The European student card (ESC) is a project which aims to simplify student’s mobility within the European area and making possible the dissemination of the identity and status of a student through a communication between Information systems of the partner HEIs and players concerned by students in a secure and efficient way. The project will primarily develop a framework and common standards for interoperability between HEI systems and will produce a prototype, but it will also work out concrete connectors and test the system at a regional scale until the end of the project (2018)..The interconnection of HEi’s information systems will allow the recognition of student status and identity through the European student card which can be used and accepted in the EHEA. This procedure will facilitate the access to services provided on campus. At local level multiservice cards exist: they offer a rich variety of services through cooperation between different institutions and student service providers. ESC will be based on the existing systems and skills developed in each country on the student card. The goal is to build the project in an agile and interactive approach. The system will rely on the simple principle of communication between existing information systems of the HEIs involved in the project. This interface will adhere to data protection regulations and will generate a digital identity certifying the status of student. It will be potentially available for all students and free, and will give potentially access to the rights and services linked to the student status. The student status will be updated in real time and give access to the offer of rights and services already delivered by the HEI's and stduent services organisations.The consortium of 9 partner institutions composed of umbrella nationalwide organisations for student services (Cnous, DSW, ENDISU Foundation), networks of HEIs (EDUCatt, CSSI) and local student service organisations (Crous Besançon and Strasbourg, STW Karlsruhe, ESU PD) from 4 countries with a potential dissemination to over 500 HEIs from 46 European countries (including 27 members of the European Union) have taken up the initiative to encourage the HEIs to exchange student digeital identity by determining the feasibility of their IT project with a real time implementation on pilot territory. The main outcome will be to create an enterprise service bus (ESB) platform. To that end, guidelines describing the functional and technical specifications necessary for the spreading of student status will be written in order to define standards and exchange formats as well as the graphics standards of the card. The needs and purposes of the ESC are defined in particular by the "Erasmus without paper" consortium for Erasmus+ mobility and the students ervices organisations.As for the Bologna process, the free and spontaneous joining membership by the HEI will make the success of this project. This card aims to solve the different persistent obstacles which prohibit the potential of student mobility being fully exploited and which jeopardize the realization of the mobility targets envisaged for 2020. ESC intends to be a tool for the students as well as for the HEIs and contributes to strengthen the social dimension of the EHEA by enabling the reciprocity of services available to students. The European student card result's (guidelines, IT platform, technical procedures) will be disseminated inside the umbrella organisations such as Cnous, DSW, ENDISU Foundation and the network of students services in Ireland and outside: All partners are encouraged to promote the project on local, regional and national level with the aim to extent the project to public or private partners. ESC is assured of its sustainability as it is carried out by national networks of student service organizations which make it available to each and every HEI candidate. The subsequently filed European project would focus on the operation of an open platform for all member organizations of Bologna process. The European student card is clearly at the same time an initiative of the HEIs and other players concerned by students and a political priority.In 2018 ESC will be proposed as a new goal by the French secretariat of Bologna.
Context: initiative of Cnous and its partners grouped within the ECSTA, the European Council of the student life. The social dimension essential to the development of mobility by giving access to social tariff services and by working towards simplification and administrative fluidification: identify and register electronically easily and safely in higher education institutions. At the local level, student multiservice cards give access to the services of universities, specialized organizations and communities: housing, university catering, social assistance, health, sport, culture, public transport, etc. Digital services are becoming increasingly important and rely on the recognition of electronic identity and student status. Several countries are working on the establishment of a valid electronic student ID throughout life. The growth of the Erasmus + program and the European card are the two priorities adopted by the EU leaders in November 2017 in Gothenburg. For the European Commission, the goal is to implement this initiative by 2021 for all higher education institutions participating in the future Erasmus + program which will start in 2021 and make this card available to all European students by 2025. Beyond the students, the project will simplify the administrative burden of higher education institutions. The European Commission has promoted the convergence between Erasmus Without Paper, EMREX and the European Student Card, which will be extended from 2019 and articulated with the eIDAS e-ID regulation of EU citizens. Concrete benefits for mobility: Electronic recognition of student status without additional administrative procedures, easy access to course material before mobility, online course registration and automatic recognition of ECTS credits, immediate access to host university services such as library, transport and accommodation, restaurants, discounts on cultural activities throughout the European Union, sports activities, transport ... and, for higher education institutions, management of the entire electronic mobility process, selection students to recognize ECTS credits and the possibility of exchanging / verifying student data, including academic records, in a secure manner. Objectives: recognition of the status and identity of the student throughout Europe through a simple device acceptable to all institutions and students, without questioning the diversity of existing situations: development of a platform for exchange and the technical and graphic characteristics of the student card. Develop access to the first services and test the device through an experiment on real mobility for cohorts of students, to know the needs and expectations and measure the impact for campuses. Participants: the nine core partners are specialized student service organizations representing national higher education in the four countries concerned: the CSSI in Ireland, Fondazione Endisu in Italy, DSW in Germany, Cnous in France and field structures closer to the students. Among the 17 associated partners are universities and university networks, student organizations, digital networks, networks for digital services in local communities, similar projects funded by the EU. Have joined the project institutions or digital specialists in higher education: ECCA, EYCA, EUF, Groeningen declaration, service companies .... Results and impacts: the project made it possible to define the technical specifications of the exchange platform and student cards, to develop them and to make them available to schools for testing. The number of universities already connected, more than 40 institutions from 8 different countries, the first services tested, the current accession of national higher education systems as a whole, show the enthusiasm that this project raises, also highlighted by the statements of the political leaders of several countries, the EU and the Bologna Process. This project has already reached a critical mass and has a strong capacity for federating digital service projects, in connection with the eIDAS recognition of the electronic identity of European citizens. In addition to the spontaneous adherence of the institutions, this project offers a remarkable potential for the development of digital services accessible on a European portal via a single authentication.