Tag Archives: esn

ESU and ESN urge EU Council to align with EP proposal to triple the funding of Erasmus+ 2021-2027

From the network - 30th October 2019

“As the voice of all European students in higher education and within the Erasmus+ programme, we would like to stress that continued investment in Erasmus+ is needed in order to reach the European wide target of 20% mobile students,” says Sebastian Berger, Vice President of ESU. “We believe that it is a political imperative to take this incredible European success story forward by securing sufficient funding for the next cycle.”

Kostis Giannidis, President of ESN declares that “tripling the funding of the next programme is crucial to ensure more equal access for a larger group of beneficiaries from all ages, especially those from disadvantaged groups, who are still underrepresented within Erasmus+.” Giannidis affirms that “the programme needs to benefit the many, not only the few. Increased accessibility and a focus on creating an inclusive program have to be at the heart of all policy considerations.”

ESU mobility expert and EC member Monika Skadborg concludes with stating that “a strong and well-funded Erasmus+ will reinforce the global dimension of the programme and the internationalisation of education in Europe. This will lead to a more cohesive society, active citizenship and intercultural understanding.”

The European Students Union (ESU) and the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) launched their “Joint Position Paper on the Future of Erasmus+” this morning in Brussels. Read the full “Joint Position Paper on the Future of Erasmus+” here.

For further information and requests kindly reach out to:

Carlos Perez Garcia (ESU) | +43 699 81 33 65 42 | carlos.perez@esu-online.org

Sabina Achim (ESN) | +32 470 47 22 25 | communication@esn.org

ESN Survey 2019

From the network - 20th March 2019

The ESNsurvey 2019 has been officially launched and the topic is transversal to all education actors, as this edition is focused on mobility students and their sense of citizenship in political, civil and social actions.

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How affected are the lives of these students after their exchanges? What is the impact of a mobility experience in students who through the programme have the opportunity to meet new cultures, new friends, live in an international environment? With the questionnaire we aim at understanding the difference between these students and those who never had the opportunity to participate in the Erasmus+ Programme. Our research is going to focus on the impact of the abroad experience in the participation of international students in society. Does going abroad make students more engaged at a political, civil, and social level? What are the particular aspects of active citizenship gained through the abroad experience? Does this have an impact on their opinion about the European Union, as the entity that finances the Erasmus+ Programme? And on their voting behaviour? How do these elements interact with each other?

We would like to ask you to spread the 2019 Questionnaire among your organisations as we have several targets that you can reach:

1)  Current Erasmus+ Higher Education participants
2)  Current Participants of other types of Higher Education mobilities
3)  Alumni of Higher Education exchange programmes

4)  Local students who did not or do not consider an exchange

As we are addressing as well alumni and local students since we aim to assess the eventual effect on the long term of participating on a mobility experience, we would benefit a lot to get as many answers as possible from people that you work with.

The survey is very easy to fill, anonymous though we will ask the participants to leave their email so that we can come back to them after the EP elections and understand if they participated.

The survey can be reached at https://esn.org/survey2019

Inclusive Mobility Alliance launched

From the network Inclusion and solidarity News - 18th January 2019

The Inclusive Mobility Alliance project has started!

On the 27th and 28th of September 2018, more than 20 organisations with expertise in the fields of Youth mobility, Higher Education mobility and Disability have gathered in Brussels to start discussing and defining what it means to organise an Inclusive Mobility (aka a mobility that is fully inclusive and allows everybody to take part in it, regardless of their socio-economic background).

Since 2007, the number of students with disabilities taking part in Erasmus+ has been almost stagnating while the number of young people experiencing Erasmus+ exchanges is increasing rapidly. The question of the inclusiveness of one of the flagship EU programmes has been raised much time over the past few years. Despite many efforts made, Erasmus+ is still considered by many as a rather elitist programme.

During a meeting organised at the European Parliament on the 5th of December 2017 and hosted by MEP Damiano Zoffoli (S&D), the stakeholders present agreed to create an alliance of organisations working on the topic of Inclusive Mobility.

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During the first day, participants had the chance to get to know each other, discover the work of the other organisations as well as some of the good practices already existing on the topic, such as:

They also defined the concept of Inclusive Mobility and brainstormed on the core elements that make a mobility abroad fully inclusive.

During the second day, the partners received Lloyd Huitson, Policy Officer at the European Commission DG EAC, who introduced the EU Commission proposal for the next Erasmus programme 2021-2027, that is currently being discussed at the European Parliament. After a round of questions and answers about its Social Dimension aspects, participants worked in groups to identify what works and what doesn’t work currently in the Erasmus+ programme and came up with realistic solutions on how to improve the future Erasmus programme post-2020.

By the end of the year, the project partners will produce a set of recommendations for policy-makers at all levels (European, National, Regional and Local) on how to make international mobility more inclusive. The Alliance will also be officially created and launched in December 2018 with a long-lasting aim of monitoring EU and national policies as well as advocating for more inclusive mobility programmes. Stay tuned!

The Inclusive Mobility Alliance project is co-funded by JINT, the Flemish National Agency for Youth. For more information, please contact dominique.montagnese@esn.org.

This article appeared first on ESN’s website