The Organization

In the late 1980s the Erasmus exchange programme was introduced in Europe. In connection with this students around Europe people started to organize activities with the aim to take care of the international students visiting the different universities. This gave birth to ESN in the beginning of the 90s. Nowadays there are approximately 250 sections distributed over 34 countries. Currently, in Sweden, there are nine local sections. Please note that ESN not only reaches out to students participating in the Erasmus programme.

ESN works without being associated with any political party or confessional grouping. The work within the ESN is done on three levels:
international, national and local level. The aim of the network is to work for the international students and sees to their wellbeing when enrolled in higher education, by means of:

Improvement of the social and practical integration of international students at their host institution.
Representation of the needs and expectations of international students on the local, national and international level.
Provision of relevant information about academic exchange programmes and ESN resources.
Reintegration of homecoming students by making them active in the network.
Contribution to evaluation of different exchange programmes.

The international board of five people live in Brussels together so they can get in touch with people from EU, bigger organisation and be where the action is. They base their decisions with help from all the national delegates. Every country has one person that represents their country. The international board meet with the national delegates several times during the year.

Every spring all the European sections (about 290) meet at the Annual General Meeting (AGM). This is the highlight within ESN with over 400 delegates and a perfect opportunity to make new acquaintances and exchange ideas.

Besides meeting at the AGM, We have a nordic platform where all the northern European sections meet, there is also a meeting for the central European section, the southern section and so on.

On national level the local sections from one and the same country meet regularly. In Sweden, ESN Sweden has at least 4 meetings per year. These meetings function both as opportunities to discuss current issues and as social gatherings.