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[qrypt]

Taking off from the mention of teaching swaps in another thread: I've been contemplating trying to do this in a couple of years, and I'd be grateful to hear about others' experiences making this happen.  We have a partnership of some sort with Lund, which sounds like a great place to go, and they even offer some of their classes in English. 

I've found the main Erasmus web page - http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/llp/erasmus/teacher_en.html, and I've had an initial discussion with our international office (who curiously failed to clue me in on this web address).  I figure I have to get the department in Lund on board, that's the main thing.  Does it have to be an actual swap, in the sense that someone would come here at the same time? 

Other things to think about? 

[expatinuk]

No, it doesn't happen at the same time.... but it can if that's what you want. The main thing is to make sure what expenses are covered and what are not.

Brussels sets a certain amount for each country. Sometimes this will cover your expenses and sometimes it won't cover all of them.

It's a simple form to complete... you complete it, your partner institution completes it and you each submit it to your Erasmus co-ordinator at your campus. You make all the arrangements when to go. My institution handles it by having my department pay for it then billing the international office.

We've used this several times when we wanted to get a 'name' to come over to do a couple of graduate seminar sessions.

I've never gone anywhere for longer than a week. I've also used it several times to help cover expenses to a conference if the conference was in the same city/university as a partner institution. I would go to the institution and teach a couple of days, then go to the conference.

Every session that I've done was conducted in English. There are TONS of courses in Europe offered in English.

[wegie]

Lund? You have a chance to go to Lund, Grupt?

You lucky sod. I did a week or so's academic workshop there a few (well, more like ten now) years ago. Gorgeous town. Lovely university. The postgrads I met were all bright, engaged and polyglot. Highly recommended!

[wannabeprof]

No idea about the teaching swap situation, but a friend of mine taught at Lund for a time and enjoyed it.  Southern Sweden is very beautiful.

[sandgrounder]

They've just changed the rules with the new Erasmus programmes from next academic year so that you don't have to do as much teaching. Basically the host has to invite you and agree a schedule of teaching which you then send to probably your international office, who will do the paperwork for Brussels.

[normative_]

I've mostly been involved in arranging for people to come to my university. The biggest part of the arrangement is the teaching requirement. Officially, you're supposed to give 8 hours of instruction or talks per week of your exchange.

It's best if you already have some courses and instructors in mind in whose courses you would like to teach. The earlier you arrange this the better, so that they can decide whether to accommodate you and when. Mid-term is best, since you won't interfere with introduction of exam prep.

Alas, I've not gone myself (though I was tempted to go to St. Denis, overlapping with the Rugby World Cup) for lack of time.