Erasmus from Romania: a semester in Paris on €824 a month

⏱️ Reading time: 8 minutes · Verified 31 July 2026

A semester in Paris, Vienna or Bologna, on a grant of around €824 a month, without ever leaving your Romanian degree.

That is what Erasmus+ makes possible from any Romanian UMF — and it is barely used by international students, usually because they don’t know their faculty takes part, or because they find out about the application deadlines six months too late.

Here is how it works, what you need to qualify, and why a clinical placement abroad is probably the best investment of your whole degree.

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🔀 Two kinds of mobility

In medicine, each one matches a phase of the course. Study mobility generally opens in years 2, 3 and 4; placement mobility in years 4, 5 and 6.

At UMF Carol Davila, for example, studies are open to years II–IV and placements to years IV–VI. Every faculty sets its own rules: the only reliable source is your own international relations office.

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🏛️ Which universities, which partners

Every major Romanian UMF holds an Erasmus+ charter and bilateral agreements.

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✅ The real conditions

Academic. A general average above 7.00 or 8.00 out of 10 depending on the UMF. The previous year passed, with no academic debts. Tuition paid up to date.

Language. A minimum of B2 in the teaching language of the host university, with a certificate depending on the case — DELF/DALF, IELTS, TOEFL, Goethe-Zertifikat.

Administrative. Being enrolled at the UMF when you apply and throughout the mobility, and not having already used up your twelve months of mobility for this study cycle.

That last rule deserves attention: twelve months per cycle is a quota. Spending it in year 2 costs you the clinical placement in year 5 — which, as we’ll see, is often the more useful one.

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📋 The procedure, step by step

1. Do your research — 6 to 9 months ahead

Go through the “International Relations” section of your UMF’s site, identify the partners in your target country, and note the deadlines: generally May–June for the winter semester, October–November for the spring one.

2. Put the file together

The UMF’s form, a transcript of records, a CV in English or the host language, a motivation letter, a language certificate and proof of identity.

3. Selection

Depending on the faculty: a written exam (60 multiple-choice questions in 90 minutes at Carol Davila), a motivation interview, or selection on the written file alone.

4. The Learning Agreement

This is the central document, and the one people skim. It lists the courses or placements you will take and sets out how the ECTS credits will be recognised when you return. Three signatures: yours, your Erasmus coordinator’s, and the host coordinator’s.

A course missing from the Learning Agreement will not be recognised when you get back. You will have taken it, passed it — and it will not count.

Read it line by line, and have it amended if your timetable changes once you are there. That is allowed, and the procedure provides for it.

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💶 How much the grants are worth

On top of that there is often a flat travel allowance (2,250 RON, about €450, at Carol Davila), a top-up for grant holders, and sometimes regional support from the host country.

Set against the monthly budget of a student in Cluj — between €590 and €1,045 according to our costings — a grant of €824 covers most of a stay in a French city, provided you avoid central Paris.

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⚠️ Four things to watch

Erasmus is not a transfer. You remain a student of your Romanian UMF and you come back to finish your degree there. If your aim is to change university permanently, this is the wrong instrument — our article on transfers explains why that route is considerably harder.

Marks do not carry over mechanically. The ECTS system applies a conversion table. An 18/20 in France does not automatically become a 10 in Romania. Ask for the conversion table before you leave, not after your results come through.

You need to genuinely command the host language. Going to Marburg means following the course in German, or in English if the programme is taught that way. B2 is a floor, not a comfort zone.

The calendar is tight. Six to nine months ahead. Waking up to it in September for a January departure is already too late.

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🏥 The clinical placement, the underrated option

If you are in year 4, 5 or 6 and your horizon is France, placement mobility is probably more useful than study mobility.

Two to twelve months in a partner hospital. You discover a different organisation of care, different protocols, a different relationship with the patient. And above all, if you go to France: you enter the French hospital system before residency.

That is a concrete advantage, and one people rarely mention. Romanian graduates who sit the EDN — the national ranking exam that allocates residency posts in France — without ever having set foot in a French teaching hospital are discovering a competitive exam and a health system at the same time. A six-month Erasmus placement in year 5 removes half of that double difficulty — and adds a line that counts on a junior doctor’s CV.

Is it worth it?

Yes, without reservation, on three conditions: a solid academic average, a genuine B2 in the host language, and nine months of lead time.

The scheme is funded, structured, recognised — and very widely under-used by international students at Romanian UMFs. For once the obstacle is neither money nor ability: it is simply knowing that it exists and starting in time.

Your first move

Write to your UMF’s international relations office this week, with three precise questions: which bilateral agreements are currently in force with your target country, what average is required, and what the deadlines are for the next round.

Those three answers determine whether the project is feasible, and on what timescale. Everything else follows from them.

For what comes next, our rezidențiat / EDN comparison explains why experience of the French system changes the picture when you choose your specialty route. And our article on language is a reminder that the B2 Erasmus asks for is in addition to medical Romanian, not a replacement for it.

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🛡️ If you would rather not do it alone

Our support covers the initial application to Romania: checking every document, sworn translations and apostille, filing at the university registry and follow-up through to admission.

See how we handle an application →