The European Investment Fund (EIF) is working with the University of Luxembourg to launch a new pilot scheme, allowing students to defer tuition fees and student accommodation rent payments for two years. This agreement will support students from any of the 32 other Erasmus+ Programme Countries to move to Luxembourg in order to undertake their Masters programme at its university.

The new EUR 5 million pilot scheme is expected to benefit more than 300 master students. The University of Luxembourg will not require any collateral or third party guarantees and will offer the new programme at favourable conditions, for example a 5-year repayment plan. The agreement between the EIF and the University of Luxembourg is the first of its kind in Europe and benefits from the Erasmus+ loan guarantee scheme, funded by the European Union and managed by EIF.

EIF deputy Chief Executive Roger Havenith said: “Rising education costs is often cited as one of the barriers preventing students from leaving their home countries to study abroad. This new pilot scheme with EIF and the University of Luxembourg will ease access to Masters level education without the added burden of upfront costs for EU students.”

Commissioner Tibor Navracsics welcomed this first agreement with a university, saying: "This contract with the University of Luxembourg marks a new chapter for the Erasmus+ Master Loan Scheme. The involvement and commitment of universities is one of the big strengths of Erasmus+ and helps us continuously improve the programme. New initiatives to support student mobility such as the Master Loan scheme open up fresh opportunities to students and universities alike, and I encourage more universities to take advantage of them.”

Special advisor Fundraising and former Vice-president of the University of Luxembourg, Eric Tschirhart said: “As the most international higher education institution in Europe, the University of Luxembourg is at the forefront of recruitment of student talents through Erasmus+ and excels as a model of a European research university in the 21st century. The new pilot scheme is an essential action to support new incoming master students to Luxembourg and contributes to the EU Youth Strategy and the Europe 2020 strategy”.

The EU Erasmus+ guarantee scheme allows EIF to provide capped guarantees and counter-guarantees to financial intermediaries which in turn grant loans to students who will move to undertake a full Master's degree in another country taking part in the Erasmus+ programme.

Master's students who are interested in making an application to the University of Luxembourg can get further information at: www.uni.lu/students/students_and_money.

EIF has launched a Call for Expression of Interest targeting financial institutions and other intermediaries which provide finance to mobile master students. Interested financial institutions can find further information on the programme and application process on EIF’s website at www.eif.org.

About EIF

The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of the European Investment Bank Group. Its central mission is to support Europe's micro, small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) by helping them to access finance. EIF designs and develops venture and growth capital, guarantees and microfinance instruments which specifically target this market segment. In this role, EIF fosters EU objectives in support of innovation, research and development, entrepreneurship, growth, and employment.

About Erasmus + Master Loans

The Erasmus+ programme, of which the Erasmus+ Master Student Loan Guarantee Facility is part, is the biggest mover of students in the EU, with over 300.000 higher education students and staff studying, working or undertaking a traineeship in another European country every year. It is managed by the European Commission's Directorate General for Education and Culture (DG EAC) and its executive agency. Erasmus+ Master Loans are currently available to mobile Master students in all 33 Erasmus+ Programme Countries through Financial Intermediaries in Spain, France, UK, Turkey and now also in Luxembourg.

Prospective students who are interested in obtaining finance can get further information at: https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/opportunities-for-individuals/students/erasmus-plus-master-degree-loans_en.

About the University of Luxembourg

The University of Luxembourg is a European research university with a distinctly international, multilingual and interdisciplinary character. Founded in 2003, it employs researchers and staff from all over the world and has currently about 6,200 students. The University ranks 178^th in the latest edition of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. The main focus areas for its research are computational sciences and ICT, systems biomedicine, European law, finance and educational sciences.

Press contacts:

EIF: David Yormesor, Tel.: +352 42 66 88 346, e-mail: d.yormesor@eif.org

University of Luxembourg: Britta Schlüter, Tel.: +352 46 66 44 6563, e-mail: britta.schlueter@uni.lu