This Wednesday 18th October come out to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Erasmus at the Flag Parade! Bring your flag of your home country and proudly put it on display as you walk through the city. The parade starts at Komenského náměstí (next to the Masaryk statue, near Česká) at 3 pm.
Erasmus program, which was established in 1987, has sent over 9 million people to countries throughout Europe. Do not know much about the program? Here's some Erasmus history for you.
The program was implemented by the European Union as a way to send students abroad. Receiving foreign students in the beginning was a challenge for Masaryk University, which started with the Erasmus program in 1998, but did not teach any English courses. However things have changed a lot since then. Just last year over 1400 students have used Erasmus to travel abroad from Masaryk, and 600 foreign students came to Brno.
In 2000, the University created the Center for International Cooperation (CIC), which handles international and foreign affairs. Its challenge was not only promoting the university to students but also the city of Brno. These tasks were left to the professionals who worked in the CIC but Masaryk University also needed an organization that could handle the task of helping exchange students get acclimated to the city and show them a good time. So they created the International Student Club (ISC) in 2003 as a way to bridge the gap between exchange students and Czech life.
The ISC offers students many fun and exciting ways to get involved in the Czech student society. They are also the hosts of the Flag Parade so be sure to talk to them to find out what fun stuff they have planned afterwards and in the near future or search their website.