The number of European University students coming to Malta to spend a few months studying at Tal-Qroqq is much bigger than the number of Maltese students choosing to experience university life on campus in another EU country.

According to a report issued by the European Commission in Brussels, during the 2006/2007 academic year Malta hosted 325 EU students at its University in contrast with the 125 Maltese students who participated in the EU's Erasmus higher-education mobility programme that same year.

This deficit also exists where it comes to university lecturer exchanges, although the difference is less significant: 74 teachers came to Malta while 56 Maltese nationals went to another EU educational institution.

Since Malta started participating in the Erasmus programmes in 2000, 816 Maltese students have participated. The highest number of Maltese students who did part of their studies abroad was registered in the 2005/06 academic year when 149 took an EU grant.

Italy remains the most favourite place for Maltese students with 35 choosing an Italian university last year. The UK, Ireland and France are also popular.

Malta seems to be most popular among Italian students (89 last year), followed by French (61), German (41) and Spanish (27) students.

In general, the Commission report shows that during the 2006/2007 academic year there was an increase of three per cent in the number of European students and 10 per cent in the number of university lecturers who went abroad compared to the previous year. This brought the total number of participants to almost 160,000 students and 26,000 teachers in that year alone.

Central and Eastern European countries, as well as Turkey, have had the biggest growth in the numbers participating in the programme.

Erasmus is part of the EU's Lifelong Learning Programme and receives €450 million in funding each year. An estimated 3.5 per cent of European students receive an Erasmus grant at some stage of their studies.