AIMED stands for „Aiming to educate by promoting the academic dimension of Erasmus+” and is intended to contribute to the growth of significance of student exchange. The project AIMED was created to change the perception of Erasmus+ student mobility and promote the most valuable component of exchanges that is its academic dimension. The possibility to choose engaging and valuable subjects in a host university is important for students wishing to improve their academic experience. Consequently, little educational/professional value is often pointed as a reason for resignation from spending a period of studies in another institution. A high number of Erasmus+ agreements in many institutions makes it difficult for the student to make a mobility decision based purely on academic grounds. The offer of subjects for mobility candidates is often not easy to find and the information provided does not fully explore the content of the course. Also, a considerable number of students inscribed in specialistic programmes or with targeted interests find it difficult to choose a host university from the offer available in their institutions. Therefore, an idea for the project originated from the fact that the academic potential of mobility is not adequately explored and led to the formulation of the following objectives:- facilitating access to the content of programmes and subjects offered for international exchange students by higher education institutions;- putting the needs of students in the centre of attention during the platform development;- providing the students with the tool enabling them to choose the courses that will impact their academic performance;- removing barriers, as well as encouraging the focus on the quality of the mobility;- giving visibility to quality education.With the following objectives in mind the partners of AIMED project joined their forces to create an online platform providing an educational offer for international students presented in an attractive, friendly and comparable way. The platform contains subjects available at various higher education institutions helping the students to choose the direction of the mobility and prepare their study plan. It will help mobility candidates to investigate profoundly the educational offer and make an informed decision based on the academic grounds. The issue has been recently raised whether students should have a say in courses' content and if these should be adjusted to their requests. There is a risk of academic knowledge to drift towards commercialising and this definitely would not be a good direction. Nonetheless, courses should embrace students curiosity, hunger for knowledge, stimulate them to develop themselves in thinking and working effectively. The mobility should be considered as an investment for future life. By the provision of an innovative tool for HEIs to advertise their offer of subjects for international exchange students the partners of the project aim to contribute to the realisation of this goal. The project was implemented according to the ADDIE methodology. The stages of this methodology were reflected in the organisation of work on intellectual outputs and each of them includes important milestones that are the indicators of progress. ADDIE includes five complementary stages: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation and Evaluation. The main result of the project is a platform where higher education institutions are able to promote their educational offer to potential foreign incoming students.The elaboration of the main result was supported by the development of the following activities:- organisation of focus group activities with the students (2 in each partner institution) based on the dedicated framework;- summary reports of the partners from the focus group activities as the basis for the consolidated partners’ report;- functional platform analysis that mapped the needs of the students for the purpose of platform development and helped define the functionalities of the tool;- design of the platform transformed the objectives defined in analysis into a blueprint of the tool and finally into a prototype;- development of the platform and preparation of the content of partner universities;- evaluation of the platform and its content, based on the dedicated framework, by students, HEIs, as well as mobility candidates in partner institutions;- publication of the Guidelines exploring the ways on how to use the platform for both, staff of higher education institutions, as well as their students. The Guidelines have a form of two manuals for students and staff and constitute a real support for HEIs that wish to join the platform. The project aims to initiate a substantial change in the way the student mobility is perceived in Europe and bring it to a new level that promotes the academic dimension of the exchange. Consequently, the project contributes to improving the prestige of the Erasmus+ programme.

The European Parliament elections in 2014 were very disappointing for everyone who values youth democratic participation. With remarkably low turnout for young people all over Europe (28 % across the EU, with significant variations between countries), this is indeed a democratic problem. The Erasmus Voting Assessment showed that Erasmus students were much more likely than their non-mobile peers to vote in the European Parliament elections 2014. Erasmus students, both those currently abroad and returned from a study abroad, experience Europe and its many different facets in a very personal way. During their exchange they engage with a different European culture, learn about their host country but also learn to understand the cultural and political limitations of their home country and society. Therefore they are a great source of inspiration and great ambassadors to mobilising other young people to engage and take part in the European elections. In order to improve the situation, two European umbrella organisations (Erasmus Student Network and Bringing Europeans Together Associations) and four of their member organisations in Belgium, Italy, Croatia and Romania have joined forces in this project. Erasmus in Action is a 14-month project aiming to increase the interest in and feeling of ownership of European-level democratic participation for young people in Europe. The objectives of the project are: - To use Erasmus students as ambassadors to inspire non-mobile young people to be interested in European-level democratic participation; - To inspire volunteers from the partner organisations, Erasmus students and, by extension, all young people to vote in the European Parliament elections 2019; - To increase the information available for young people about European-level decision-making. The project will run from September 2018 to October 2019 and include a research report which will be presented at a conference in Brussels, two trainings with 20 young volunteers each, production of campaign material and, most important of all, a campaign during the spring of 2019, leading up to the European Parliament elections in May. During this campaign, the networks of all partner organisations will be mobilised and 50 000 young people will be reached through workshops, EU simulations and social media.

<< Objectives >>The main objectives of the AsCOLA project is to enhance and digitalize the quality framework of the Erasmus+ student mobility, to contribute to closing the data gap in the quality aspect of the higher education transformation and help HEIs to better monitor and assess their institutional performance in education activities related to their internationalization strategy and policy.<< Implementation >>The activities of the project will include the creation of an evaluation methodology of the offered courses to Erasmus+ students, the development of an online evaluation tool connected to the Online Learning Agreement as a ready-made IT solution for all HEIs, the piloting of the evaluation tool and the delivery of related training sessions and train-the-trainers material.<< Results >>Except for the evaluation methodology, the online evaluation tool and the training material, another expected outcome of the AsCOLA would be the inclusion of the quality aspect of student mobility in the data exchange that currently takes place within the European Student Card Initiative and the Erasmus Without Paper Network.

DRU’s objective is to find new ways that universities can strengthen the democratic fabric of society. The European Commission and Parliament see democracy - the cultural ‘glue’ that holds Europe together - under threat. The European Education Area and especially higher education institutions are tasked with connecting to their communities, being inclusive of students from disadvantaged and migrant backgrounds, and sustaining democratic values in everyday life. Democratic backsliding is not peculiar to Europe. DRU engages in mutual learning about universities fostering democracy in South Africa’s post-apartheid rainbow nation and Australia’s move to a post-colonial era. DRU’s consortium is from north, south, east, and west Europe, South Africa, and Australia. It consists of ten different kinds of universities and six non-academic organisations, all committed to collaborating in activities to enhance democracy spanning from community action to international policy making. DRU has the cross-disciplinary, cross-sectoral and international expertise to critically examine existing knowledge about universities and democracy. We break the issue into five constituent parts. Three are practical ways universities, academics and students engage with their local communities through research and civic action and create a thriving educational environment for refugees and all students. Two address how these practices are fostered or hindered by institutional frameworks and systems of governance. DRU designs experiments and case studies to test alternatives. DRU’s ‘whole system’ approach connects policy and governance priorities at the ‘top’ of the system to the conditions for embedding democratic practice in the everyday life of institutional members and citizens. Its practical results will be disseminated as toolkits, trainings and policy briefings to students, academics, stakeholders, leaders and policy makers to transform universities’ impact on democratic society.

MappED! is a social project which aims at improving the everyday life of students with disability by creating an online platform where they will easily:- find an interactive online map indicating the accessibility level of European Higher Education Institutions, campuses around Europe, city centers and much more- be able to map the accessibility level of their University, their favourite shop in town or their usual coffee shop in few clicks only- interact with the platform via a mobile application for smartphone and participate to the social experiment anywhere, anytime! - find all the information about mobility programmes, supplementary grants, support services and procedures for students with disability how to apply for a mobility period abroadMappED! will also create a serie of training events and conferences to encourage students with disability to go abroad, foster the cooperation between Disability Office - International Relation Office - Students with disability who are the three key actors to finally raise the percentage of students with disability taking part in the Erasmus+ Programme.