HOME (Home Of Mobile Europeans) promotes international mobility by providing students and trainees with an easier way to find their new home abroad. It integrates quality accommodation options with current and future European initiatives for the digitisation of Higher Education, such as Erasmus Without Papers (EWP) and the Erasmus+ Mobile App of the European Commission. Like this, HOME makes quality accommodation options available at the fingertips of mobile Europeans, paying particular attention to disadvantaged groups. A. Context While the EC plans on tripling the numbers of mobility participants by 2027, finding accommodation remains one of the main obstacles to international mobility, as highlighted by the HousErasmus+ research. Such conclusion is also shown by the latest EC Quality Survey, where participants’ satisfaction with “support in finding accommodation” has dropped to an all time low of 65%, which is 12% less compared to the previous year’s results. Especially vulnerable groups, whose main obstacle is the lack of information and limitations to funding (Erasmus Impact Study 2016), suffer under the housing shortage. This also is reflected in the staggering low numbers of Erasmus+ participants from disadvantaged backgrounds or with physical disabilities (official Erasmus+ statistics). HOME supports the required improvements and helps the EU to prepare for the next Erasmus programme generation, by developing: - A common understanding of student accommodation quality standards (defining how accessible and qualitative accommodation looks like); - A Digital Data Standard (agreeing on how information about quality accommodation is stored); - A public API (defining how this information is accessed and shared between the various market participants, i.e. HEIs, students, market intermediaries, GOs, etc.). B. Objectives HOME pursues three key objectives: 1. Increasing the quality and transparency of information about student accommodation by establishing the Student Accommodation Quality Labels; 2. Ensuring that information about student accommodation is seamlessly shared at the European level by defining a Digital Data Standard and developing a public API (Application Programming Interface) that integrates with other EU initiatives for the digitisation of Higher Education; 3. Facilitating student accommodation for students, with a special focus on vulnerable participants. C. Consortium HOME is carried out by 6 partners from 5 EU Member States, selected based on their expertise and outstanding networks and representing the relevant stakeholders approached by the project, i.e. students (ESN), HEIs (EUF and PoliMi) and housing providers (UIPI and HousingAnywhere) plus an experienced trainer (Confia International). D. Results To realise such objectives, HOME aims at producing four key results that represent the project most innovative contributions: R1. HOME establishes the Student Accommodation Quality Labels in terms of “Room Quality & Accessibility”, “International Student Friendliness” and “Good Value for Money” (IO1); validated with 20 representatives of the (student) accommodation industry during E1. R2. HOME determines the Digital Data Standard for student accommodation and develops the HOME public API to ensure that data about accommodation is shared in a univocal and seamless way all over Europe (IO2); validated by 50 representatives of the (student) accommodation industry during E2 and E3. R3. HOME integrates with EWP to enhance the Erasmus+ Dashboard with quality housing options and makes the latter available at the fingertips of students through the Erasmus+ App of the European Commission (IO3); validated through a first pilot implementation with 5 HEIs, presented during E4, and a focus group with international students organised by ESN. R4. Finally, HOME produces educational resources to make the above mentioned results freely accessible and easily replicable (IO4 & IO5). Indeed, HOME develops a Multiplier Toolkit for housing providers, HEIs and student NGOs, that will be presented and co-developed during a training activity (C1). The purpose is to make its 22 participants representing housing providers, HEIs and student NGOs become HOME multiplier experts and impulse the dissemination at the local level, kick-started by the multiplier events E5-7. E. Impact By its completion, HOME wants to reach 150,000 students via its dissemination activities, 100 HEIs enabling the HOME integration from their Erasmus+ Dashboard, 10,000 quality listings streamed through the HOME public API, and 200 links to the online resources of HOME. By ensuring a close overlap between the project outcomes and the core activities and future ambitions of the consortium partners, as well as the integration with European initiatives such as Erasmus Without Paper and the Erasmus+ App, HOME will become part of a bigger open-source ecosystem, ensuring its sustainability and success beyond the project lifetime
The objectives of the HOME project were: 1. Increasing the quality and transparency of information about student accommodation by establishing the Student Accommodation Quality Labels; 2. Ensuring that information about student accommodation is seamlessly shared in a univocal way at the European level by defining a Digital Data Standard and developing a technological framework including a public API (Application Programming Interface) that integrates with the Erasmus+ App and that offers the opportunity to easily integrate with other EU initiatives for the digitisation of Higher Education; 3. Facilitating student accommodation offers for students, with a special focus on vulnerable participants. 4. Facilitating much needed discussions and learning opportunities between commercial housing providers, housing intermediaries, students, higher-educational institutes and other EU-initiatives,
At the time of the application, the EC planned on tripling the numbers of mobility participants by 2027, however finding accommodation remains one of the main obstacles to international mobility, highlighted by the HousErasmus+ research: an Erasmus+ funded research project. Key findings highlighted that accommodation is one of the main obstacles to international mobility: above 65% of international students/trainees have to arrange accommodation on their own, 20% experience scams/fraud, jeopardising their mobility experience, while 25% go abroad without having secured accommodation yet. The EC Quality Survey showed same conclusions, where participants’ satisfaction with “support in finding accommodation” dropped to an all time low. HOME supports the required improvements and helps the EU prepare for the next Erasmus generation by addressing the following needs: - A common understanding of student accommodation quality standards and defining accessible and qualitative accommodation; - Agreeing on how information about quality accommodation is stored in the international student housing industry; - Defining how this information is accessed and shared between the market participants: HEIs, students, housing providers, GOs, etc.