On the 30th of April, the EUF, ESN and ESU officially launched the #Erasmus500 initiative, marking the beginning of a journey towards a fair and transparent Erasmus grant system. The campaign may have started small but it has grown spectacularly, and today we are more than 100 stakeholder organisations – and many more individuals – who feel strongly the changes proposed by Erasmus500 are pertinent, timely and necessary. 

This has been a truly fantastical journey, not least because we had the chance to meet, discuss and exchange our views with many of you who now actively support #Erasmus500! You and every single supporter are contributing to bringing us closer to succeeding in changing what’s been the status quo for many years in the Erasmus programme. However, we are far from achieving our goals. 

September and October will be very important months to get the word out and raise awareness about the ideas Erasmus500 advocates. We will really need your support, and in order to keep in touch and share ideas about next steps, we created a Facebook group which you are welcome to join. If you don’t use Facebook (which we don’t blame you for), feel free to reach out directly with any suggestions and ideas you may have, and do expect to hear more from us soon – we made it far, but there is still some way to go!

João Bacelar & Marie Montaldo, EUF