Erasmus Student Network AISBL is a no-profit international student organization founded in 1990 by former students in International Mobility under the initiative of the Erasmus Bureau of the European Community, with the objective of representing the interests of students in international mobility.
ESN operates on three levels: international, national and local and, at the moment, it counts more than 500 sections in 40 countries with more than 18.000 active members that work on a volunteer base, providing services for around 150.000 Erasmus and non-Erasmus students.
The ESN sections work following the principle "Students helping students", in order to help the students making the most out of their study or internship period during their mobility.
The sections provide support both to outgoing and incoming students.
The volunteers are mostly students that already matured experience as exchange students and want to make their experiences available, or students that are about to make an international exchange experience and that through their job inside the organization can gain skills that may be useful to make the most out of the study experience abroad, even in countries with a social and cultural background that differs a lot from theirs.
On an international level, ESN promotes European student mobility interfacing with the major institutions of United Europe.
The executive body of ESN International is the Board, made up of 5 people and annually elected from among the members of the sections. The National Representatives of all the country members of ESN for the Council of National Representatives (CNR), which is the consultative organ and, in some cases, decision making body of Erasmus Student Network.
The decision making power belongs to the Assembly of the members, that gather every year at the Annual General Meeting (AGM).
THE STRUCTURE OF ESN INTERNATIONAL
The board
The international board (IB) is made up of 5 members that are elected annually.
The positions provided by statute are: President, Vice-president, Treasurer, Communication Manager and Web Project Administrator.
The Board is based in Brussels, where its 5 members, elected at the Annual General Meeting, live and work full time for ESN on a voluntary basis for a period of one year, taking office as of 15 July.
ESN is a very dynamic organization, inside which a lot of projects and events are developed.
In its job, the board is helped by the Secretariat, guided by the director of ESN.
The main tasks of the board are:
- to manage and supervise the projects and activities of ESN, organizing stages, providing resources and support to the national and local level, and monitoring their performances, in order to make reports both to internal organs of ESN as CNR, CND and the AGM and to external stakeholders;
- to represent ESN externally (with the institutions, partners, etc.);
- to elaborate communication strategies.
The Secretariat
ESN is supported by employees that work at the office in Bruxelles.
The Secretary takes care of the administration of the network and helps internal cooperation.
The composition of the secretariat varies depending on the ongoing international projects and on the subsidies received by ESN.
The AGM (Annual General Meeting)
The AGM is the principal decision-making body of ESN.
It is convened once a year and all the sections of the network are represented by one delegate.
During the AGM the Board get elected, amendments to the Statute and the Rules are voted, the budget and balance sheet of ESN International are voted, guidelines for the following year are defined (Action Plan) and the Flagship Project gets voted.
During the event updates on the projects and the Board relations on activities carried out during the previous year are also presented.
Every three years the AGM votes the three years strategy. Read more.
The CNR (Council of National Representatives)
The CNR is one of the two consultive bodies of ESN and is made of the National Representatives from all the country members of the Network. The tasks of the CNR are to monitor the work of the Board and to express its opinion on issues regarding strategies, policies and the balance.
The CNR gets convened six times a year, two of which right before and after the AGM and one around the CND, which is convened during December.
The CNR can propose amendments to the Statute and to the Regulation, that will be voted during the AGM. Read more.
The CND (Council of National Delegates)
The CND gets convened once a year (usually in December) and gathers the IB, the CNR and two extra members (the ND and the vice ND) for each country member of ESN.
The CND get informed of the work of the CNR and participates in the discussion of the ESN strategies. Read more.
ESN International Committees
Committees are made of members of ESN from all the countries that are part of the network.
The main goal of the committees is to provide technical support to the Network and to the Board, with regards to the development of the long-term strategies.
Committees have a power of proposal.
Every committee has a Board referent inside and is managed by a Chairing Team (CT) elected every year by its members. The CT is composed of a Main Chair and on one or more Vice Chairs and has the task of coordinating the job of the whole committee. All the active members of the sections and the Alumni can be part of the Committees, making the request during their recruiting period (after the AGM). Read More.
- ICE (International Committee for Education)
The committee is composed of ESNers coming from all over Europe who work together with the direction of the Chairing Team and the President of ESN International with the objective of giving support tot he different structures of the network. The work of the committee is coordinated by the Chairing Team, made up of the Main Chair, the Vice Chair for Advocacy and the Vice Chair for Competence Development. The members work in groups (all year long) and on single projects (before the deadlines). The work of the committee covers two main fields: Advocacy and Competence Development. In addition, the Committee supports the distribution and the promotion of projects and publications relating to the work of the committee, such as the ESNsurvey, and is involved in projects with other committees, such as the E-Learning platform and #myESNcaeer. Read More.
- NEC (Network Committee)
The NEC works on a broad amount of issues regarding the improvement of the quality of our network. Other than providing services needed by the sections, the Committee handles the development of a strategy that can support the Vice President of ESN. The goal is to provide resources and knowledge to use inside the network. The committee is chaired by a Chairing Team, made of the Main Chair and of two Vice-Chairs (one for the Network Interaction and one for the Knowledge Management). Read More.
- ComCom (Communication Committee)
The ComCom is made of volunteers working closely with the Communication Manager and providing support to the International Board and to all the Working Groups of ESN International so that the communication strategy of ESN is preserved and improved. The work of the Committee is focused on the internal and external communication of the Network. The ComCom is coordinated by a chairing team made of one Main Chair and two vice chairs and it's composed of almost 80 people. Read More.
- FICO (Finance Committee)
The FICO supports the ESN network and the Treasurer of the International Board in his activities. It handles the creation, the coordination and the development of long-term strategies in its field, under the supervision of the Treasurer. The Committee is composed of two groups, specialized in the two main tasks of the treasurer: audit and sponsorship. Read More.
- IT Committee
The IT Committee, wich works closely with the Web Project Administrator (WPA), has the goal of reinforcing ESN through the development of the IT systems for the entire Network, and provide assistance and advise on technological issues in general. The committee is composed of a Chairing team formed by the WPA and two Chairs, who along with the regular members and the alumni compose the commission. Read More.
How can the Committees help you? Are you looking dor any service in particular?
Use the search engine Committee Services Portal to search for the service you need and the person in charge.
The projects
ESN, other than the Committees that work on specific areas of interests of the Network with long-term strategies, also presents several different projects that have the objective of developing certain issues. Every project has a project team, guided by a coordinator, whose members are chosen every year by the board after a stage of spontaneous nominations.
- ESNcard
The ESNcard is the membership card of the Erasmus Student Network. The ESNcard is also used as a discount card in many cities and countries all over Europe. The goal of the ESNcard is to help the international students and provide them with opportunities during and after their mobility period. Read More.
- ExchangeAbility
ExchangeAbility is a long-term project of ESN that has the main goal of promoting the mobility opportunities and the university possibilities in favour of people with disabilities as well as providing them with the same conditions and opportunities to participate actively to student life, also focusing the attention of the local community on the issue. Read More.
- HousErasmus+
HousErasmus+ is a project coordinated by ESN and co-founded by the European Commission. The project HousErasmus+ wants to locate the challenges and the best practices regarding the housing for international students and trainees. Based on this information, it is possible to realize concrete recommendation and advice in order to improve the housing research for all the students and trainees during mobility in Europe. Read more.
- Mov'in Europe
Mov'in Europe in as International project of ESN which started in 2014. The goal of the project is promoting the mobility opportunities for the youth using the strength of ESN, which is the capability of sharing our real-life experiences. The project extends also to people who are not on Erasmus, like young people, students and graduates (volunteering, travelling, studying, learning, interning, working). Read More
- Responsible Party
Responsible Party is a project developed by ESN in collaboration with the company Pernod Ricard, as an answer to recently published studies that examine the alcohol drinking habits ("binge drinking") among the European youth, and has the objective of promoting a more conscious behaviour among the youth regarding the consumption of alcoholic drinks. The project is based on the will of informing students on the effects of alcohol and the consequences of a excessive consumption of a said substance, providing suggestions on a more adequate consumption. Read More.
- SocialErasmus
SocialErasmus is a project which promotes the development of a social behaviour among young citizens who take part in mobility programmes. The aim of the project is to facilitate their integration in the local community, giving them the opportunity to foster a durable social change within the society through volunteering. Its slogan is: "Leave your mark!". The aim of SocialErasmus is the enrichment of the international experience of many students who are living abroad through activities which allow them to understand the problems of the local reality and to consider volunteering as a possible solution to these problems. SocialErasmus provides for the opportunity - for international students - to get to know other realities and learn how to contribute to improve the society as citizens of the world. The mission of this project is to provide young European students the opportunity to take advantage of their mobility experience, making the difference and creating a positive social change through volunteering. Read more.
- Eduk8
Eduk8 is an international training project of ESN, which aims to train ESN members to enable them to better perform their daily activities in the local sections. Eduk8 proposes to create a pool of trainer who will have the necessary instruments and knowledge to educate and train other members of the network with less experience. Every day members of ESN from all over Europe work hard to support and develop the network and doing so the gain new skills and competencies. These skills and competencies can be hard to identify and explicit and here is where Eduk8 can make a difference. Eduk8 facilitates the identifications of the so-called "soft skills" and allows the participants od the different events to learn together in a structured, conscious and fun way. Read more
- ESNsurvey
Every year, ESN launches a survey that explores topical issues linked to the academic and non-academic mobility. This is one of the broadest projects promoted by ESN in the last years, involving over 100.000 students who take part in answering the online surveys. A lot of organizations - students, teachers and European universities - have collaborated to the project. Through the opinions expressed by the students, ESN can deepen its knowledge of the problems linked to the mobility and can represent the real needs of the students. ESN provides the results to the main stakeholders of the higher education programs and mobility programs: The European Commission, National Agencies Erasmus+, Atheneum and organizations involved in student mobility. Read More.
- STORY (Strengthening Training Opportunities for International Youth)
This project, financed by the EU, investigates the aspects of accessibility, of quality and of recognition of the exchange programs for study or internship reasons, through a research project with the goal of improving the international internships and of increasing the awareness of such opportunities for the youth. Read More.
Liaison Officers
The Liaison Officers are those members of ESN whose function is to help the President of ESN International in the external representation in different institutions and organizations, with the objective of giving more exposure to the work done and improving the institutional relations. At the moment ESN has a Liason Office in four different organizations/institutions: European Youth Forum (YFJ), The European Civil Society Platform on Lifelong Learning (EUCIS-LLL), Council of Europe, European Movement International. Read More.
ESNdictionary
in ESN acronyms are at the base of the network, but their huge amount can be confusing. Sometimes doubts arise regarding the real meaning and the usage. For all these reasons ESN International has provided a useful instrument, which is essential and always ready to use: ESNdictionary. There you can find all the abbreviations of the ESN International's world. All the terms are arranged in alphabetical order. You can find the exact meaning of the abbreviation, the correct spelling, the grammar and concrete examples of use within phrases.
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