The EDUcardS strategic partnership in higher education is presented by the EDUC alliance, which is constituted of five Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) from four countries: The Czech Republic, France, Germany and Italy. The objective is to set up, in the mobility space that the EDUC alliance offers, the European Student Card (ESC) and to test a methodological framework for its deployment during an experimental phase, to identify any potential difficulty and to come up with solutions to overcome potential problems. Beyond its implementation in an alliance with a total of 160,000 students, the use of the ESC will be evaluated, experienced and will encompass the provision of several related services such as access to libraries, restaurants, housing and public transport provided by university cities. At the end of this project, four intellectual outputs will be delivered, one inventory, two guidebooks and one report will be made available to all HEIs throughout the EU, whether they are partners are not. Training activities will took place so that staff members from partner HEIs can trade best practices, feed their own reflection, and therefore find innovative solutions. A dissemination event will be organised to give a multiplier effect to the EDUcardS project. These deliverables will contribute to the implementation of the ESC and support the EDUC alliance’s use of the Erasmus Without Paper (EWP) project.
Educards has made it possible to meet 3 objectives: OBJECTIVE #1/ TO CREATE A SHARED METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK WITHIN THE EDUCARDS CONSORTIUM TO IMPLEMENT THE ESC - To analyse and compare the different practices of universities in the partner countries (inventory of student cards). - To formulate an action plan listing the necessary steps for the implementation of the European card, useful for the consortium members and for any other higher education institution in Europe. OBJECTIVE #2/ COMMUNICATE TO FACILITATE THE USE OF THE ESC BY EDUCARDS STUDENTS - Communicate about the existence and the main principles of the European student card. - Communicate on the possibilities offered by the ESC - Communicate on the uses and modalities of use of the ESC within each university. OBJECTIVE #3/ OPTIMISE AND IMPROVE THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ESC AND DISSEMINATE IT WITHIN THE EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY - Analyse the experimental phase (objective #1), draw conclusions and formulate recommendations for all universities wishing to implement the European student card within their institution.
The partner universities for the EDUCardS project are the University of Potsdam (UP, Germany), University of Rennes 1 (UR1, coordinator of the EDUCardS project, France), University of Cagliari (UNICA, Italy), Masaryk University (MU, Czech Republic), University of Paris Nanterre (UPN, France). The University of Pécs (PTE, Hungary), although having taken part in the project activities, is not officially a member of the consortium. The partners are already united by the European University Alliance "EDUC" (2019-22). With the Educards project, the members of the EDUC alliance wished to make progress on the European Student Card (ESC) and to accentuate the collective effort to reach the 50% objective of student mobility as set out in the Erasmus Charter. Educards has made it possible to respond to needs related to student mobility, which are as follows : - Strengthening the quality of the administrative implementation of mobility and reducing the administrative burden for students and university staff - Strengthen the quality of the support offered to students by facilitating the accessibility of university services within the campuses of partner universities