he reason was that they aimed at promoting better relations between their citizens, and improving understanding of cultures, languages and institutions. The programmes were designed to facilitate the acquisition of skills needed for the global knowledge-based economy.
However, in 2016 OCEANS opened up its membership to anyone who has participated in a credit mobility programme that met the following qualification.
The person must have received university credits from their home university that was in an Erasmus+ Programme country and International Mobility Credits from a university in an Erasmus+ Partner country.

Or vice-versa, meaning a person is eligible to be an OCEANS member if they attended university in an Erasmus+ Partner country and received International Mobility Credits from a university in an Erasmus+ Programme country.
In simple terms, if you studied at two different universities on two different continents (with one of them in a European Erasmus+ Programme country) then you qualify to join OCEANS.

Programme Countries are those countries participating fully in the Erasmus+ programme. To do so, they have set up a National Agency and contribute financially to the programme. The 34 Programme Countries are: the 27 EU Member States, and North Macedonia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Serbia, Turkey and United Kingdom (as a participating country during the transition period, until 31 December 2020).

Partner Countries are all the other countries in the world, grouped together in different regions.

So if you are eligible, then you can become a member of the community.