The future of student mobility in Europe has been the focus of Erasmus Going Digital conference
The Erasmus Going Digital conference, which took place today at the Historical Building of the UB, focused on showing the impact of the projects Erasmus without Paper and Online Learning Agreement, as well as the Erasmus+ app, on the Erasmus+ mobility. The conference consisted of three plenary and practical sessions on the digitisation of student mobility in the 21st century. During the event, they presented a live demo of digital tools and the Erasmus+ app, and a debate on the Erasmus without Paper network, as well as a presentation of an online version of the Learning Agreement, from the perspective of the students and higher education institutions.
The Erasmus Going Digital conference, which took place today at the Historical Building of the UB, focused on showing the impact of the projects Erasmus without Paper and Online Learning Agreement, as well as the Erasmus+ app, on the Erasmus+ mobility. The conference consisted of three plenary and practical sessions on the digitisation of student mobility in the 21st century. During the event, they presented a live demo of digital tools and the Erasmus+ app, and a debate on the Erasmus without Paper network, as well as a presentation of an online version of the Learning Agreement, from the perspective of the students and higher education institutions.
Among the speakers that took part in the event, were Rehana Schwinninger-Ladak, director-general of the European Commission Interactive Technologies, and Ignacio Rodríguez Álvarez, representative for the University of Alcalá, partners of the Online Learning Agreement project. Other participants were Kacper Olczyk (Erasmys Student Network) and Jean-Paul Roumegas (European Students Card/CNOUS).
Every year, more than 200,000 students from more than 2,000 higher education institutions study abroad under the Erasmus exchange program. Each of these 200,000 students has to start a long process of exchange of documents and information between institutions. Although most of the universities in Europe use a software to manage mobility and transfer stored data, it is necessary to produce and print data in paper to send them to the corresponding institution, where, due its format, these have to be handed in in person.
Partners of the project Erasmus without Paper (EWP) believe technology can help avoiding a lot of work regarding the international student mobility. Mobility can be managed in a more efficient way if the huge amount of paperwork is replaced using an electronic data exchange. When doing so, universities can focus on the inherent quality of the mobility instead of coping with a great variety of administrative procedures. The main aim of the project is to replace as much as possible the paper trail required to enable the Erasmus experience and by extension the student exchanges, and replace it by electronic data exchange.