Erasmus Welcome Days is an initiative promoted by ESN Italy, with the aim of spreading and increasing the value of the Erasmus experience, which consists of mobility for study or Placement programmes.

ESN Italy has been pursuing this project since 2010 and is called "Erasmus Welcome Days" (EWD) because these days are dedicated to a "welcome" for the students who will stay in the Italian cities during the Erasmus programme or the other mobility programmes promoted by the European Commission.

This project aims at presenting and publicizing the activities that every ESN section organizes during the year for the Erasmus students and the community.

The goals ESN wants to achieve through the EWDs are:

  • to encourage a direct relationship between young students and European and national institutions, enabling the partners to contribute to the diffusion of the European spirit among Italian and international young srtudents;
  • to offer foreign students a unique opportunity to get to know their Italian colleagues and the teaching and administrative staff they will work with during their period in Italy;
  • to offer the Universities the opportunity to create a network with Europe Direct and Eurodesk centres plus the other EU informative networks, as well as to embark on an European perspective.

The Erasmus Welcome Days are a challenge that every year the whole Italian network needs to face, because the project helps the Erasmus project gain importance, both for the regions and the local communities that are involved.

Various institutions have backed this initiative, allowing it to have a good media visibility on a local and national scale, and besides giving Italian universities the opportunity to interact with the EU informative networks.

In the last few years, approximately 20,000 students coming from all over Europe enjoyed this service, and almost 50 sections in Italy were involved.