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Erasmus Student Network

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The Erasmus Student Network (ESN) is a Europe-wide student organisation.

Erasmus Student Network
AbbreviationESN
Formation16 October 1989
TypeINGO
Legal statusAISBL
PurposeEducational
HeadquartersBrussels, Belgium
Location
  • Rue Joseph II 120
    1000 Brussels, Belgium
Coordinates50°50′54″N 4°22′18″E / 50.848256°N 4.371761°E / 50.848256; 4.371761
Region served
Europe (41 countries)
West Asia (3 countries)
Central Asia (1 country)
Membership
Student organisations
Official language
English[1]
President
Ana Rita Dias
Main organ
General Assembly (GA)
AffiliationsYFJ (full membership)[2]

LLLP (full membership)[3]
European Movement International (full membership)[4]
ECAS (full membership)[5]
GCE (full membership)[6]
IAU (affiliate member)[7]
EAIE (courtesy member)[citation needed]

Council of Europe (participatory status)[8]
Staff5 International Board Members, 9 employees, 5 trainees
Volunteers
519 local sections, about 15,000 volunteers (June 2024)
Websiteesn.org

The organisation supports and develops student exchanges, both inside the Erasmus+ programme and outside of it. The local ESN sections offer help, guidance and information to both exchange students and students doing a full degree abroad – by informing them, but also providing them with different trips or events. National and international level support the local level by providing necessary tools, as well as communicating with national Erasmus+ organisations or the European Commission in general.

The goal of the organisation is to support and develop student exchange on the local, national and international levels. It is composed of around 15,000 members distributed across 519 local sections in 45 countries in higher education Institutions, including universities, polytechnics, and university colleges.

History

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In 1987, the European Community approved a plan to create a mobility scheme for higher education. Part of it was the Erasmus programme – an exchange programme for students to provide students with the opportunity to spend part of their studies abroad.

In 1989, the Erasmus Bureau invited 32 former Erasmus Students for an evaluation meeting in Ghent, Belgium. This meeting was the starting point for the Erasmus Student Network. The lack of peer-to-peer support was singled out as a major issue and the driving force behind the creation of the Erasmus Student Network, named for the Dutch Renaissance humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam.[9]

By 1994, ESN had 60 sections in 14 countries. In 2004, it consisted of 170 sections in and outside Europe, reaching as far as Scandinavia, the Caucasus and Morocco. In 2005, ESN established its headquarters in Brussels and legally registered as a Belgian non-profit organisation.

As of June 2024, ESN consists of 519 local associations ("sections") in 45 countries.[10]

The organisation supports students from the Erasmus programme and other bilateral agreements. It cooperates with national agencies in order to help international students – it does not, however, send people on exchanges itself.

Structure

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ESN works on three levels – local, national and international. Although it is composed near-exclusively of European student associations, no rule currently prevents associations outside of Europe from applying for membership.

Originally, no conditions existed regarding the geographic limits of ESN. In 2007, membership was restricted to the borders defined by the Council of Europe with the addition of Mediterranean countries. In 2015, this rule was modified to follow the borders of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) instead, before being relaxed in 2020 to UN member states and UN observer states, which is the current rule in place.

Local level

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ESN on the local level consists of "sections" that work with international students. They organise activities like introduction programmes, get-togethers and cultural events and represent the exchange students and their needs towards academic institutions and local authorities. Every year, representatives of the local sections meet at the Erasmus Generation Meeting (EGM).

National level

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The national level represents the needs of international students towards governments and national authorities. Local sections in the same countries form a National Assembly (NA) and, each year, they elect a National Board which represents the local sections on the international level.

List of National Organisations (NOs)

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Below is a list of all ESN National Organisations, past and present.[10][11]

Key
* Country with a single local section, which is spelled out if its name differs. Lacks the authority to admit new local sections.
** Candidate section
† Section does not exist anymore
Country Name Admission Local sections Regional Platform Notes
  Albania ESN Albania (ESN Tirana) * 2019[12] 1 SEEP
  Armenia ESN Armenia (ESN Yerevan) * 2022[13] 1 SEEP
  Austria ESN Austria 1992 15 CEP
  Azerbaijan ESN Azerbaijan (ESN ADA Baku) * 2007-2012, 2016[14][15] 1 SEEP Expelled in 2012 due to not being able to fulfill their duties. Rejoined in 2016.
  Belarus ESN Belarus † 2016-2022[14][16] - CEP (formerly) Expelled in 2022.[specify]
  Belgium ESN Belgium 1989 18 WEP Founding section of ESN.
  Bosnia and Herzegovina ESN Bosnia and Herzegovina 2006 2 SEEP
  Bulgaria ESN Bulgaria 2008 11 SEEP
  Croatia ESN Croatia 2011 7 CEP
  Cyprus ESN Cyprus (ESN Nicosia) * 2004-2008, 2010 1 SEEP Expelled in 2008 due to not being able to fulfill their duties. Rejoined in 2010.
  Czech Republic ESN Czech Republic 2002 19 CEP
  Denmark ESN Denmark 1990 6 NEP
  Estonia ESN Estonia 2001 5 NEP
  Finland ESN Finland 1993 15 NEP
  France ESN France 1998 34 SWEP
  Georgia ESN Georgia (ESN Tbilisi ISU) * 2011 1 SEEP
  Germany ESN Germany 1990 45 WEP
  Greece ESN Greece 1991 19 SEEP
  Hungary ESN Hungary 1999 14 CEP
  Iceland ESN Iceland ** 2007-2022 - NEP (formerly) Expelled in 2022 due to not being able to fulfill their duties. Currently a candidate section to rejoin the network.[17]
  Ireland ESN Ireland 2000 10 WEP
  Italy ESN Italy 1991 53 SWEP
  Jordan ESN Jordan (ESN Irbid) * 2023[17] 1 SEEP
  Kazakhstan ESN Kazakhstan (ESN Almaty) * 2023[18] 1 SEEP
  Latvia ESN Latvia 2003 3 NEP
  Liechtenstein ESN Liechtenstein (ESN University of Liechtenstein) * 2016[14][15] 1 WEP
  Lithuania ESN Lithuania 2003 11 NEP
  Luxembourg ESN Luxembourg * 2013 1 WEP
  Malta ESN Malta * 2012 1 SWEP
  Moldova ESN Moldova (ESN Chisinau) * 2020[19] 1 SEEP
  Montenegro ESN Montenegro (ESN Podgorica) * 2023[18] 1 SEEP
  Morocco ESN Morocco † 2004-2008 - SWEP (formerly) First non-European section. Expelled in 2008 due to not being able to fulfill their duties, unrelated to the newly-enacted rule to limit the borders of ESN, which did not affect it, being a Mediterranean country.
  Netherlands ESN the Netherlands 1989 16 WEP A lowercase "the" is included as part the section name.
  North Macedonia ESN North Macedonia (ESN Skopje) * 2007-2019, 2023[18] 1 SEEP Expelled in 2019.[specify] It was changed from "ESN Macedonia" after the 2018 resolution of the dispute over the country's name. Rejoined in 2023.
  Norway ESN Norway 1993 7 NEP
  Poland ESN Poland 2000 29 CEP
  Portugal ESN Portugal 1992 13 SWEP
  Romania ESN Romania 2004 14 SEEP
  Russia ESN Russia (ESN SPbSU) * 2002-2004, 2014[20] 1 NEP Expelled in 2004 due to not being able to fulfill their duties. Rejoined in 2014.
  Serbia ESN Serbia 2006 3 SEEP
  Slovakia ESN Slovakia 2004 10 CEP
  Slovenia ESN Slovenia 1999 4 CEP
  Spain ESN Spain 1998 38 SWEP
  Sweden ESN Sweden 1994 14 NEP
   Switzerland ESN Switzerland 1994 14 WEP
  Turkey ESN Türkiye 2005 39 SEEP Known as "ESN Turkey" until 2023.
  Ukraine ESN Ukraine 2002-2011, 2019[21][22] 2 CEP Expelled in 2011 due to not being able to fulfill their duties. Rejoined in 2019.
  United Kingdom ESN United Kingdom 1997 15 WEP
Country Name Admission Local sections Regional Platform Notes

International level

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The International Board is the executive body of ESN International and consists of six Board Members (President, Vice President for Governance, Vice President for Development, Treasurer, Communication Manager and Web Project Administrator). Since 2005, the members of the International Board are full-time volunteers living and working in Brussels. The International Board is supported by the Secretariat composed of employed staff and trainees.

ESN has five International Committees that work together with its respective International Board member in charge. The Committees of ESN are – International Committee for Education (ICE), Network Committee (NEC), Finance Committee (FICO), Communication Committee (ComCom) and IT Committee (IT).

International events

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Between its foundation in 1989 and 2020, ESN held Annual General Meetings (AGM), alternating in major cities throughout Europe. Since 2021, this has been replaced by Erasmus Generation Meetings (EGM). Other activities include annual Cultural Medleys (CM) from 1999 until 2012, and annual meetings of the organisation's five Regional Platforms.[11]

International Erasmus Games

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Main article: International Erasmus Games

The International Erasmus Games are a multi-sport event held annually for members of the Erasmus Student Network since 2015.[23][24][25] Initiated by a coordinated effort of ESN Poland and ESN Italy, the games bring together hundreds of participants from multiple countries worldwide.[24][25] The first International Erasmus Games were hosted in Kraków, Poland in 2015.[24][26]

Regional Platforms

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In 1997, the ESN Nordic Network Meeting (NNM) was established and took place for the first time in Arhus, Denmark. Starting from 2008, it would become known as the Northern European Platform (NEP). The Southern European Platform (SEP) became the second regional platform in the network in 2001, followed by the Central European Platform (CEP) in 2004. In 2007, SEP was separated into the South-Eastern European Platform (SEEP) and the South-Western European Platform (SWEP), while the westernmost countries in CEP split into the Western European Platform (WEP), creating the distribution that exists today.[11]

The current Regional Platforms and their member sections are the following:

  • Central European Platform (CEP) – Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.
  • Northern European Platform (NEP) – Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Russia and Sweden.
  • South-Eastern European Platform (SEEP) – Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Turkey.
  • South-Western European Platform (SWEP) – France, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain.
  • Western European Platform (WEP) – Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

References

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  1. ^ Statutes are both in English and French. Local languages are used by countries and local sections.
  2. ^ "Our members - ESN". YouthForum.org. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  3. ^ "Members - ESN". LLLPlatform.org. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  4. ^ "Membership - ESN". EuropeanMovement.eu. 18 November 2022. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  5. ^ "Members". ECAS.org. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  6. ^ "Our Member Organisations". GCEurope.org. 27 September 2021. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  7. ^ "ESN, the first student organisation to become IAU Affiliate". ESN.org. 11 June 2021. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  8. ^ "Implementation of Committee of Ministers Resolution (2003)8 on participatory status for international non-governmental organisations with the Council of Europe". COE.int. 29 September 2008. Retrieved 7 July 2024.
  9. ^ "History". ESN.org. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  10. ^ a b "Local sections". ESN.org. Retrieved 29 June 2024.
  11. ^ a b c ESN History Book - 25th Anniversary. 16 October 2015. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  12. ^ "Albania joins the Erasmus Student Network!". ESN.org. 2 October 2019. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  13. ^ ESN Annual Report 2021/2022. 5 July 2022. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  14. ^ a b c "ESN Welcomes 40th Member Country". ESN.org. 14 December 2016. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  15. ^ a b ESN Annual Report 2015/2016. 29 July 2016. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  16. ^ ESN Annual Report 2016/2017. 7 July 2017. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  17. ^ a b "The General Assembly of ESN gathered in Ankara to welcome new members". ESN.org. 11 December 2023. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  18. ^ a b c ESN Annual Report 2022/2023. 6 July 2023. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  19. ^ "Moldova joins the Erasmus Student Network". ESN.org. 24 February 2020. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  20. ^ "The Erasmus Student Network welcomes the Russian Federation as its 37th member country". ESN.org. 23 April 2014. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  21. ^ "Ukraine joins the Erasmus Student Network". ESN.org. 18 June 2019. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  22. ^ ESN Annual Report 2018/2019. 10 July 2019. Retrieved 10 January 2024.
  23. ^ "EDUCATION AND CULTURE - Getting sporty at the International Erasmus Games". ec.europa.eu. Retrieved 31 March 2024.
  24. ^ a b c "Let the games - the International Erasmus Games - begin! | Erasmus Generation Blog". blog.erasmusgeneration.org. 5 May 2016. Retrieved 31 March 2024.
  25. ^ a b "IEG 2022: Back again for healthy and active lifestyle of the international youth | ESN.org". Erasmus Student Network. 21 May 2022. Retrieved 31 March 2024.
  26. ^ "ESN TEAM". 17 July 2015. Archived from the original on 17 July 2015. Retrieved 31 March 2024.
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