Back to school in Brussels

BRUSSELS – As most students in Europe are about to start a new academic year, the European Students’ Union (ESU) is planning to kick-start its own schedule with a networking event on 2 September 2014. Around 60 participants have registered for the event, including members of the European Parliament and representatives of the European Commission and member states of the European Union.

This event will be held on the ground floor of a fully renovated office building that ESU moved into in July, at Rue l’Industrie 10, as part of the so-called Mundo-J project. ESU was very happy to join this project, hoping to increase its collaboration and cooperation with EU institutions and higher education and youth organisations, some that are neighbouring ESU such as the Organisational Bureau of European School Student Unions (OBESSU), the European Civil Society Platform on Lifelong Learning (EUCIS-LLL), the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer Youth and Student Organisation (IGLYO) and the European Association for the Education of Adults (EAEA).

Elisabeth Gehrke, ESU’s Chairperson, will formally welcome guests to the event after which they will be briefly introduced to ESU’s plan of work and the new team that started its political mandate on 1 July. The guests will then be invited to informal discussions on various subjects in higher education where ESU’s previous work in the field will also be presented. This is the first time ESU organises this networking event that has been called Back to School.

ESU is very happy to see how many people have showed interest in the event and looks the meeting at the start of this academic year. Several important issues are on its list of tasks for the upcoming months, such as preparations for the ministerial conference of the European Higher Education Area in the spring, continuing discussions on higher education and the UN development agenda post-2015 as well as ongoing policy processes at the European level such as the ET2020 and EU2020 agendas.

Please see more information about the event on the Facebook page created for this occasion. All who are interested to contributing to the discussions for the event are also encouraged to use the hashtag #ESUback2school on social media.

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For more information, please contact:

Elisabeth Gehrke, ESU Chairperson: +32/479.591.499 // elisabeth@esu-online.org or Robert Hlynur Baldursson, ESU Communications Manager: +32/473.669.894 // robert@esu-online.org