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Information specifically for Outgoings 2025/26​

Dear ERASMUS participants 2025/26,

here you find specific information concerning the ERASMUS year 2025/26. All general information concerning outgoing ERASMUS procedure can be found at Information for outgoings. 

The selection of ERASMUS participans took place in the departments and institutes and the nomination lists of the program officers are sent to us in the GO by 01.04.2025. We process the applications and mark them as nominated or rejected. For ERASMUS 2025/26 a record number of 715 students were nominated, 100 more than in the previous year. Applicants who have been nominated can then download their participation certificate. In the next step, the scholarship amounts were calculated in early June. The confirmations of participation including the scholarship amount are now available for download.

ONLINE LEARNING AGREEMENT

Your study program for the exchange = Learning Agreement will be completed in the OLA = Online Learning Agreement process in 2025/26. Only in exceptional cases, in which the OLA-process does not work properly, you can fall back on the old Learning Agreement template, which will be made available for download in the workflow of your participant's account.. 

You find Leitfaden OLA (OLA Guidelines, Ger), FAQ OLA (Ger), Zeichnungsberechtigte im Fachbereich/Institut (staff in your department with OLA signature rights, Engl/Ger), Ansichtsexemplare OLA (Template) and old Learning Agreement (Template) as downloads on this page. Further information on OLA and old Learning Agreement process in the general information for outgoings.

Amount of the grant in 2025/26

Who receives an ERASMUS Mobility Grant?

All ERASMUS participants - except for ERASMUS zero grant students and students going to Switzerland - receive an ERASMUS mobility grant on top of the tuition waiver at the host institution.


What is the Amount of Funding?

The ERASMUS funding rates for the three country groups are set uniformly throughout Germany by the DAAD.  As the sending university, we are obliged to apply these specified rates unchanged. For 2024/25, adjustments were made for some countries, so that since then there has been higher funding for these than in previous years. In addition, the funding for country group 3 has been aligned with that of LG 2.

Country Group 1 - Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finnland, France, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, United Kingdom: 600€ per month (20.00€ per day), 2.300€ for max 115 days per semester and 4.600€ for max. 230 days for 2 semesters

Country Group 2 - Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Malta, Portugal, Slowakia, Slowenia, Spain, Cyprus: 600€ per month (18.00€ per day), 2.070€ for max 115 days per semester and 4.140€ for max. 230 days for 2 semesters

Country Group 3 - Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Macedonia (FYROM), Poland, Romania, Turkey: 540€ per month (18.00€ per day),  2.070€ for max 115 days per semester and 4.140€ for max. 230 days for 2 semesters


The basic funding is supplemented by a travel allowance dependent on the distance between Goethe University and host university.

Social top-ups are available for participants with fewer opportunities amounting to €250 per month (€8.33333333 per funding day, 958,33333333€ max. per Semester), as is additional funding for Green Travel, information on which can be found in the next section.


Please take note: The grant only covers the time period of your studies spent in person at the host institution/in the host country, and not virtual mobility from outside the host country or periods of online-classes not attended in the host country! 


How is the final total funding calculated at the end of the mobility?

We are obliged to record your period of study after the end of your mobility on a daily basis. For this purpose, we use the Confirmation of Period of Study to be uploaded by you, in which the host university confirms the start and end dates of the study period of your physical mobility. If the actual stay was longer than the expected 115 days for one semester and 230 days for two semesters, the additional days are so-called zero grant days and cannot be funded. If, on the other hand, it turns out that your study stay was less than the initially estimated funding duration of 115/230 days, we will have to recalculate the funding on a daily basis and reduce the final installment proportionately or, in the case of very short stays (less than 92 days for one semester or 184 days for two semesters), set it to zero and reclaim a partial amount of the first installment.

For those who spend a short semester or a single trimester at the host university, it will definitely be the case that the actual period is so short in retrospect that a partial repayment of the first installment will be necessary. As a general rule, the minimum ERASMUS funding period is 2 months or 60 days; shorter stays are not permitted and are therefore not eligible for funding.

To increase the qualitative impact of its actions and ensure equal opportunities, the ERASMUS program will reach out more and better to people of different ages and from diverse cultural, social and economic backgrounds. It is at the heart of the program to come closer to those with fewer opportunities, including people with disabilities and migrants, as well as European Union citizens living in remote areas or facing socio-economic difficulties.

Students with fewer opportunities receive a top-up amount to the individual support of their EU Erasmus+ grant with an amount of 250€ per month of funding. This additional financial support - a so-called Social top-up - can be received by certain target groups to cover additional expenses or needs. Below you find information on the different types of special funding depending on the target group.

The Social Top-ups can all be combined with the green travel top-up. However, the 250€ top-up can only be awarded once, even if several criteria apply to you. 

Application: In order to know about your status in this matter, for us at the Global Office it is sufficient that you fill in the querry in the workflow of your mobility online participant's account (ca. May. After you download the document Declaration of honour - Social Top-up, you sign it and upload it and we can work with that for the time being. But you also agree to - at a later point in time - provide supporting documentation upon request (depending on the additional funding, e.g. medical certificate, disability certificate, travel receipts, parents' declaration, salary slips or similar).

Students whose parents or caregivers do not have a degree from a university or university of applied sciences are considered first-time academics. €250 per month of funding are available in addition to the regular monthly Erasmus grant.

A degree from a university-like university of cooperative education is considered an academic degree. Likewise, courses of study completed abroad count as academic degrees, even if they are not recognized in Germany. A master craftsman's diploma is not considered an academic degree.

Proof: Declaration of honour - Social Top-up in ERASMUS participant's account

You also agree to provide supporting documentation upon request at a later point in time.


Students who earn a significant amount of their own living may be reluctant to embark on a stay abroad, as they are often unable to continue working while abroad and earnings are lost. To alleviate this problem, there is now a Social Top-up in the amount of €250 if the following criteria apply:

·         employment subject to social insurance
·         net earnings of more than €450 and less than €850 in any month
·         continuously employed for at least six months during the two semesters prior to the stay abroad 

The activity must have taken place during this period:

  • Stay abroad in/from fall semester: 1 August of the previous year through 31 July of the year abroad
  • Stay abroad in spring semester: 1 February of the previous year through 31 January of the year abroad

The employment may be a single one or several immediately following each other. An interruption within the regular vacation period during employment is not a problem.

  • the activity is not continued during the stay abroad, so that there is a loss of earnings (termination is not a prerequisite, the activity can also be paused)

Proof: Declaration of honour - Social Top-up in ERASMUS participant's account

You also agree to provide supporting documentation upon request at a later point in time.

Students who take their child or children abroad with them can also receive an additional €250 per month. The prerequisite is that the child or children is/are taken along during the entire stay. The allowance is €250 per month per family, regardless of the number of children. The application is also possible if a caregiver (partner) travels along.

Proof: Declaration of honour - Social Top-up in ERASMUS participant's account; copy of the child's/childrens' birth certificate, documantation of travel for the child/children after conclusion of mobility

OR

If particularly high additional costs arise from taking your child/children with you for your stay abroad, a so-called "real cost application" can be submitted instead with a few months' advance notice, through which up to €15,000 per semester can be covered. This requires a lot of time in advance, so we ask students to seek advice early.

Students with a degree of disability of 20 (GdB 20) or more can receive a top-up of €250 per month of funding.

Proof: Declaration of honour - Social Top-up in ERASMUS participant's account, severely handicapped pass or official letter of the state social service department


Students with a chronic illness that leads to additional financial needs for the stay abroad can also receive an additional €250 per month of funding.

Proof: Declaration of honour - Social Top-up in ERASMUS participant's account, doctor's certificate which declares that based on the chronic illness leads to additional financial needs in the host country compared to Germany.


OR

If particularly high additional costs arise due to your stay abroad, a so-called "real cost application" can be submitted instead with a few months' notice, through which up to €15,000 per semester can be covered, e.g. for an accompanying person. It is also possible to receive a grant for a preparatory trip to explore the local conditions. This requires a lot of time in advance, so we ask students to seek advice early.

Pre-conditions:

  • degree of disability of 20 (GdB 20) or more
  • chronic illness that leads to additional financial needs for the stay abroad
  • The funds are being used to cover the additional costs due to the disability or chronic illnes that result from the stay abroad during the ERASMUS mobility.


Funding of Travel Expenses

The funding of travel expenses has been newly regulated for 2025/26 by means of lump sums that depend on the classification in a distance band, which is automatically calculated with an EU tool from the distance (as the crow flies) Goethe University - host university. (Example: Paris is in the second category up to 499 km)

Please note that there is a higher flat rate for green travel, i.e. more environmentally friendly travel by train, bus or carpool, than for air travel!

Travel DistanceStandard TravelGreen Travel
10 to 99 km28 €56 €
100 to 499 km211 €285 €
500 to 1999 km309 €417 €
2000 to 2999 km395 €535 €
3000 to 3999 km580 €785 €
4000 to 7999 km1.188 €1.188 €
8000 km or more1.735 €1.735 €


According to a new Erasmus regulation, up to 2 travel days can also be funded for non-green travel if there is a demonstrable need. However, due to the already high monthly funding rates in Germany and the broadly defined target groups entitled to additional funding for equal opportunities, there is generally no need for additional travel days for non-green travel. These are generally covered by the Erasmus grant, which is not a full scholarship. Only upon application, including justification (e.g. essential accommodation costs), can funding of up to 2 travel days be granted for non-green trips. The application must be sent by email to outgoing@uni-frankfurt.de before the start of the stay abroad and must include receipts for the costs incurred (e.g. invoices) as an email attachment.

Green Travel - Ecologically friendly student mobilities

The EU Green Deal is meant to push the EU to climate neutrality by 2050 and all EU actions and strategies should help to reach this goal. The ERASMUS program still sets the main focus on physical mobility to the host country, but the ecological footprint has to be reduced. Green mobility means environmentally sustainable travel.

In accordance with the ERASMUS guidelines and as a motivation for a Green Mobility the Global Office of Goethe-University will pay out a Green Travel Top-up to each 2022/23 ERASMUS participant who will travel to and from the host destination by train, bus, or car (ride-sharing with others). Participants travelling for part of their journey by ferry (e.g. Scandinavia) will receive the bonus as well, if the rest of the journey is being undertaken by train, bus or ride share. Air-travel obviously will not be funded. 

Green Travel funding consits of:

  • a higher travel allowance than for non-green travel, which depends on the automatic calculation of the distance band
  • up to 6 additional travel days (20€ or 18€ per day depending on country group)
  • accordingly up to 6 additional days times 8,33333333€ (=1/30 of 250€), if the participant receives a Social Top-up

Requirements:

  • The outward and/or return journey must be made by train, bus or carpooling with other ERASMUS participants or other people. Travelers by ferry (e.g. to Scandinavia) also receive funding if the rest of their journey is by bus, train or carpool. 
  • Travels by plane do not receive Green Travel funding 

Proof:

  • prior to the mobility: self-declaration which confirms the admission requirements and the existence of supporting documents and agrees to provide these documents at the request of the sending university.
  • Proof of Green Travel after outward or return journey (to be uploaded in the participant account with the confirmation of the start and end of the mobility)
Payment:
  • The subsidy is paid out proportionately with the first and second subsidy installments and, if necessary, corrected when the second installment is paid out
  • If no proof of Green Travel is available, any funding already paid must be repaid

Here you find further information on GREEN ERASMUS.


Travel costs for “expensive travelling" to so-called ERASMUS partner countries (worldwide, not EU):

  • If the travel costs Green Travel demonstrably covers less than 70% of your actual travel costs, you can apply to the DAAD via the Global Office for a real cost grant to cover 80% of the extraordinary costs for “expensive travelling". This grant then replaces the regular travel allowance. If you are interested, please send us an e-mail at least three months before your departure. Further information from the DAAD can be found here. 

The outpayment of the grant to the ERASMUS participants is administered by the Global Office of Goethe-University. Typically there will be two outpayments: 80% of the grant will be paid at the beginning of the physical mobility and the outstanding amount after the mobility. All participants will receive their first outpayment within 30 days after the upload of their signed Grant Agreement into their participant's account. Students starting in the winter semester 2025/26 will receive their first payment at the beginning of September 2025 at the earliest, participants in the summer semester 2026 will receive their first payment at the beginning of January 2026 at the earliest, and also only after the upload of their Grant Agreement. 

After this first outpayment has been made there will be no changes possible in the grant until the completion of the ERASMUS stay, except in the case of an extension or shortening of the ERASMUS period by one semester. The extension period of one additional semester may be supported by the regular sum for one semester, if we have sufficient funds left and if you apply for additional funding in your participant's account at least one month (30 days) before the originally planned end date. If you don't apply in due time, you still might extend your stay and receive a tuition waiver, but the extension will be valued as zero grant days which means no financial support. Minimal extensions from a couple of days to a couple of weeks have to be registered by us, but will not be funded.

Since we are obliged to record the exact duration of your ERASMUS period from actual start date to actual end date, we will do this once you have uploaded your Confirmation of Period of Study, proof of the end date of your physical mobility. If this shows the duration to be shorter than 115 days per semester or 230 days per academic year, we are obliged to request a backpayment from you for the difference in days. Mostly though a reduction in the outstanding second outpayment suffices to cover the difference.

The outstanding amount of the grant will be paid out to the participants after the completion of their mobility, once they completed the upload of all mandatory ERASMUS documents into their participant's account plus completed their EU Online Survey. You are only entitled to 100% of the grant if you provide all documents in due time.

Get an additional 500€ and apply for a SANTANDER Scholarship

Dear Erasmus scholarship holders for studying abroad,


In cooperation with our partner Santander, you have the opportunity to receive a one-off grant of 500 euros for the Erasmus+ program - regardless of your grades. Don't miss out on this opportunity and apply - for ERASMUS 2025/26 only possible from the end of November 2025! Above is an example of the call for applications for 2024/25.


Further information is expected to follow in October 2025.

You want to improve your language skills prior to your ERASMUS mobility?  


The language center of GU offers preparatory language courses for ERASMUS as well as other language coureses during and between lecture periods. More information at http://www.sprachenzentrum.uni-frankfurt.de

ERASMUS 2025/26 participants taking part in these language courses will be reimbursed - see next tab for more information.

Language Courses at Goethe University: If an ERASMUS participant successfully completed a language course offered by the Sprachenzentrum (Language Center) of GU in the semester before the ERASMUS mobility (no earlier courses), we will reimburse the course fee (max. sum see below). For preparatory ERASMUS language courses in Spanish and French as well as for other courses of the Sprachenzentrum the participants have to upload the course certificate into their ERASMUS participant's account together with the payment slip, which is possible only after the start of your mobility, once you uploaded the Certificate of Arrival into your participant's account. Be advised that course fees of language courses other than those offered by the Sprachenzentrum of GU will not be reimbursed. Link to Sprachenzentrum der GU. The earliest outpayment will be made in March of 2026.

Language courses at the host university: Some host universities offer preparatory or semester long language courses - some free of cost, some with fees. If you have completed such a course or another fee-based language course in the host country successfully, please upload the course certificate into your participant's account. The same goes for fee-based language courses during the semester. If course fees applied, please include the proof of payment in that pdf-file. This is possible only after the start of your mobility, once you uploaded the Certificate of Arrival into your participant's account.

For the reimbursement of language course fees only limited funds are available in ERASMUS. We reimburse the actual course fee for maximum 2 language courses up to a maximum amount of 100€ in total per ERASMUS participant in 2025/26. Participants in language courses prior and during the winter semester 2025/26 have to upload their course certificates until March 1, 2026 and receive the money in the second half of March 2026. Participants in language courses prior and during the summer semester 2026 upload their course certificates until July 31, 2026 and receive the money in August 2026. If you miss the winter deadline, you will be included in the summer outpayment. If you miss the July deadline, you will not be reimbursed for the language course fees.

Fee-based language courses or language exercises taken in the regular course of studies at Goethe-University will not be reimbursed (e.g. Business English classes or courses relating to romance studies).

Extensions, e.g. through

  • an earlier start to your studies
  • preparatory language courses in the host country
  • or a later end of studies
must be applied for in the participant account in the “During the stay abroad" section no later than 30 days before the originally planned end of the study period stored in the system. (This application is therefore only possible once you have uploaded the confirmation of arrival and it has been recorded by the GO).


For extensions for a module or semester, trimester or placement/internship at the host institution please mark this accordingly in the participant's account first. Then talk to the responsible person at the host university and your departmental coordinator at GU, because these two have to give written permission by email to outgoing@uni-frankfurt.de that the extension is granted within the ERASMUS program. Only after receiving these emails your application for extension can be processed in the participant's account. You will then be provided with a Changes to Original Learning Agreement form for the extension period in your participant's account.

Additionally in all cases of extension an updated Grant Agreement will be provided. Please complete and upload these into your account in due time.

Please notice: An extension period has to immediately follow the current mobility period. Extensions past the summer semester cannot be permitted, because the fiscal administration of ERASMUS at Goethe University is done by academic years. For officially confirmed additional examination periods or studies an extension can be granted until the end of the official ERASMUS period, September 30. Maximum duration is 12 months per regular study cycle though; for students in the traditional study programs Diplom, Magister and Staatsexamen (state examination) up to 24 months.

An extension by a second semester after the summer semester into the winter semester of the following academic year is possible only by submission of a new application for the new ERASMUS study period with your departmental coordinator, who has to decide if another placement in the program is possible. Please contact him/her as early as possible.

If enough funds are available for all extensions for a module/semester that reach the GO in due time, cannot be determined at this point. This is a case-by-case decision in the order we receive the applications for extension, that depends on the number of cancellations, terminations and shortenings of ERASMUS mobilities. If the funds available are not sufficient, you may still extend your ERASMUS study period under the tuition waiver, but the extension will be valued as zero grant days which means no financial support. In prior years though all extensions could be funded up to the possible maximum.

Students woh have been nomitated to UK partner institutions, that egreed on ERASMUS agreements, will receive regular ERASMUS funding. They are also eligible for Social Top up and Green Travel Top up, for which they apply in the workflow of their individual Goethe University participant's account.

Please be aware that changes to the British right of residence may occur and get information on immigration ahead of time before the start of your mobility.

In accordance with the notification regulation (https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bundesrecht/mv/gesamt.pdf ), Goethe University Frankfurt informs your responsible tax office annually about the corresponding payments in the event of recurring payments or if the sum of payments exceeds €1,500. The recipient of the payment must independently fulfill tax recording and declaration obligations with regard to the income (§12 MV). Information on the tax exemption of scholarships can be found under §3 No.44 of the Income Tax Act.