It has come to be regarded as common wisdom that the Erasmus program is one of the most popular – and successful – European Union (EU) policies. For over 25 years, European students from all areas have been given the opportunity to experience living and studying abroad, thus acquiring skills and international experience that have not only contributed to raising the students awareness of distinct cultural realities and mentalities, but also to shaping them as professionals. In a nutshell, we can easily say that Erasmus has become an essential part of the personal and professional formative process of an ever-increasing number of European citizens, often forever changing their mindset.

As the program grew, so did its complexity and ambition. Nowadays, the main challenge has shifted from providing students with the opportunity to study abroad to ensuring that the students can gain the maximum benefit from it while removing existing problems or disadvantages. This brings us to the E-QUA – Erasmus Quality Hosting Framework and to the event organised by the European University College Association on the 30^th of September at the European Parliament, presenting the results achieved by the E-QUA project so far. This project has six key objectives:

1. Setting up of a common standard for quality indicators for the measurement of the services offered to Erasmus students;
2. Setting up of common quality criteria for student’s mobility;
3. Improving mobility in structures with an educational programme for the hosted students;
4. Providing the student with a more competitive curriculum in the job market;
5. Improving the recognition of the courses in the hosting structures within the student’s curriculum or diploma supplement;
6. Improving the recognition of soft skills acquired in non-formal and informal learning environments.

Amongst the speakers, we could find members of the EU institutions, university professors and various stakeholders, all brought together by the universal reach of Erasmus and by its increasing importance and impact, not only on the field of education, but also of entrepreneurship and in defining the criteria when it comes to recruitment, career profiles and training.

The event was hosted by Polish MEP Ms. Krystyna Łybacka, who started by reminding us that when Erasmus first started in 1987 there were less than 4.000 students in the program. Nowadays, Erasmus+ is a completely different reality, bringing together seven programs and influencing the social, employment, and even the foreign policies of the EU. Another of its important features is the program’s inclusive nature, allowing for the participation of students from different social strata. Erasmus has not only become a key element in the creation of a Europe of Knowledge and in the Europe 2020 strategy, but also one of the most important tools to help create a European citizenship. But what is the importance of Erasmus in nowadays crisis-stricken and hyper-competitive labour markets? Reality shows that this increasing competition has helped turn mobility into an asset of increasing importance amongst employers and that soft-skills, also called the “competences of the future”, are in growing demand. The Bologna reforms are key to understanding the big picture: not only have they resulted in the launching of a European Higher Education Area (EHEA), but have allowed achievements in the past 15 years in making European higher education structures more comparable, increasing mobility, providing quality assurance systems and in the recognition of diplomas, thus improving the quality and attractiveness of higher education in Europe.

According to Professor Maria Antonietta Confalonieri, from the University of Pavia, and Caterina Avezzù, from Padua’s Scopoli University College, in order to assess the impact of a policy one must compare the outcomes with the goals. There are four great dimensions of quality of Erasmus: academic quality; quality in terms of language skills; quality in terms of skills relevant for graduates employability; and density and meaningfulness of intercultural encounters. The Erasmus experience has indeed contributed to formation of a “high-skilled labour force” with a “European” mindset and the next step, as foreseen by the E-QUA project, is to put into force a system that ensures proper certification of the transferable and interpersonal skills and their inclusion in the students’ Diploma Supplement. It must also be said that all too often many students fall into the “Erasmus bubble trap”, isolating themselves from the host society and academic community. This renders the formation of a European citizenship more difficult and contributes to the reinforcement of existing prejudices during Erasmus experience, instead of their mitigation. The University Halls of Residence (UHRs) can and ought to play an important role here by fostering the creation of integrated communities with strong collective identities through the promotion of intercultural activities that fall within the scope of the certification system. Indeed, soft skills are “the real added value of the mobility experience” and UHRs must therefore be regarded for that what they are: “a living and learning community”. Hence, the inclusion of both formal and informal soft skills in the Diploma Supplement is a priority and ought to be addressed as such.

During the Q&A session, existing problems that Erasmus cannot actually solve were also addressed by the multinational audience, here given an opportunity to voice their personal experiences and concerns about student mobility. One of the most important ones is the long-lasting perceptions amongst the academic and corporate class about the existing quality gap in the host country’s educational system when compared to that of their home country. This can raise problems in the recognition of the courses completed abroad and also reflect negatively in the student’s future employability. In Italy, for instance, the curricula is becoming more and more regulated and this makes recognition increasingly difficult. Also, the number of credits being awarded for completing elective courses changes between cities, despite the Bologna reforms. But if it is true that changes of mentality and procedure in the academic realm take time, one must also stress that without Erasmus, the Bologna process itself would not have existed in the first place. It was agreed that a solution for this problem would be not letting the students learning agreements be reduced to a mere administrative procedure and ensure that the agreements are approved by academics or by the professors themselves.

One strong overall perception during this event was that we are living in truly exceptional times. The globalisation of societies and the ongoing digital and technological revolutions are changing not only the physical but also the psychological landscape on which we study, live and work. In education, as the centre of gravity is increasingly shifting towards the students: assessing how much information a professor transmitted in its classes will not matter nearly as much as assessing the knowledge the student actually acquired and the number of specific skills he developed in his studies. As stated by Nicola Filizola, Vice President for EU Affairs at the GaragErasmus Foundation, nowadays “the most important human capital is internationalised capital”. It is this capital that enriches educational experiences, boosts the overall quality of companies’ staff and empowers the new generation of European entrepreneurs.