Bridging the digital divide with digital Erasmus+ learning agreements

The European Student Card Initiative aims to simplify mobility administration and improve the mobile student experience.

It’s a joint effort by the whole Erasmus+ community to digitalise internal procedures and improve data exchanges between IT systems connected to the Erasmus Without Paper (EWP) network.

Part of the initiative is an action plan on digitalisation of learning agreements, with an aim to reach 95% of agreements being completed digitally by 2025. This figure refers to agreements for student exchanges within Europe (‘intra-European mobility’). Other agreements for traineeships and international mobility are not currently in scope.

What progress have we seen?

• an average increase in digitalisation of learning agreements from 37% - 52% during 2023-24 at institutions holding an ECHE (Erasmus Charter for Higher Education)
• 241 ECHE institutions have joined the EWP network since last December, with 132 exchanging digital learning agreements
• 48% of ECHE holders today are connected to the EWP network, with 41% of these exchanging digital learning agreements

What do these figures mean?

• progress in adoption is still underway
• there's an urgent need to press on with the action plan
• all involved institutions need to continue or renew their commitments on digitalising their learning agreements

Joint effort, shared benefits

The progress we see is the result of a joint effort by the whole community to digitalise internal procedures and improve data exchanges. This effort is underpinned by the ECHE commitments of institutions participating in the Erasmus+ programme.

All higher education institutions holding an ECHE need to start exchanging digital learning agreements in order to make the process a reality for Erasmus+ students. Without this, there are still gaps that negatively impact both students and staff alike, and difficulties for institutions who have already made the switch to digital.

How can we close the remaining gaps?

It is highly recommended that all ECHE holders invest in digitalisation now. It means they will benefit from the associated returns on investment and reinforce their capacity to benefit from the future Erasmus+ programme. Digitalisation is considered a key tool to support further simplification and inclusion in the next Erasmus+ programme period from 2027 onwards.

Erasmus Without Paper’s technical service to support learning agreements is functioning and stable. The main remaining barrier for institutions to adopt to EWP is a lack of commitment or capacity to invest in the transition, especially in the case of smaller institutions who have relatively few student exchanges.

Get support and inspiration

The Commission and the EWP consortium run a series of support and outreach activities to help institutions achieve transition. These include workshops and national ESCI days in EU countries, organised with the support of Digital Officers from National Agencies. We’re also running technical support activities and will build on these during 2025.

Institutions facing challenges in implementing digital learning agreements can request general and technical support through the ESCI Community Service Desk.

Higher education institutions that are still in the process of digitalising learning agreement processes can benefit from the experience of the EWP Champions and connect with peers via the EWP user groups.

Sign up for the ESCI newsletter to get updates on events and progress.

And finally, the community runs National ESCI days to enable peer learning and sharing of good practices in digitalisation.