The educational programs of the European Union (EU) are linked to its budget periods of 7 years. This paper considers the practical placements of higher educational students, young graduates. Year 2007 is the end of EU Leonardo da Vinci (LdV) II program (which supported industrial internships on all level), and the start of some new programs containing similar activities.

In the first part of the paper the authors describe and evaluate the results of the past 7 years presenting mainly the participation of Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME) in the LdV program. BME is the largest Hungarian engineering school (70 % of Msc level diplomas, 25% of beneficiaries of Hungarian LdV practical placements). More than 400 students received scholarships for long LdV placements (3-5 month) abroad in the framework of 19 mobility projects (one of them was selected into the 5 best European higher educational internships).

Second part is devoted to the questions of the next 7 year term. The new EU Erasmus program will support both academic and practical placements of higher education students. The new EU Leonardo da Vinci III program is open for the young graduates. The work on the adaptation of the previous experience to the current situation is discussed.

The first author is a former member of the Hungarian Leonardo da Vinci Advisory Board, and LdV institutional coordinator of BME, a regular participant of ICEE(R) conferences. The second author is the LdV financial coordinator of BME. They believe that the paper can contribute to the development of practical placements, creation of new partnerships.