The Educa Consortium has been operating in the Czech Republic since 2008. At that time, its aim was to support a new Erasmus programme activity – student traineeships – which were a completely new initiative for universities, and their implementation in higher education institutions was rather challenging. From its very first year, the Educa Consortium began to expand, with new members joining almost every year, while also broadening its range of activities. Today, the Educa Consortium carries out all activities available under the Erasmus+ programme for higher education institutions (study periods, student and graduate traineeships, staff teaching, and staff training abroad for consortium members). This project period ends with a total of 25 consortium members. From the 2023 budget, the following new members were able to draw grants: - University of West Bohemia in Pilsen - Mendel University in Brno - Newton University - Ambis University - VSB – Technical University of Ostrava - College of Technology and Business in Volyně These schools are not specified on the list of "Participating beneficiary organisations" and other partners are missing, too (COPSU Sezimovo Ústí and UJEP Ústí nad Labem) The consortium saw its first withdrawal, when VETUNI left the membership. However, throughout the academic year 2024/2025, students and staff of this university were still able to draw grants from the 2023 budget. It should be added that during its entire membership, this university never made use of the opportunity to draw grants, neither for students and graduates nor for staff. At first glance, it may seem that Erasmus participants can arrange their mobilities independently without being part of a consortium. In reality, the situation is different. On one hand, there are small private universities for which it is more practical not to apply individually for project funding or conclude contracts with the Czech National Agency (DZS). Such a process requires an adequate administrative and financial background to manage participant contracts, financial reporting, and interim/final project reports. (Examples of such consortium members include: University of Health and Social Work, University of Creative Communication, College in Sezimovo Ústí, College in Volyně, and VOŠ Svatý Ján pod Skalou.) In this case, participation in the consortium also reduces the administrative workload for the DZS, since it avoids concluding contracts and allocating funds for only a very limited number of participants at each small private university/college. Moreover, Educa passes on its experience to these smaller schools and strengthens their engagement in mobility. On the other hand, the consortium also includes large public and private universities. Although these institutions have their own budgets to finance mobilities of their students and staff, they are sometimes less active in sending graduates abroad for traineeships. This is because graduate placements carry a certain risk: graduates no longer have a formal link with their alma mater, and a simple contractual agreement regarding an EU grant is not always considered sufficient to secure against potential financial loss. For this reason, Educa, in cooperation with public universities, mainly focuses on traineeships (around 61% of all mobilities carried out). Out of the total of 118 traineeships realized, 88% (104 traineeships) were graduate placements. This is also due to the fact that schools do not want to risk paying grants to graduates who have already finished their studies and have no connection to the school. These concerns are unfounded precisely on the basis of practical experience from Educa's activities, when it did not happen that any graduate misused a grant paid from the Erasmus+ budget. Overall, the consortium has managed to implement the full scope of Erasmus+ mobility activities for its members. Our particular focus has been on supporting new members with little experience and limited international contacts, so that their students and staff could benefit from the same quality of mobility services as those at more established universities (e.g., University of Creative Communication, University of Health Sciences, UCP, College in Volyně, COP, and College in Sezimovo Ústí). Graduate traineeships were organized mainly for universities such as Charles University and the Czech University of Life Sciences.