GENERAL INFORMATION FOR INCOMING STUDENTS

If you have been awarded an Erasmus+ scholarship or zero-grant participation, you will partake in one of the following types of mobility:

• student mobility for studies
• student mobility for traineeship
• short-term doctoral mobility

GOOD TO KNOW

All arrangements related to your mobility, such as travel, accommodation, visa, health insurance etc., should be managed and paid by you, the scholarship holder. The Erasmus+ grant can be used freely for these expenses, but it is only a contribution to support your mobility that might not cover all costs. It is essential to plan ahead and guarantee that you will be able to provide for any extra expenses not covered by the grant.

BANK ACCOUNT

ELTE pays Erasmus+ scholarships in euros and only via bank transfer. To avoid any unnecessary exchange fees, we recommend you to open a euro account for your Erasmus+ grant. In addition, please take extra care to keep travel-related documentation (e.g. boarding passes, train tickets, accommodation receipts etc.) as you might need them when making a force majeure claim.

Some banks do not provide their customers with an IBAN number and can receive international money transfers only with the assistance of a so-called correspondent bank. If you do not have an IBAN number to your bank account, please inquire at your bank about data of their correspondent bank necessary for receiving international transfer from the European Union.

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT

When planning your mobility, we recommend you to check information on additional funding offered by the Erasmus+ program at your home University. If there is a top-up available and you meet the criteria of eligibility, you may apply for additional financial support for Erasmus+ mobility at your home university.

To receive additional support in time, please submit your application as soon as you are notified of the Erasmus+ scholarship award.

Housing

We recommend you to apply for ELTE’s housing services by filling out the dormitory and housing registration form. For more information visit the Dormitory Centre and the Housing Office.

Please keep in mind that there is a limited number of available dormitory places. If you find a place to stay via the Housing Office, the landlord will require a deposit (minimum 2 months rental fee) before moving in. The cost of renting varies depending on the type of accommodation: a studio apartment might cost between 300-500 euros/month (plus utilities), whereas a shared room at one of the companies listed on the Housing Office’s website might cost around 170-330 euros/month (plus utilities).

If you decide to look for accommodation independent of ELTE’s services, bear in mind that the real estate market is limited in Budapest. Thousands of international students are seeking for accommodation for the new semester. All in all: we strongly advise you to book your accommodation as soon as possible.

Visa

If you are coming from a country under visa obligations according to the Schengen acquis, you have to apply for a Visa for the Purpose of Studies (D-visa) in your home country. Once you have entered Hungary with your visa, you still have to apply for a Residence Permit for the Purpose of Studies at the Hungarian authorities. Learn more about how to apply for a student visa. 

If you are coming for a long-term mobility (min. 3 months long) from a visa waiver country, we recommend you to apply for a Residence Permit for the Purpose of Studies at the nearest Hungarian consulate of your home residence. This way you can accelerate the process of acquiring a residence permit once you have arrived in Hungary. Learn more about how to get your residence permit.

May you have questions or concerns during your visa application, contact visa@elte.hu.

Communication

ELTE communicates with all Erasmus+ program participants via email. It is essential that you provide an email address for administration purposes you frequently use. It is your responsibility to check your mailbox (and spam!) regularly before, during and after your Erasmus+ mobility and read all messages you receive from ELTE.

planning your studies - learning agreement

RECOGNITION OF CREDITS

Higher education institutions participating in the Erasmus+ program ensure that courses completed at the partner institution will be fully recognized in the student's home curriculum.

LEARNING AGREEMENT

In this document you agree with ELTE (the host institution) and your sending institution on the contents of your study/research/traineeship at ELTE. It has to be signed by all parties (student, representatives of the sending and host institutions) in order to receive grant payment and begin the mobility.

You can find the various Learning Agreement templates with specific instructions on the Learning Agreement page.

If you have study/research/internship-related questions, contact your ELTE academic coordinator or your faculty's international coordinator. Once your Learning Agreement has been confirmed and signed by all parties, please upload it with the Before the Mobility Online Form.

HEALTH INSURANCE

In the event of any health problem, illness or accident, students must have adequate insurance to cover any costs incurred during the mobility period. It is the responsibility of the student to take out health insurance that that meets the following criteria:

• covers the entire mobility period
• covers possible expenses of at least 30 000 EUR
• is valid within the Schengen Area. 

The Grant Agreement cannot be concluded without a valid health insurance (i.e. your grant cannot be transferred and the mobility cannot be started. Therefore, please submit a copy of your health insurance by uploading it with the Before Mobility the online form. Please make sure that the following data are clearly visible on the copy:

• your name
• the name of the insurance company
• the policy number of the health insurance (unique number identifying your health insurance policy)
• the period, expenses and geographic area covered by your insurance

Of the three types of insurance indicated in the online form, only the health insurance is mandatory. The other two (accident insurance and liability insurance) are recommended to students on traineeship depending on the type of work they intend to do abroad. If you do not wish to take out any insurance other than health insurance, you can enter the details of health insurance for both liability and accident insurance, but this does not mean that you have valid liability or accident insurance.

For further information on health insurance please visit our website.

OLS ASSESSMENT

OLS (Online Language Support) is an online learning platform designed to help Erasmus+ participants improve their knowledge of the language in which they will study or do their traineeship abroad. All Erasmus+ participants are required to test their proficiency of the main language of their mobility (except if it is shorter than 14 days) and submit the results with the documentation. In case the language of your mobility is not among the available languagues or you are a native, you are exempt from this requirement. 

After registering on the EU Academy website you will be able to participate not only in language courses, but in other EUAcademy courses as well, so it is worth exploring the possibilities.

Once registered, you can access the OLS language test. On how to take the test and how to access your results, follow the steps collected in this short guide. We will collect your results via an online form (see details below).

BEFORE THE MOBILITY FORM

We use this online form to gather information for preparing your Grant Agreement. Please take your time to fill out the form and prepare all necessary documents and information in advance.  Before starting you will need your Learning Agreement finalized and signed by all parties, a valid passport, a health insurance and a Certificate of Student Status. Submitting the online form is mandatory.

Please upload the following documents with the form:

• the finalized, fully signed Learning Agreement
• a copy of your health insurance policy or card
• a copy of your passport: make sure that it will be valid during the entire mobility period
• a certificate of student status: the document certifies that you are and will be an enrolled student at your home university during the entire mobility period. Make sure that it is signed by the issuing person and bears an official stamp of the sending institution
• your OLS test results (in case you are not exempt from doing one)

GRANT AGREEMENT

The Grant Agreement contains the paying arrangements and calculation of the scholarship, and the rights and obligations of you, the student, and Eötvös Loránd University.

Once we have prepared your Grant Agreement, we will email it to you for review. If you agree to the contents of the agreement, please sign it digitally using Netlock platform. Please see the information below on how to issue an e-signing certificate to sign your agreement digitally on the Netlock platform. Please note that you will need your valid passport to register on this website. Registration on the website takes at least 30 minutes, and processing your e-signing certificate request takes several days. Therefore, we recommend that you register on the website as soon as you start preparing your mobility to ELTE.

NETLOCK PLATFORM

In order to be able to digitally sign your grant agreement, you need to possess a qualified e-signing certificate. In case you already have such a certificate issued by an EU trusted provider, you are welcome to use that for signing your grant agreement (please check the EU trusted providers on this website). If you do not yet possess an e-signing certificate, please create one free at https://netlock.com/index_en.html.

Please follow the steps detailed in the following document: Netlock e-signing guide.

In case you have problems registering on the website, you can also print it in 4 copies, sign all in blue ink (this is necessary for the legal validity of the document!) and send it via post or courier service to the following address:

Department of Erasmus+ & International Programmes
Directorate of Educational Affairs, ELTE
Szerb utca 21-23
Budapest
Hungary
H-1056

Grant payment

The grant payment can be expected in 3-4 weeks from the date the Grant Agreement has been signed by all 3 parties. When you plan your travel and expect to receive your scholarship in advance, remember to calculate in the length of delivery in the payment process. 

ELTE transfers 90% of your grant support before the mobility period and the remaining 10% after your mobility is successfully closed. (On how to close the mobility, see this page). Please note that ELTE will pay your grant support in euros. In order to avoid unnecessary fees, you may wish to consider opening a euro bank account or find any other favorable option for receiving your grant support.

Please note that in some cases banks need to be informed about the upcoming international transfers, otherwise the grant transfer to your bank account will be rejected and we will need to initiate the grant payment again, which takes time. Please contact your bank and let them know about the upcoming international transfer and provide information that they require.

The amount of Erasmus+ ICM scholarship varies depending on what mobility type you partake in.

• Long-term mobility for studies or traineeship: 800 EUR/month scholarship and one-time travel support.
• Short-term doctoral mobility: 70 EUR/day up to the 14th day, 50 EUR/day between the 15th and 30th per day, as well as one-time travel support.

The amount of travel support is based on the distance between the headquarters of the sending and the host institutions, calculated by the European Commission's tool:

A finalized Grant Agreement is the necessary prerequisite of grant payment. Annex 1 of the Grant Agreement is the Learning Agreement signed by all three parties, without which the Grant Agreement is not in effect. Annex 3 to the Grant Agreement is the Erasmus+ Student Charter.