We joined Europe’s biggest event for higher education professionals to present the European Student Card Initiative and to talk about what’s coming up.
The EAIE conference welcomes over 7,300 participants, with more than 240 sessions and activities from over 200 exhibitors.
Just like in past years, the European Student Card Initiative (ESCI) was featured throughout the conference programme at the event on 9 – 12 September.
Shaping the future of the European Student Card Initiative
A panel session was a chance to highlight the main advancements of the European Student Card Initiative in 2025 and explain its upcoming direction. The European Commission’s department for education and culture (DG EAC) was represented by Victor Aguilar. He underlined the focus for the initiative until the end of the current Erasmus+ programme in 2027:
- ensuring continuity of the underlying infrastructure
- consolidating existing processes, including nominations and transcript of records
Representatives of the University of Iceland (Nanna Teitsdottir) and KU Leuven (Bert Willems) shared their experience implementing Erasmus Without Paper and the impact it has had on their day-to-day work.
Interactive sessions during EAIE
Throughout the event, several mini-sessions took place at the European Commission booth to showcase the main pillars of the initiative:
- Erasmus Without Paper (EWP) – with a presentation focused on answering questions about the nominations module
- European Student Card (ESC) – introducing its main benefits, how it works, and how universities can start to implement it
- ESCI Champions – three newly appointed ESCI Champions (Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Stockholm University and West University of Timisoara) shared their experiences and provided examples of their implementation of EWP and the ESC
Official announcement of the ESCI Champions
The kick-off meeting of the ESCI Champions 2025 – 2027 was hosted by the University of Gothenburg.
The Champions discussed how they can support the uptake of the ESCI in their countries, possible targets to guide implementation and the digitalisation priorities for the next Erasmus+ programme.
They also agreed on what they will implement in the next two-years to promote ESCI among their peers, including sharing testimonials and best practices, and organising and participating in national and European-level events.
Originally published on the ESCI portal.