The Programme will cover the period 2014-2020 and replaces seven existing programmes, including the Lifelong Learning programme (LLP) which will end with the academic year 2013-2014.

The Erasmus Charter for Higher Education provides the general quality framework for European and international cooperation activities a higher education institution (HEI) may carry out within the Programme.

The award of an Erasmus Charter for Higher Education is a pre-requisite for all HEIs located in an eligible country and willing to participate in learning mobility of individuals and/or cooperation for innovation and good practices under the Programme. For HEIs located in other countries, the ECHE is not required, and the quality framework will be established through inter-institutional agreements between HEIs. The Charter is awarded for the full duration of the Programme.

Erasmus+ regulation has not yet been formally adopted by the European legislators. However, based on the political agreement reached so far by the EU Institutions, and subject to final version of the legal text when adopted, the European Commission has decided to publish this template for inter-institutional agreements now in order to allow for a smooth implementation of the Programme to make it possible for the potential beneficiaries of Union grants to start preparing their agreements in good time.

This template, aiming at ensuring student and staff mobility of high quality, is valid only for inter-institutional agreements between institutions located in current programme countries (EU Member States, Iceland, Turkey, FYROM, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland). A template for inter-institutional agreements between programme and partner countries (all other countries) will be published at a later stage. The template is provided for academic years 2014-2015 up to 2020-2021.

For information, below the duration of the exchanges between programme countries that should be supported by the programme:

• student mobility for studies: from 3 to 12 months
• student mobility for traineeships: from 2 to 12 months
• staff mobility: from 2 days (excluding travel time) to 2 months, with at least 8 hours teaching in case of teaching assignment.