An Easy-to-Use, Convenient Service Option for European Students – The New Student Card ESC

The Eucor universities are working on the application of the European Student Card (ESC). This tool is intended to allow use of the student card of the respective home university at any of the other universities. Whether it is to pay at the cafeteria, borrow books from the library, or open doors – the use of the ESC is technically easy. What is more, theoretically one could also have all academic achievements read out on the card by the partner university, provided one gives one’s consent as a student.

“The idea is that students can use all the services of the different universities with their own cards,” explains Axel Maurer, who is responsible for Digital Information Management at KIT’s Steinbuch Center for Computing (SCC). He is in charge of the project to modernize the KIT Card.

The idea sounds tempting because it makes mobility and everyday life much easier for all European students. Eucor – The European Campus is one of the campuses of experimentation. In the long term it is planned that the ESC can be used at all European universities. Now that the four project partners in Germany, France, Ireland, and Italy have jointly created the framework for the card, the activation of these functions is the next step. Michael Postert, Managing Director of Studierendenwerk Karlsruhe and leading partner in the project, states: “Now the real work is starting. What can I do with this new card? Our next goal is to activate within the Eucor network all functions that are possible on the new card”. To this end, all cards at KIT and the University of Strasbourg will gradually be exchanged, so that the universities on the Upper Rhine can take a further step together on the way to studying in Europe without borders.

Website of the European Student Card
Video about the European Student Card (Youtube)