Compass – orientating you towards your best international mobility choice Erasmus Project

Project Title

Compass – orientating you towards your best international mobility choice

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship; ICT – new technologies – digital competences

Project Summary

The mobility abroad has become an essential step of the personal and academic journey of students. Mobility opportunities have multiplied (study semesters, internships, exchanges), the higher education cooperation was strengthened and the education became international.

In this context, the consortium carries on a project promoting a quality and inclusive support toward outgoing students, everywhere in Europe.

The Compass project is structured around an online platform implementing an automated matching system, completed by an easier access to quality information and stronger collaborations between youth mobility support students associations and higher education institutions. The outgoing student mentoring provides a personalised help, a special contact to help the student during the reflection stage, and the mentor can present his city, his study institution and its academic content, or even social and cultural resources to support his decision.

The project objectives are:
Improving the support during the orientation and preparation by an online matching tool for students organising their mobility.
Developing the universities and local students internationalisation by promoting dialogue, open-mindedness and mutual understanding, tools of a European citizenship
Strengthening the mobility students supporting structures (academic and associative) and helping them reinforce their practices and develop sustainable relationships by providing them shared and inclusive tools.

With a European universities network (EUF), a European international students associations network (ESN International), the universities of Hertfordshire and of Vienna, and two national students mobility associations networks, we will carry on the project with the collectively structured activities:
a platform enabling the matching and peer-to-peer support of outgoing students by volunteering students, and serving as a common tool for universities and associations to pilot this support
the integration of this platform to complementary European Commission tools
two studies on needs and expectations of students preparing their mobility and on support practices in Europe to provide reliable pedagogical tools for universities and international students support associations.
training and advocacy tools, and the creation of a trainers network for a sustainable project dissemination

By the end of the project, the Compass tools will be used in 15 countries in Europe, and 30.000 students will be registered on the platform. Thus, the project will impact a great number of students, and advocate for a greater outgoing preparation support by providing a unique support: pluri-institutional, individual and personalized.

This tool will durably settle in the international mobility landscape because the Compass implementation will be the result of universities and international mobility students associations cooperation. The project will quickly disseminate in Europe thanks to the wide universities and associations networks. In that aspect, the consortium can rely on a network of 525 pan-european associations and more than 700 universities thanks to its partners work.

Compass is a unifying project for international mobility stakeholders in Europe by providing common pedagogical tools as well as a platform on which to highlight their support practices. It aims for students to fully reach at intercultural exchanges opportunities that surround them. Compass optimises international mobility on the one hand, and internationalisation at home on the other: they are both crucial aspects today when witnessing in Europe fallbacks on nationalisme. Bearing this in mind, this project intends to promote intercultural exchanges and thus raising awareness among participants about European dialogue and citizenship.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 393743 Eur

Project Coordinator

INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE ERASMUS STUDENT NETWORK FRANCE & Country: FR

Project Partners

• EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY FOUNDATION-CAMPUS EUROPAE
• ERASMUS STUDENT NETWORK AISBL
• ERASMUS STUDENT NETWORK ITALIA
• UNIVERSITAT WIEN
• THE UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE HIGHER EDUCATION CORPORATION