Erasmus Student Network

The Erasmus Student Network (ESN) is a Europe-wide student organisation.

The organisation supports and develops student exchanges, both inside the Erasmus+ programme and outside of it. The local ESN sections offer help, guidance and information to both exchange students and students doing a full degree abroad – by informing them, but also providing them with different trips or events. National and international level support the local level by providing necessary tools, as well as communicating with national Erasmus+ organisations or the European Commission in general.

The goal of the organisation is to support and develop student exchange on the local, national and international levels. It is composed of around 15,000 members distributed across 519 local sections in 45 countries in higher education Institutions, including universities, polytechnics, and university colleges.

History
In 1987, the European Community approved a plan to create a mobility scheme for higher education. Part of it was the Erasmus programme – an exchange programme for students to provide students with the opportunity to spend part of their studies abroad.

In 1989, the Erasmus Bureau invited 32 former Erasmus Students for an evaluation meeting in Ghent, Belgium. This meeting was the starting point for the Erasmus Student Network. The lack of peer-to-peer support was singled out as a major issue and the driving force behind the creation of the Erasmus Student Network, named for the Dutch Renaissance humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam.

By 1994, ESN had 60 sections in 14 countries. In 2004, it consisted of 170 sections in and outside Europe, reaching as far as Scandinavia, the Caucasus and Morocco. In 2005, ESN established its headquarters in Brussels and legally registered as a Belgian non-profit organisation.

As of June 2024, ESN consists of 519 local associations ("sections") in 45 countries.

The organisation supports students from the Erasmus programme and other bilateral agreements. It cooperates with national agencies in order to help international students – it does not, however, send people on exchanges itself.

Structure
ESN works on three levels – local, national and international. Although it is composed near-exclusively of European student associations, no rule currently prevents associations outside of Europe from applying for membership.

Originally, no conditions existed regarding the geographic limits of ESN. In 2007, membership was restricted to the borders defined by the Council of Europe with the addition of Mediterranean countries. In 2015, this rule was modified to follow the borders of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) instead, before being relaxed in 2020 to UN member states and UN observer states, which is the current rule in place.

Local level
ESN on the local level consists of "sections" that work with international students. They organise activities like introduction programmes, get-togethers and cultural events and represent the exchange students and their needs towards academic institutions and local authorities. Every year, representatives of the local sections meet at the Erasmus Generation Meeting (EGM).

National level
The national level represents the needs of international students towards governments and national authorities. Local sections in the same countries form a National Assembly (NA) and, each year, they elect a National Board which represents the local sections on the international level.

List of National Organisations (NOs)
Below is a list of all ESN National Organisations, past and present.

International level
The International Board is the executive body of ESN International and consists of six Board Members (President, Vice President for Governance, Vice President for Development, Treasurer, Communication Manager and Web Project Administrator). Since 2005, the members of the International Board are full-time volunteers living and working in Brussels. The International Board is supported by the Secretariat composed of employed staff and trainees.

ESN has five International Committees that work together with its respective International Board member in charge. The Committees of ESN are – International Committee for Education (ICE), Network Committee (NEC), Finance Committee (FICO), Communication Committee (ComCom) and IT Committee (IT).

International events
Between its foundation in 1989 and 2020, ESN held Annual General Meetings (AGM), alternating in major cities throughout Europe. Since 2021, this has been replaced by Erasmus Generation Meetings (EGM). Other activities include annual Cultural Medleys (CM) from 1999 until 2012, and annual meetings of the organisation's five Regional Platforms.

International Erasmus Games
The International Erasmus Games are a multi-sport event held annually for members of the Erasmus Student Network since 2015. Initiated by a coordinated effort of ESN Poland and ESN Italy, the games bring together hundreds of participants from multiple countries worldwide. The first International Erasmus Games were hosted in Kraków, Poland in 2015.

Regional Platforms
In 1997, the ESN Nordic Network Meeting (NNM) was established and took place for the first time in Arhus, Denmark. Starting from 2008, it would become known as the Northern European Platform (NEP). The Southern European Platform (SEP) became the second regional platform in the network in 2001, followed by the Central European Platform (CEP) in 2004. In 2007, SEP was separated into the South-Eastern European Platform (SEEP) and the South-Western European Platform (SWEP), while the westernmost countries in CEP split into the Western European Platform (WEP), creating the distribution that exists today.

The current Regional Platforms and their member sections are the following:
 * Central European Platform (CEP) – Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine.
 * Northern European Platform (NEP) – Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Russia and Sweden.
 * South-Eastern European Platform (SEEP) – Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia and Turkey.
 * South-Western European Platform (SWEP) – France, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain.
 * Western European Platform (WEP) – Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.