ESIB becomes ESU

May 2007: This year, ESIB- The National Unions of Students in Europe celebrates its’ 25th year of representing students across Europe. In honour of this landmark, it was decided that some major changes were needed. ESIB was founded in 1982, initially as WESIB – the Western European Students’ Information Bureau – soon to drop the Western in search of a more inclusive European platform.

For the last 17 years, the name ESIB has stood firm.

The organisation itself, however, has moved on and up, largely stepping out of this initial role of ‘informant’ into what is nowadays perceived as THE organisation representative of the European Student Movement; an active member of the Bologna Follow-Up Group and present across the spectrum of European Higher Education policy-making.

This May, at ESIB’s 52nd Board Meeting held in London, ESIB became ESU – the European Students’ Union. This was a unanimous decision, signaling that our members were all ready for this change, despite the emotional attachment to ESIB.

Koen Geven, ESIB Chairperson states: “In the twenty five years of our existence, we have realised that European and international processes are increasingly influencing higher education and that students therefore deserve to have a strong representative organisation to make their case on the European level – that is why we have chosen the occasion of our 25th anniversary to rename ourselves to – The European Students’ Union”