25th Anniversary Erasmus Portrait

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Erasmus Programme this year, on the 25th of every month ESN will be publishing an interview with a former Erasmus/exchange student who tells their story about how the ERASMUS programme affected their life.

To start off this quest for stories of former Erasmus students’ lives we visited and interviewed Johannes Gehringer, a manager of the Erasmus Programme at the European Commission and he told us about how his exchange changed him.  

Background

Johannes was born in Austria and from an early age due to parental influences and a natural inquisitiveness developed an interest in world politics and as he grew older his international outlook became even stronger. With a range of study interests he decided to study both computer science at TU Wien as well as French and Indo-European linguistics at Universität Wien. It was both an interest in French culture and history fostered, in part, by him backpacking around France for 4 weeks that convinced him that the opportunity to go on exchange in France was one not to be missed out.

Exchange experience

So in 1991 Johannes took the leap and headed to (in his mind the only real option) Paris to study French culture and politics for 10 months and also to improve his language skills. However, this exchange was pre-Erasmus as Austria only joined Erasmus in 1992/93 and thus was rather atypical. His move to Paris was also facilitated by the fact that Johannes had completed an industrial traineeship in Sweden just beforehand, where he had made contacts and friends with young French trainees studying in Paris, and this network offered him a chance for local integration, a first place to stay and some friendly faces upon arrival. Without a formal Erasmus programme and ESN he was somewhat of a trailblazer and the first student to participate in an exchange to his host university, the New Sorbonne in Paris, from his Romance language department at Uni Wien. 

Thus, Johannes had to enroll at the university in Paris just like a regular student – because the administration was initially not aware of the exchange agreement – and to head into this unfamiliar world unsupported but with great enthusiasm and interest in what this experience could bring him. He really liked the fact that he felt “just like any other student”.  What made his stay a bit more comfortable was the possibility to get grant support from a variety of sources and at that time there was not much competition, so he was free to enjoy the wonders of Paris (apart from the expensive restaurants).  He was lucky enough to get a place to stay at the Austrian Cultural Institute living in a dorm overlooking the top of the Eiffel tower, but unfortunately it felt like he was living in an ‘Austrian Ghetto’ sometimes.

His life in Paris as a student was an enjoyable one, where, free of learning agreements and a strict study programme he could choose courses freely as he had almost all his courses done in Vienna and could participate in sports. He had the freedom to take courses at multiple universities and 'Grandes Ecoles' just for the beauty and pleasure of learning and experiencing new things. Such things gave him an overview of the higher education landscape in France and it was a useful point of reference to see how education differs in countries. 

Impact 

There were many things that Johannes learnt, skills he gained and experiences he will never forget both inside and outside of the academic exchange he participated in. He achieved one of his main aims, to improve his French, and this was shown by his ability to write his master’s thesis almost entirely in French entitled ‘Immigration ou invasion? Le discours politique en France sur l’immigration’, for which he was also able to do extensive research in Paris and follow specific seminars.  Furthermore, he learnt a lot for his French studies by benefited from the richness of the cultural and artistic offerings in the city, and by attending concerts and theatrical performances. At university, he became involved in a dancing group doing ‘contact improvisation’ dancing, a hobby that continues today.  Through this year in Paris, he gained energy to study and was motivated to take part in future international internships as a result, such as an industrial placement in Zaragoza. Johannes even wrote a handbook ‘Studying in Paris’ (1993) for Austrian students studying, doing training and research in Greater Paris to provide them with information, including on Erasmus, he wished he knew when he arrived, which in some respects makes him seem like an ESNer.  In 1994 he then had the chance to study for another full year in Chicago and months later to do an internship in Washington and by this point saw how his life was taking a “progressive slide abroad”. 

After such formative experiences on exchange he moved to Brussels to work for the European Commission in a variety of fields of expertise including data exchange with member states for DG Agriculture and managing projects within the area of external relations, mostly with the South Mediterranean and Africa. Also, the opportunity to work with the French foreign ministry took Johannes back to his second home, Paris, where many good friends and memories still reside. And by 2007 Johannes was working in his current position of programme manager of the Erasmus Programme, yet another positive impact of his exchange experience, and contact person to ESN within the Commission.  His work and life had taken him in many directions and offered him many experiences, but his belief in the value of exchange, mobility and international cooperation that had been fostered throughout his entire life meant that he could put all of these skills and experiences into practice and contribute to the development and improvement of student mobility in the Erasmus programme and of education and training in Europe.

Written by Leo Smith