Ghent: 12th Council of Rectors meeting.

The EUF Council of Rectors, the highest decision-making body of the network, gathered at Ghent University on the 12th of March 2019 for its annual meeting. During the meeting, conducted by Prof. Ariadni Stogiannidou, Prof. Maria Gravari-Barbas and Prof. Ina Druviete, the Council unanimously approved a new member university — Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) in the presence of Prof. Kristel Baele, the President of EUR. Also in attendance were representatives of our newest member universities, Vice-Rector Helder Vasconcelos (University of Porto), as well as Vice-Rector Alex Aguilar Vila and Delegate of the Rector for Internationalisation Bibiana Crespo Martin (University of Barcelona), who gave a brief overview of their institutions. Read more.

Vienna: Erasmus keeps going digital!

Photo credits: Hans Schubert
On April 25th, the University of Vienna welcomed more than 140 participants and 18 National Agencies for the Erasmus Going Digital conference. The plenary was opened by Ms. Harpa Sif Arnarsdottir (DG EAC), who explained the EU strategy on digitisation in general and the European Student Card Initiative in particular. During the morning sessions, the Erasmus Dashboard, the Online Learning Agreement (OLA), the Erasmus+ App and Erasmus Without Paper (EWP) were discussed, followed by a presentation on the latest developments, including the MyAcademicID project and the upcoming OLA and EWP new functionalities. In the afternoon, participants took part in different practical workshops designed and facilitated by the EUF, OLA consortium partners and the DG EAC. Read more and see the photos of the event!

EUNIS Annual Congress: meet us there!

The EUNIS Annual Congress will take place from the 5th to the 7th of June in Trondheim. Aimed at experts and managers of information systems in higher education, the event features a pre-conference workshop on student mobility on June 4th, where the EUF will lead a technical discussion on Erasmus Without Paper, MyAcademicID and OpenU. Registration for the congress (or for the workshop only) is still open!

Summer Staff Trainings: limited spots.

The staff training "International Student Experience", targeted at university staff members dealing with exchange students and student mobility, is organised by the EUF, in cooperation with the Erasmus Student Network and will take place in Brussels.

In 2019, the EC promotes Erasmus+ funded project proposals to help your institution to digitise Erasmus+ management. Learn from the drivers of digitalisation during the Open Space, organised by the EUF in cooperation with the University of Versailles.

Launch: OpenU policy experimentation.

OpenU is a policy experimentation project funded by the European Commission under Erasmus+ KA3 and aims at developing an online hub that will pool existing resources and tools in Europe to further cooperation and blended learning opportunities for (potential) students and staff. The consortium, composed of 6 ministries, 11 universities, 1 national agency and 3 European networks gathered in Paris from the 23rd to the 24th of April to initiate the project, notably by discussing the priorities of ministries and universities in this context. The EUF will work in close cooperation with the work package leaders since it will be responsible for the deployment of the hub in line with existing digital initiatives.

PhD Hub: enhancing employability.

On the 1st and 2nd of April, EuroDoc and Focus Research co-organised their annual event gathering PhD candidates, universities as well as practitioners from all over Europe. The 2-day conference enabled in-depth discussions on several key aspects of doctoral education. This year's thematic focused on the employability of PhD candidates. The European PhD Hub was presented as the online portal to enhance the employability of PhD candidates and the applicability of their PhD results in industry. More than 200 participants learned more about the good practices of the Higher Education and private sector and how to foster interdisciplinary, intersectoral, international cooperation mechanisms in doctoral studies. C ontact us to request more information about the European PhD Hub.

Groningen Declaration conference.

The Groningen Declaration Network (GDN) held its 8th Annual Meeting (AM) from the 24th to 26th of April 2019 at the UPAEP, Mexico. When the GDN was launched in 2012, the notion of a global ecosystem for student data was a distant vision, but the last 3-4 years have seen a proliferation of new and exciting initiates from Mexico to Australia, which goes to show the GDN has acted as an effective catalyst for a forward-looking digital agenda. Valère Meus and João Bacelar attended the Puebla meeting to present the latest Erasmus Without Paper developments, which attracted interest among public and private partners, as well as bodies such as the UNESCO.

Citizenship and student mobility survey.

The ESNsurvey is a Europe-wide research project covering different topics concerning student mobility and education. This year’s edition of the ESNsurvey covers the topic of active citizenship and international student mobility. Using the results of this questionnaire, ESN will aim to understand what the impact is of studying abroad in the development of students' citizenship engagement from a political, civil, and social perspective. Please consider sharing the survey among your students!

Record number of HEIs attend webinar.

On March 7th, the DG EAC – together with colleagues from DG CNECT and the EUF – held “Erasmus goes Digital”, an interactive webinar to share the vision for digitalisation in the future Erasmus programme. Representatives from over 750 institutions from 40 countries tuned in to get more information on how to prepare for the transition from paper-based to digital processes, as well as how to better manage student mobilities. Read/watch more.

EU elections: all you need to know.

From 23rd to 26th of May 2019, people in the EU vote for the next European Parliament. It’s the moment to make your voice heard! Read more about how to vote and how the EU benefits your job, education, among others.