Erasmus+ KA171: The Complete University Guide to International Credit Mobility with Third Countries (2026)

Most European university coordinators know Erasmus+ KA131 by heart. The monthly grant amounts, the ECHE requirements, the Learning Agreement workflow: all of it has become second nature after years of practice. But a parallel action within the same programme opens an entirely different geography of partnership. Through KA171, known as International Credit Mobility (ICM), European universities can send and receive students from institutions in Indonesia, India, Vietnam, South Africa, Morocco, Colombia, and over 150 other countries that fall outside the standard Erasmus+ programme countries. The 2026 call is now closed for applications, with projects starting August 1, 2026, but planning for the 2027 call begins now.

KA171 receives a fraction of the attention that KA131 does, and is absent from most international office induction programmes. The practical result is that the European institutions that do apply, and there are thousands of them, build partnerships with universities in Indonesia's IISMA programme, India's top engineering schools, Vietnamese research universities, and East African institutions that their peers in the same city have never considered. This reference guide explains how KA171 works, who can participate, what it pays, and how to get started.

KA171 vs. KA131: The Critical Distinction

Before going further, it is worth being precise about terminology, because the Erasmus+ programme uses overlapping labels in ways that create confusion for coordinators new to the global mobility strand.

KA131 (Higher Education Student and Staff Mobility) covers mobility between "programme countries," which are the EU member states plus a group of associated countries including Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, and a small number of others. If a university in the Netherlands wants to send students to Germany, Sweden, or Spain, that is KA131 territory. It is administered by national agencies and it is by far the larger and more familiar strand of Erasmus+ higher education mobility.

KA171 covers mobility with "third countries not associated to the programme." These are the countries that do not appear on the KA131 eligible list: Indonesia, India, South Africa, Kenya, Vietnam, Morocco, Mexico, Brazil, Canada, Japan, Australia, and over 140 others. If a Belgian university wants to exchange students with a South African institution or an Indonesian programme, and if it wants to fund that mobility through Erasmus+, KA171 is the relevant action.

The practical distinction matters because the application, the funding architecture, and the administrative requirements differ significantly between the two actions. KA131 is applied for as part of a university's general Erasmus+ Higher Education Institutions grant; KA171 requires a separate project application submitted to the national agency for each region or group of countries the university wants to partner with.

Eligible Countries and the Regional Structure

KA171 eligible countries are organised into world regions, and each region has its own budget envelope funded separately by the EU. The regional structure reflects the EU's external policy priorities rather than simple geographic or economic categorisation. A university applying for KA171 funding must specify which region or regions it is targeting, and the eligible partner countries within each region are defined by the European Commission's programme guide.

Budget envelopes vary substantially between regions. Sub-Saharan Africa consistently receives one of the largest allocations, reflecting EU development cooperation priorities. The Asia Pacific envelope covers some of the most in-demand third-country destinations, including India, Indonesia, and Vietnam. The envelope for North America, Australia, and New Zealand exists but is historically small, reflecting the policy judgment that students from these regions can self-fund and that these destinations do not align with EU development or neighbourhood objectives.

For European universities with active partnerships in Indonesia or India (particularly given the growth of the IISMA programme from Indonesia), KA171 via the Asia Pacific regional envelope is the relevant funding mechanism. For institutions building connections with African universities, Sub-Saharan Africa is the envelope to target.

Grant Amounts: What KA171 Pays

KA171 grant amounts differ from KA131 amounts in structure as well as level. Under KA131, grant rates vary by destination country and are grouped into three tiers based on cost-of-living differentials. Under KA171, the structure is different: the grant rates are set at a flat monthly maintenance amount (approximately EUR 700 per month as of the 2025-2026 call, though the precise figure is confirmed by each national agency's call documentation) regardless of whether the student is going to a high-cost or low-cost country. In addition, students receive a travel contribution calculated based on the distance between the sending and receiving institution.

The rationale for a flat rate under KA171 is that the programme is as much about institutional capacity-building and geopolitical connectivity as it is about cost-of-living support. The grant is designed to make participation possible for students who would otherwise not be able to afford long-haul mobility, not to precisely calibrate maintenance support to local price levels.

Travel grants are calculated using the European Commission's distance calculator and are applied per mobility. For long-haul destinations (over 4,000 km from the sending institution), travel grants are substantially higher and can reach EUR 1,500 or more per participant. This makes KA171 a financially viable option for students who would otherwise self-fund travel to Asia, Africa, or Latin America.

One important operational detail: unlike KA131, KA171 mobilities for traineeships and studies are treated with equal grant rates. This makes it somewhat more attractive for universities that want to develop work placement or internship programmes with third-country partners, rather than purely academic exchange.

How Universities Apply: The Project Application Process

KA171 applications are submitted by EU universities (not by individual students) to their national Erasmus+ agency. The application is project-based: a university applies for a grant to carry out a defined number of mobilities with named partner institutions over a project period of 2-3 years.

The 2026 call had a deadline of February 19, 2026 in most EU countries (exact dates vary by national agency). Successful applications result in a project starting August 1, 2026 and running until July 31, 2028 or July 31, 2029 depending on the project duration requested. Planning for the 2027 call should begin in autumn 2026, as most national agencies issue their guidelines and open the application portal in November or December of the preceding year.

What a successful application requires

A KA171 application is evaluated on the quality of the partnership, the relevance of the proposed mobilities, the institutional capacity to manage them, and the contribution to the EU's strategic priorities for the relevant region. Unlike KA131, which is largely administrative in character (confirming that a university holds a valid ECHE and plans to use its Erasmus+ grant), KA171 applications are assessed competitively and not all applicants receive funding.

Before submitting an application, EU universities must have (or be actively negotiating) an inter-institutional agreement with each proposed third-country partner. The IIA is a bilateral document that specifies the terms of the exchange: the number of students per direction per year, the academic level (bachelor, master, PhD), the language of instruction, and the administrative contacts at both institutions. Without a signed or substantially agreed IIA, a KA171 application for that partnership will not be approved.

The application also requires evidence that the proposed mobilities align with the EU's stated priorities for the region. For Sub-Saharan Africa, this typically means demonstrating a development cooperation dimension. For Asia Pacific, applications that connect EU universities with partner institutions in sectors of EU strategic interest (digital technology, green transition, health sciences) tend to score more highly. Coordinators who have read their national agency's specific call guidance in detail are substantially better positioned than those working from the general programme guide alone.

What Mobility Looks Like in Practice

KA171 mobilities work in both directions. An EU university can send its own students to partner institutions abroad (outgoing), and can receive students from those same institutions (incoming). The funding comes from the EU budget and is administered through the EU university regardless of which direction the student travels: the EU institution both applies for and manages the grant.

Outgoing mobility (EU students going abroad)

EU students going to third-country partners under KA171 must be enrolled at an EU higher education institution holding a valid Erasmus Charter for Higher Education (ECHE). They must be nominated by their home institution and accepted by the partner institution, and they must have a signed Learning Agreement before departure. For traineeship mobility, the Learning Agreement for Traineeships applies rather than the studies version; both are now required to be processed digitally through the Erasmus Without Paper (EWP) network where it is technically possible.

Students on KA171 traineeship mobilities are specifically supported in completing work placements at host companies or organisations in the partner country. This is a notable feature: KA171 does not restrict outgoing students to study periods at the partner university. A student going to Indonesia under KA171 can complete a structured internship at an Indonesian company, provided the placement is endorsed by the receiving university and meets the academic and quality standards set in the Learning Agreement.

For students at universities within the Internship Abroad network, KA171 traineeship mobility creates an additional pathway: students can use KA171 funding to support placements in countries like Indonesia, India, Vietnam, and South Africa, markets where Internship Abroad operates partner networks through internshipabroad.id and internshipabroad.in.

Incoming mobility (third-country students at EU universities)

Third-country students arriving at EU universities under KA171 receive the same EUR 700 per month maintenance grant, administered through the EU host institution. They are enrolled as regular exchange students, have access to the full range of academic programmes and facilities at the EU institution, and complete their mobility with an academic transcript that their home institution is expected to recognise.

The incoming dimension of KA171 is operationally demanding for EU international offices. Visa requirements for students arriving from many KA171 eligible countries (particularly from Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia Pacific) are complex and can result in significant delays or refusals that the programme does not insulate against. Housing provision for incoming students is the responsibility of the EU host institution, and in cities where student housing markets are already strained, this creates real capacity constraints.

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Connecting KA171 to Broader Institutional Strategy

For university international offices thinking about how KA171 fits into a broader internationalisation strategy, the programme is most valuable when it is treated as a complement to, not a substitute for, other partnership instruments. KA171 funding lasts two to three years and covers a defined number of mobilities. The relationships it builds often outlast the project period.

Several European universities have used KA171 projects as the starting point for partnerships that have subsequently grown into joint degree programmes, research collaborations, and multi-year institutional agreements funded through other EU external action instruments. The bilateral IIA required for a KA171 application is itself an asset: it is a document that both institutions have signed, which gives it weight in subsequent partnership discussions that an informal email exchange does not have.

Universities looking to expand their traineeship mobility beyond the standard Erasmus+ geography should also note that KA171 traineeship provisions are compatible with coordinated placement networks. If an EU university has a relationship with a placement partner that operates in India, Indonesia, or South Africa, that partner can serve as the employer for KA171-funded traineeship mobilities. The student is still nominally enrolled as an exchange student at the third-country partner university, but the work placement is the substantive experience.

The Internship Abroad EU governments page provides context on how national mobility frameworks interact with Erasmus+ in markets including Indonesia, India, South Africa, and Vietnam. For university coordinators considering their first KA171 application, the institutions partnership page outlines how formal coordination arrangements with Internship Abroad can support the placement side of KA171 traineeship mobilities.

The 2027 Call: Planning Ahead

The 2026 KA171 call closed in February 2026. Institutions that did not apply in time, or that want to expand or add new regional partnerships, should begin preparing now for the 2027 call. Based on the consistent pattern across the 2022-2026 calls, the 2027 application guidelines will be published by national agencies in approximately November 2026, with a deadline in February 2027 for a project start of August 1, 2027.

The most productive preparation steps in the intervening period are straightforward. Identify which third-country institutions you want to partner with. Initiate contact with their international offices and discuss whether an IIA is feasible. Draft an IIA based on your national agency's template. Attend any information sessions your national agency offers before the call opens; these sessions often include detailed scoring criteria that do not appear in the publicly available guidance. Read the most recent programme guide chapter on KA171 carefully: the funding conditions and eligible activities are updated annually and the specifics matter.

For institutions in the Internship Abroad network, our partnerships team can help bridge introductions to partner universities in Indonesia, India, and South Africa where we operate, supporting the IIA process and the placement coordination that a KA171 traineeship project requires. See the network page for the full list of markets and how collaboration works.