European Student Card Initiative: Commission publishes roadmap for next two years
The European Commission has outlined its plan for the next two years of the European Student Card Initiative (ESCI), after consultations with its governance forums.
(News updated 23 July to include related questions and answers)
The European Student Card Initiative aims to modernise and streamline digital processes for higher education institutions (HEIs) across to implement mobility in the context of Erasmus+ and provide seamless access to services abroad for mobile students in the European Education Area.
2024: closing gaps and optimisation
The focus until the end of 2024 is on optimising the functioning of the Erasmus Without Paper (EWP) Network. This entails
- upgrading all connected systems to the latest version of the digital inter-institutional agreement
- supporting institutions not yet exchanging digital learning agreements to start doing so, to reach the target of 95% of learning agreements exchanged via the EWP Network by the end of 2025
The European Student Card Router (ESC-R) will be fully migrated to the European Commission’s cloud-based infrastructure. This will support the further development of virtual European Student Cards and access to a wider range of student services.
The European Commission will also consult stakeholders to prepare the ground for the future evolution of the ESCI, which will start in 2025.
2025: simplification and further processes
The interoperability action plan has improved the functioning of the EWP Network and most institutions are now exchanging digital agreements with their partners. However, consultations with stakeholders through the EWP Governance and EWP Champions have brought up the need to simplify current digital processes from a technical and business process perspective.
Furthermore, consultations have highlighted the need to roll-out further processes to the whole community to achieve more efficiency gains.
Stakeholders have also requested a public timeline for further developments of the ESCI. The timeline below illustrates the overall tentative planning.
January – June 2025
Building on existing processes, analyse and develop network enhancements to address current technical complexity and enable
- a simpler workflow for learning and inter-institutional agreements
- a digital multilateral agreement signature process
- preparation for support to once-only data principle in ESCI
- a virtual European Student Card in the Erasmus+ Mobile App
- ongoing preparation for wide scale use of nominations and transcripts of records
July – December 2025
- support for migration to the simplified digital infrastructure and trainings for exchanges of inter-institutional agreements and learning agreements
- testing and preparation of migration to simplified digital infrastructure for digital mobility documents for inter-institutional agreements and learning agreements
- testing of nominations, and transcripts of records
- roll-out plan for wide scale use of digital nominations and transcripts of records
Beyond 2025
The developments above are essential to simplify administration and support the objectives of the next Erasmus+ programme, which aims to include digital processes for Erasmus+ student mobility for traineeships, staff mobility, and multilateral and international cooperation.
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Related questions
I work in an international office and use a system connected to the EWP Network to manage student mobility. What does this mean for me?
The Digital Officer in your Erasmus+ National Agency will keep you informed about the state of play of the overall initiative and your system provider will keep you informed about the updates when they take place. In the course of 2025, you can expect the process of managing inter-institutional and learning agreements to become simpler and the required data entry per agreement to start gradually reducing because of the planned developments.
I am a software developer of a system connected to the EWP Network. What does this mean for me?
We encourage you to carefully review the full details of the European Commission’s planning and to set aside resources for system upgrades and conformance testing in 2025. While initial efforts will be necessary to transition to the simplified infrastructure, future updates will be more streamlined and less resource intensive. In early 2025, more details on the next enhancements will be ready and allow each system to assess the impact and resources needed to complete the required updates.
Why is the current infrastructure still being developed in 2024?
The developments in the current infrastructure in 2024 facilitate a smooth transition to the next stages of the network enhancements. Implementing the inter-institutional API update (version 7) allows users to update agreements until the current programming period ends, minimising redundant efforts during migration to a simplified digital infrastructure. Updating current systems to the latest standards ensures that all institutions are prepared for future changes. This preparation makes it easier to adopt the simplified infrastructure more smoothly and effectively. Efforts to update all systems and achieving the target of 95% digital learning agreements exchanged in the EWP network by end of 2025, promotes uniform community readiness and the necessary conditions for further simplification.
Where can I find the detailed development planning?
A more detailed description of the timeline for consultations and technical developments in 2024-2025 is available in the roadmap.