1. The European Student Card
From a bottom up project to an instrument offered by the European Commission to the Higher Education community
The European Commission launched the European Student Card Initiative (ESCI) which aims at facilitating student mobility around Europe by promoting the digitalisation of administrative procedures and information exchange between Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) and their students. In addition, it aims at making the management of mobility easier, more efficient and greener. This initiative brings together three important building blocks: the Erasmus+ App, the Erasmus Without Paper and the European Student Card (ESC).
The journey of the European Student Card started back in 2016 as an EU-funded project which provided students with easy access to services in an integrated way, with no need to issue a new student card. Since then, the European Student Card is highlighted as a key instrument for facilitating student mobility under the European Education Area by 2025 and the Digital Education Action Plan 2021-2027.