SUMMARYThe European Community has played a key role in organizing student mobility programmes and in emphasizing the need for a European medical culture. The need for a common core of medical principles and efforts to strengthen inter‐European cooperation nurture the philosophy of these exchanges. The Faculty of Medicine of Oviedo has been working on student mobility programmes for the last 7 years. As a result of this activity, about four hundred medical students have participated in various exchanges. This experience is highly positive both for the students and for the institutions taking part in it. The students have the chance to become acquainted with a different country, language, culture and medical training system. Meanwhile, the institutions benefit from their students’ experience as well as having the opportunity of starting further cooperative program