On 22 April 2022, Humboldt University of Berlin hosted the third meeting of the ESC-tension project, organized jointly with Fondazione ENDISU, and with the participation of the partner institutions from Italy, Poland, Ireland, Spain, France and, of course, Germany.

This project is now going through its final semester, a crucial phase which will end in October 2022.

Among the outcomes of the Berlin meeting, the most outstanding ones are the Card and Services toolboxes which will be delivered through online forms, currently being tested. In these forms, relevant questions will be asked to the final users about their as-is situation concerning the cards and the services respectively. Throughout the compilation of these toolboxes, Higher Education Institutions will be provided with concrete tips so that they will be technically and organizationally ready to adopt the European Student Card; in addition, Student Service Providers will be able to adapt their services to the implementation of these tools.

Such tools also give the opportunity to receive a single PDF document by email, collecting all the tips customized to the specific HEI or SSP context, and already displayed in the online form.

The meeting in person was an essential opportunity for the partners to openly discuss these topics, and exchange opinions to be taken into account for the validation and finetuning phase starting in May. Among the guests, there were also Jean-Paul Roumegas from CNOUS and Friederike von Bargen from Deutsches Studentenwerk, who are two very important Associate Partners of the ESC-tension.

Both the French and the German institutions have indeed a long-lasting close business relationship with many members of the consortium and have been actively working in several ESC-related projects so far. In this regard, Mr. Roumegas, as coordinator of the former ESC project, intervened with a recap about the current state of the art and the perspective of the ESC ecosystem.

The meeting was also an important opportunity to share the project status, the next steps to be taken, and all internal administrative and communication updates among the core partners. A final focus was made on the Multiplier Events that the consortium is expected to organize in October to disseminate the project results once it comes to its end. In the month of October, the closing project meeting is also foreseen and will take place in Brussels, the beating heart of the European Institutions headquarters.