Erasmus+ Application: Every ending is a new beginning

The current European Union programming cycle (2021-2027) has set social inclusion, environmental protection and digitalisation as its flagships. These digitalisation efforts also affect the Erasmus+ Programme, which includes the European Student Card Initiative. These digitalisation efforts provide the background for Erasmus+ App development.

The digitalisation of the Erasmus+ programme brings many benefits:

Decrease the administrative burden,
Improving compliance with data protection rules,
Cope with higher levels of mobility,
More time for improving quality and impact,
Students get easier access to services,
Strengthening the European student identity,
Making Erasmus+ more inclusive, allowing more people to participate.

In the innovative project, Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) was the leader of the international consortium in cooperation with the European University Foundation (EUF) and the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) in the development of the Erasmus+ Application over a 30-month period, also involving subcontractors. The aim of the project was to provide an online one-stop-shop for students to easily access and complete all administrative steps related to their Erasmus+ mobility period and to promote innovation and digitalisation in the long term.

By the end of the project, the Erasmus+ App had been enhanced with several features for both students and institutions.

The Erasmus+ App provides users with information about the Erasmus+ Programme, guides participants through the mobility journey and supports them with checklists. Users can get tips and information from other users, sending and receiving institutions or student organisations.

What does the Erasmus+ App offer for students?

Structured information in 23 languages about the different Erasmus+ mobility opportunities,
Institution-specific information on mobility that students can filter,
Mobility Journey guiding the students through all phases of mobility: before, during and after it,
Tips, events, stories, discounts: information from other students and student organisations both in the feed and in the map view,
Providing digital application procedure for Erasmus+ study mobility participants through the Erasmus+ App,
Personalised status updates and notifications from relevant student services (Online Learning Agreement, application status, etc.),
Online access point that centralizes access to services connected to the Erasmus+ Programme (e.g. OLA, OLS, Erasmus+ Skills Quiz),
Support for generating a digital European Student Card through the Erasmus+ App.

What does the Erasmus+ App offer for institutions?

Complete digital management of Erasmus+ learning mobility in Higher Education:

Display institution-specific content in the Erasmus+ App,
Support for electronic applications and nominations between partners via the EWP Dashboard,
Interconnection with the Online Learning Agreement (OLA) platform and the Erasmus Skills Quiz platform,
Publishing events and useful information.

Possibility to display institution-specific content, such as

Events, discounts for outgoing and incoming students,
Display of institutional information on static Mobility Journey pages,
Publishing content that can be customised for students: only those students can see those who have indicated the university as sending or receiving institution.

Since its launch, the Erasmus+ App has been downloaded by more than 191,000 times and the number of visitors to the web app has exceeded 1 million. In total, the Erasmus+ App currently has more than 32 000 registered users. Media coverage has also been impressive, with over 43,000 people attending 33 related events and a total of 68 key messages published in 323 social media posts. This represents a reach of more than 2 million people on various social media platforms, with over 2.7 million impressions.

The final conference of the Erasmus+ App project was hosted by Eötvös Loránd University. More than 100 people attended the event in person and the online broadcast was followed by more than 4000 people. On this occasion, Themis Christophidou, from the Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture of the European Commission (DG EAC), highlighted in a video message how important tool the Erasmus+ App is to involve more students in Erasmus+ mobility opportunities.

The Erasmus+ App was first launched in 2017, on the 30^th anniversary of Erasmus. Since then, it has been expanded with further releases and the European Commission plans to continue launching useful features in the future. Together with the digitalisation efforts of the Erasmus+ Programme, the future holds many more innovations and developments.

More information:

Erasmus+ application website

More information is available on the project website

Erasmus+ App final conference videos and presentations