From going abroad to feeling included: lessons from the EUniverse project on the international student experience
31 August 2026
Ludovic Thilly and Beatrix Busse, Chair and Vice-Chair of the Coimbra Group Executive Board, respectively
Emmanuelle Gardan, Director of the Coimbra Group Brussels Office
European higher education has become remarkably successful at organising mobility. Thanks in large part to the Erasmus+ programme, universities have developed an impressive capacity to move students across borders, with Coimbra Group universities among its longstanding pioneers and leading champions. Yet mobility has always been a means, not an end.
A critical question relates to what happens when international students, both exchange and full-degree students, arrive on our campuses. Do they feel welcomed into the host university community? Can they fully participate in campus activities and student life, build connections with local students and communities, and feel that they belong? For decades, internationalisation has largely been assessed through numbers: students exchanged, countries involved, partnerships established, learning agreements signed, credits recognised. These indicators matter, but they reveal little about the quality of the student experience.
These questions have guided the EUniverse project, launched in 2023 with Erasmus+ support. Bringing together Coimbra Group universities in Cologne, Edinburgh, Granada, Kraków, Pavia, Poitiers and Utrecht, alongside the Coimbra Group, the Erasmus Student Network (ESN) and the Ivan Franko University of Lviv, Ukraine, the project has explored how European values can move from principles on paper into everyday university life through internationalisation, civic engagement and student empowerment.
At its core, EUniverse sees mobility not only as an academic opportunity but also as a catalyst for more inclusive, participatory and socially engaged university communities. Its central insight is that successful student integration is not simply an outcome of internationalisation. It can also drive inclusion, democratic participation and the lived experience of shared European values.
This ambition resonates strongly with the Coimbra Group’s values. Since the earliest years of the Erasmus programme, our member universities have been among the programme’s most active participants, helping to expand opportunities for exchange and shape the evolution of internationalisation. EUniverse invites us to take the next step: to look beyond arrival and ask what kind of experience follows.he project’s findings suggest that this deserves greater attention. Many international students still struggle to connect with their host communities. Too often, integration is concentrated in welcome weeks and introductory activities rather than understood as a continuous process that accompanies students throughout their entire journey at the host university.
One of EUniverse’s greatest strengths has been its commitment to listening to students. Through a series of Student Dialogues, more than 90 international and local students, together with university staff, explored what integration means in practice – from preparing for the move and settling in to participating in campus life and having a voice in shaping the student experience. A key conclusion was that international students should not simply be consulted about integration after decisions have been made. They should be partners in designing it.
EUniverse also tested solutions. Fourteen activities organised by local ESN sections showed how welcome and integration activities can become opportunities for participation, agency and community-building when shaped with these aims in mind. The project has turned its findings into practical resources, including a ‘Practical Manual’ a five-step, action-oriented framework to help universities and student organisations empower international students, improve their integration into host communities and foster a stronger sense of belonging throughout their mobility experience.
The EUniverse course developed and tested at the University of Granada offers another illustration. Bringing together international students from diverse backgrounds to discuss European values in relation to mobility, inclusion, intercultural dialogue, accessibility and civic engagement, it demonstrated that these values are not simply topics to be taught. They are realities to be examined, questioned and experienced collectively across cultures.
Together, these experiences underpin what the project calls the “EUniversal mindset”: a vision of internationalisation in which European values, diversity, inclusion and participation reinforce one another. When students feel recognised and connected, they are more likely to participate in university life, engage with local communities and contribute to a culture of openness and dialogue. Integration is therefore not merely a support service, but an educational objective and part of the civic mission of universities.
This perspective also connects internationalisation to a broader question: how can universities serve as spaces of dialogue, participation and democratic learning? This was at the heart of the Coimbra Group’s reflections during its 40th anniversary year in 2025. As part of these discussions, our network, in collaboration with Utrecht University and with the support of the European Students’ Union (ESU), co-organised the High-Level Seminar “Reinventing Campus Democracy: Bridging Divides and Advancing Solutions“ to reflect on and discuss concrete ways in which universities can strengthen democratic engagement on campus.
At the EUniverse final conference, ‘EU Values at the Core of Integration, Education and Innovation’, held in Granada in June 2026 alongside the Coimbra Group Annual Conference and General Assembly, one message stood out particularly clearly: integrating international students is a shared responsibility. It cannot rest solely with international offices or welcome centres. Academic staff, university leadership, student organisations, local communities and international students themselves all have a role to play.
This is central to what EUniverse leaves behind. The project does not propose a single model for every institution to replicate. Instead, it challenges higher education institutions to consider how their practices can enable international students to participate fully in university and local life, rather than remaining in an “international student bubble”. That is a goal worth pursuing – for internationalisation, for our universities and for Europe. We therefore hope the project’s recommendations will inform future policies and programmes at national and European levels, including Erasmus+, while encouraging universities to strengthen how they welcome, engage and empower international students.
As EUniverse enters its legacy phase, we warmly invite colleagues across our network and beyond to explore its publications and participate, on 23 September 2026, in the final online dissemination event dedicated to the presentation and discussion of the project’s Policy Recommendation Paper.