As this year marks the 30th anniversary of the Erasmus Student Network (ESN), the organisation witnessed a significant development since its founding, now counting 527 local associations and 13 000 volunteers in 39 countries. From 18 to 21 April 2019, ESN convened its Annual General Meeting in Thessaloniki, Greece, which gathered more than 800 student representatives from over 500 universities with the aim to discuss “international exchanges and education, active citizenship and the role of young people in Europe”. Key speakers took part in the event, including Pafsanias Andreas Papageorgiou, Secretary General for Lifelong Learning and Youth of Greece, and Kyriakos Athanasiou, President of ACA’s Greek member IKY (the State Scholarships Foundation).

During the meeting, the new International Board for the period 2019 – 2020 was elected and a new strategic ESN vision for the new decade was adopted. ESN’s vision foresees, by 2025, a global network of the Erasmus generation with shared values committed to improving international education and the quality of student mobility and promoting personal and professional self-development. The new vision for a new decade is supported by six strategic priorities:

• Students - empowering future alumni and current international students to be ambassadors of intercultural understanding and active citizenship;

• Exchange programmes - increasing the quantity and quality of study abroad programmes around the world;

• Activities and services - increasing the quality of activities and services, making them more inclusive and achieving measurable impact in society;

• Visibility and outreach - building a globally recognisable brand and fostering a positive image of international exchange;

• Volunteers - providing them with valuable transversal skills acquired through self-development opportunities and empowering them for active engagement in the organisation;

• Governance - creating an interconnected and self-sustainable network with a strong membership and efficient structure.

In addition, on 2 May 2019, ESN organised the ARISE (ASEAN Region International Student Engagement) Training & Conference, at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), on empowering students to facilitate internationalisation at their home universities.

More info here