As part of the Study in Europe initiative, ACA brought together, on behalf of the European Commission and EACEA, professionals from national promotion agencies across Europe and EU officials for a two-day networking meeting on 12-13 December in Brussels.  

The over 40 participants contributed to the rich programme through panel discussions and parallel sessions focused on various topics, such as: 

• Scholarships as marketing tools; 
• Maximising impact of education fairs; 
• Utilising social media for international outreach; 
• Networking for impact in national and international contexts; 
• Best practices in terms of capacity building, and; 
• Using and presenting website metrics, focused on Matomo/Power BI. 

Moderated by and with inputs from Raul Ranne, Senior Advisor at ACA, the programme featured contributions from other ACA Secretariat staff and from many ACA member organisations, who shared insights from their respective national contexts, engaging the audience in discussions on topics such as security concerns related to the geopolitical situation, changes in political climates, the use of university rankings in promotion activities, articulating unique-selling points, among others. 

Building on a recent Study in Europe webinar organised by ACA, Antoaneta Irikova from the European Commission led a follow-up discussion on the challenges and best practices regarding European student visas. The lively discussions underscored many common challenges, and highlighted some good practices, emphasising the need for continued efforts at various levels across Europe to streamline the issuance of student visas.  

The progress on creating a Study in Europe platform was also presented, the platform aiming to facilitate further discussions and cooperation across higher education promotion professionals Europe, with more updates to follow next year.  

Last but not least, the gathering was also an occasion to mark the 10th anniversary of the Study in Europe initiative, and recap some of its many achievements and impact. 

Study in Europe (now in its 4th edition) is an initiative funded by the European Commission (DG EAC) and EACEA promoting Europe as an attractive study and research destination. The initiative is currently implemented by a consortium of six partner organisations – Campus France (coordinator), ACA and member organisations  DAAD (Germany), Nuffic (the Netherlands), HARNO (Estonia), and DZS (Czechia) – as well as three associates, two of which are also ACA members – SEPIE (Spain) and Uni-Italia (Italy) – along UEFISCDI (Romania). The current round of the initiative runs between 2024 -2027.