Students heavily criticise the European Mobility programme Erasmus, Dnvenik daily said on November 5 2007.

They are unhappy over a lack of co-ordination, bureaucracy, difficulty in financing and subjective selection, according to a research titled Observe Erasmus. The research had been carried out on the occassion of the 20th anniversary of the Erasmus programme. In Bulgaria 273 students had been interviewed, parallel to students in Romania and Poland.

Biggest problem, according to students, was financing. Of those who took part in the programme, 80 to 90 per cent used additional sources of funding, including stipends, bank loans or, most often, help from parents. Bulgarian students most often used grants of 300 to 500 euro, while the average EU grant was 150 euro.

Bulgaria was the only country where universities did not have special funds or a politics of special programs to provide additional funding for students. In Bulgaria, the money would be distributed across as many students as possible, Dnevnik said.

Education Ministry has said it is in favour of fewer students with more funding.

Over 4 100 Bulgarian students have taken part in the European Erasmus programme since 1999, Deputy Education Minister Ekaterina Virkova said.

Currently 1 400 students from 39 higher education institutions had applied for their Master's Degrees and various language programmes abroad, Bulgarian News agency (BTA) reported.

Over 3 000 educational institutions from 39 countries take part in the programme, through which 1.5 million young Europeans have studied abroad.

According to the Bulgarian Human Resource Development Centre, 93 per cent of student funds and 100 per cent of teaching funds for the programme had been absorbed.