Brussels, 20/03/2006 (Agence Europe) - The overall number of students taking part on Erasmus exchanges rose by over 6.3% on the previous year (144,037 students). The most dramatic increases were observed in the new Member States where student exchanges in those countries rose on average by 36.3%. Even more impressive was the 20,877 university teaching staff who also participated in the Erasmus exchanges - an increase of 12.9%. Most of the 31 participating countries experienced a growth in incoming mobility, whereas the figures for outgoing mobility from the participating countries were more varied. Spain remained the most popular destination for students, welcoming 25,511 over the year, with France in second place (20,519), followed by Germany (17,273) and the United Kingdom (16,266). Germany was again the primary destination for teaching staff, hosting 2,623 over the year, followed by France (2,261) and Italy (1,897). The academic year 2004-2005 was also the first in which Turkish universities participated in the Erasmus programme (the programme has been going since 1987): some 1,142 Turkish students benefited, while 342 students from other participating countries went to Turkish universities. Business studies was again the most popular subject area for student exchanges, followed by languages/philology and social sciences. The profile was slightly different for Erasmus teacher exchanges, where the most popular subject area was languages/ philology, followed by engineering/technology and business studies. Ján Figel', European Commissioner for Education, said that these figures reveal that the new Member States are fully taking part in the benefits of membership of the EU and that this was a continuing trend.