Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility: How ASEAN Students Can Join a European Exchange Without a Full Degree

What Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility Is

Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility (ICM) is the strand of the European Union's Erasmus+ program that funds exchange between a European university and a partner university outside the countries directly associated with the main Erasmus+ program, a group that includes universities across ASEAN. It moves students and staff in both directions: European students go to your university, and you go to theirs, under the same inter-institutional agreement.

ICM exists specifically to connect European institutions with partner countries worldwide, detailed in the European Commission's ICM handbook for partner countries .

How It Differs From a Full Erasmus Degree

ICM is not a degree program. You stay enrolled in your home degree the entire time and return to finish it after your term abroad, unlike a full master's degree taken entirely at a European university. The mobility period covers study for 3 to 12 months or a traineeship for 2 to 12 months, and every course you take carries credit back to your home university through a learning agreement signed before you travel.

Funding and Duration

Your grant amount depends on your sending institution's funding allocation and typically includes a monthly stipend plus a contribution toward travel costs, rather than one fixed figure across all ASEAN countries. Your home university applies for and manages the ICM project with its European partner, so the number of places and the exact grant amount depend on how much funding that specific inter-institutional agreement received for the intake year.

How to Apply Through Your Home University

You do not apply to the European Commission directly. Applications run entirely through your home university's international office, which holds the inter-institutional agreement with a specific European partner university and manages the selection process. Ask your international office whether your university has active ICM agreements, which partner universities they cover, and what the internal application deadline is, since it usually falls well before the semester the exchange would start.

Once selected, complete a learning agreement listing the courses you will take in Europe and how they map to your home degree, following the same process as any other exchange placement.

Which ASEAN Universities Have ICM Partnerships

ICM agreements form university to university, not country to country, so coverage depends entirely on which of your university's individual departments hold an agreement with a European partner. Many public universities across the region hold at least one active ICM partnership through their international office, often concentrated in engineering, business, or social science faculties where a staff exchange started the relationship. Confirm directly with your international office rather than assume your university is included, since ICM partnerships renew and get replaced on a rolling basis as new funding calls open.