Year in review: Milestones and community engagement in the European Student Card Initiative
The ESCI has achieved a lot this year, thanks to fruitful collaboration and engagement with the whole community. Here’s a rundown of the highlights we can be proud of.
ESCI Days: community voices shaping the future of digital Erasmus+
A series of national ESCI Days showcased key developments in the digitalisation of higher education across Europe. These events brought together an average of some 100 participants per day, including International Relations Officers (IROs), IT developers, students, policymakers, and other higher education institutions (HEI) staff.
The ESCI Days provided a space for strategic dialogue on implementation, country-specific challenges, and future directions for digital management of student mobility.
ESCI days were held in Germany (19 March), Belgium (24 April), Spain (23 September), Cyprus (24 September) and Finland (19 November), with a final edition this year in France (2 December).
Country reports and the 95% digital learning agreement target
To accelerate the digitalisation of Learning Agreements (LAs) and reach the 95% adoption target, DG EAC (European Commission) conducted a new round of country reports.
These assess national digitalisation trends and provide tailored recommendations to Digital Officers in Erasmus+ National agencies to support ESCI implementation. The exercise builds on previous efforts to monitor progress and bridge remaining digital gaps.
ESCI Champions: empowering the community
Appointed in summer 2025, the ESCI Champions (2025–2027) represent the ESCI community across Europe. They share best practices, engage in outreach, and contribute to the initiative’s continued development.
Their kick-off meeting, hosted by the University of Gothenburg in September, focused on supporting national adoption efforts, setting implementation targets, and defining priorities for the next Erasmus+ programme.
Consultations: co-creating the future of digital Erasmus+
This spring, the EWP+ consortium carried out consultations to gather feedback and ideas from the Erasmus+ community on digitalising mobility processes.
Through surveys, focus groups, and training events with national experts, EWP Champions, and International Relations Officers, participants contributed to shaping the next phase of digital Erasmus+.
The community also organised hands-on sessions, combining consultation and practical learning, support for participants to address implementation challenges, and sharing solutions. Events were held in Thessaloniki, Greece (EWP Community Training & Consultation Thessaloniki) and at the University of Warsaw, Poland (EWP Convention).
Digital Nominations: the start of conformance testing
A key milestone this autumn was the start of conformance testing for the new digital nomination process.
This is a step which introduces a unified approach for Erasmus+ nominations using Erasmus Without Paper (EWP). It is designed to replace fragmented nomination practices across institutions, streamlining exchanges and improving data quality.
Developed through collaboration between the EWP+ Consortium, DG DIGIT and IT teams, the process is currently being tested to ensure interoperability and readiness ahead of wider rollout in 2026.
For further information about where the providers stand regarding passing the conformance testing, users can check the information on technical testing and validation reports in Confluence.
The European Student Card: scaling up rollout and access to student services
This year marked a turning point for the European Student Card (ESC): over 4 million student cards across 22 countries in the European Education Area have incorporated the ESC elements.
We also delivered two important initiatives in 2025:
- ESC partnerships programme – to explore strategic collaborations with organisations offering key services to students
- ESC Service Manager – a public directory where higher education institutions and student service providers can list the services they offer to European Student Card holders
We’ve also made digitalisation a central priority for the European Student Card this year. The ESC Verifiable Credentials Pilot, involving a dozen higher education institutions, tested the issuance of European Student Cards as verifiable credentials, laying the technical groundwork for the future digital ESC — a trusted and portable proof of student status designed to enable instant, privacy-preserving verification across institutions.
What's next
Looking ahead to 2026, the ESCI will continue its dialogue with stakeholders through new rounds of consultations and further developments in digital student services.
We’ll continue to focus on the roll-out of digital nominations, with institutions and providers progressively preparing for implementation as the testing phase advances.
In parallel, the technical specifications for the Transcript of Records are being finalised (further technical details). Its deployment is not a priority for 2026, as the focus remains on strengthening and consolidating digital exchanges of IIAs, LAs and gradual roll out of nominations. Higher education institutions and providers will be able to implement this functionality as soon as they are ready, upon their preference.
Work will continue to scale up the rollout of the European Student Card across the European Education Area and facilitate the issuance of ESCs in a digital format.
Thanks to all the community for these advances this year! For further updates, subscribe to our newsletter.
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