ERASMUS CHANGING LIVES OPENING MINDS fOR 25 YEARS

Marc
Goffart
‘I never imagined things would go so fast’
Home institution:
University of Ghent, Belgium
Host institution:
Free University of Amsterdam,
The Netherlands
Field of study:
Germanic Languages and Literature,
Teacher Training
Duration:
3 months (1990)
When he moved from the University of Ghent to the Free University of Amsterdam
for three months in 1990, Marc Goffart was one of the very first students to be
selected for Ghent’s participation in Erasmus. ‘I had learnt about the programme
just a year before that. And I thought “That’ll be very nice for my children”. I never
imagined things would move forward so fast that I would be a beneficiary myself.’
He found it a challenging experience. ‘I had imagined Flanders and the Netherlands
to be a rather more unified area than they turned out to be, linguistically, culturally
and politically. That made me reflect on my own identity, as a Belgian, with
Flemish roots and Dutch as my native language.’ And he noticed some major differences
between teaching methods. ‘The Dutch approach puts a lot of emphasis
on self-study, essays, smaller discussion groups and so on. The Flemish teaching
system, particularly at that time, was more theoretical, more ex cathedra.’
Back in Ghent, he helped to found the local branch of the Erasmus Student
Network. His Erasmus mobility was ‘one of the main reasons why I subsequently
got a job in the university’s international relations’. It also ‘opened the European
door for me’, leading to his present post with the European Commission. He
hopes the day will come when most national politicians will be former Erasmus
students. ‘It will give them more of a European perspective, and that will help
them to take a richer view of governance.’
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