (short or long-term visas or residence permits) are in order prior to the planned activity. They should be requested in time, as the process can take several weeks or even months. The EU immigration portal contains general information on visas and residence permits for both short and long stays (over 90 days). NAs can too

Provide advice and support on visas, residence permits, social security, etc.

The HEIs should provide assistance, if necessary, in securing visas for incoming and outgoing participants.

Information and documentation should be available on their website. Where possible, the higher education institution should provide a contact person who can assist with visa-related matters, a description of the services offered and the support that can be provided.

In cases where there are difficulties in obtaining a visa (for example, when diplomatic missions are not located in the countries of residence or if postal applications are not accepted), the institutions should try to provide assistance in contacting diplomatic representatives. The European Commission encourages institutions to use the OS grant to reimburse participants' visa costs where possible. However, participants are generally responsible for their own visa application.

Payment of the grant to the participant

The beneficiary USD will be responsible for signing the grant agreement with the participant and, unless otherwise specified in the institutional agreement, they will make all grant payments for both incoming and outgoing mobility. Grant agreements leave flexibility to institutions in determining the most appropriate grant payment calendar. It is important to make sure that students are aware of the projected calendar and the requirements they must meet to receive payments.

The following measures are considered best practices to reduce the costs that students must cover upfront:

Provision of travel or pre-funding of a student grant.

In terms of accommodation, when the student is to be accommodated in a dormitory, using the student grant to pay the deposit.

Grants should be issued to students as soon as possible after arrival, and the university should offer the student alternative payment methods if necessary.

credit recognition

Mobility periods must be recognized by both HEIs as specified in the inter-institutional agreement and study agreement. The receiving institution shall provide the sending institution with the student's transcript of grades (or equivalent document) within a reasonable time (to be determined between the two institutions) after the student's results have been announced at the receiving institution. The beneficiary is responsible for entering the recognized credits or equivalent units in the beneficiary module.

Upon successful completion of a set of educational components included in the study agreement, as evidenced by a transcript sent by the receiving institution and available to the student, the sending institution must fully recognize the agreed number of credits. He must then transfer them to the student's program and use them to meet the qualification requirements. The sending institution must clearly define how the educational components received abroad are integrated into the home educational program (points will be converted if necessary). Institutional procedures for evaluating educational components should be defined if students do not successfully complete them at the receiving institution. Such procedures must be communicated to students prior to mobility.

Another important document used in the European higher education space is the diploma supplement. This document is designed to provide graduates with a transparent record of their achievements. Therefore, educational components successfully completed abroad will be attached to the diploma supplement with their original titles (and their translation in the language in which the diploma supplement is issued), indicating the institution where they were transferred and the credits and points awarded.

Experience has shown that these good practices help manage credit mobility and recognition. Specific institutional rules should be developed regarding the recognition of other learning experiences to enable the accumulation and transfer of credits through different types of mobility, work experience, virtual learning, prior and non-formal learning.