According to the European Student Card Initiative (ESCI), Masaryk University has the best record in the Czech Republic in implementing key elements of Erasmus Without Paper (EWP). This means it has become a champion for the second time, now for the period 2025–2027.
For MU students and staff, this means even faster, simpler and more convenient document approval when they leave for an Erasmus+ study placement. All universities in the other 27 EU Member States and the six non-EU countries Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Turkey, Serbia and Macedonia must be connected to the EWP network. In total, this includes more than four thousand universities in Europe.
During this period, the Evaluation Board has recorded a record number of registered institutions. The National Agencies of each country nominated three organisations. In an international competition of 123 applicants from 30 countries, the European Commission's Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture (DG EAC) selected 30 winners.
Progress in the phases of digitalisation
The development of the IS OIS system, not only for the administration of exchange visits, has been led from the very beginning by IT architect Jiří Petrželka. He has been working on the digitalisation of Erasmus for six years and has won the Rector's Award for his work. This efficient system developed at MU is now also used by the Silesian University in Opava, the Technical and Economic University in České Budějovice and the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts.
Departing students have already been digitally submitting their Learning Agreements, i.e. the study contract between the student and the home and partner universities, for four years. At that time, Masaryk University was already one of the few universities in Europe to meet the digitisation deadline. Previously, the contract had to be physically signed by four people before departure – the student, the coordinator at the department, the coordinator for MU and the coordinator from the partner university. It had to be printed and scanned at least four times. Today, a student can do it online in a few clicks.
MU has also met the requirements of the second phase of digitalisation - also signing partnership agreements with universities electronically. For European Erasmus+ alone, it has over 1400 inter-institutional agreements with 563 universities across Europe.
At present, MU is testing the third phase of the digitalisation process. Staff and students will soon be able to look forward to the electronic processing of mobility nominations, i.e. the inter-university transfer of data on newly-selected students.
What awaits MU as an ESCI Champion
MU will now, along with the other winning schools, serve as an ESCI Champion for two years. At joint meetings at both national and European level, they will share best practices and experience on digitalisation with other colleagues, thus contributing to the further development and direction of the ESCI. In September, university representatives will attend the inaugural ESCI Champions meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden, to discuss the further development of Erasmus digitalisation in Europe.