The International Relations Coordinators of AEC member institutions have been suggesting for some years that AEC could develop a common European online applications system for ERASMUS and other mobility schemes applications, in order to overcome various obstacles such as the amount of paper work and the proliferation of different online systems and procedures. In the framework of the European Funded project FULL SCORE, a task force of international relations experts (a subgroup of the AEC IRCs working group), supported by the IT company ASIMUT, selected the Estonian company Dreamapply to provide an IT solution which could meet the ambitious and unique needs of such a system at European level. With the input of the task force, the company has released the first version of the European Online Application System (EASY) in December 2016. The system has been tested during the academic year 2016-2017 by the 41 AEC members institutions which took part in the first pilot phase. During Summer 2017 a new working group of experienced EASY users has been formed in order to work with Dreamapply on improvements to shape a better system for the academic year 2017-2018. Thanks to EASY the AEC is going to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the European University Foundation in the framework of the EC funded project Erasmus Without Papers in order to follow up and influence developments in the field of the digitization of Erasmus procedures.
What are the benefits of using EASY?
Reducing paper work
Adapting to the various technical and structural requirements of AEC members institutions.
The students will be able to autonomously submit online applications (audio/video) for more than one receiving institution and (if accepted) choose and confirm their final mobility destination
The international offices will be able to easily handle the relations with their partners; verify, approve, return, forward applications; monitor the applications’ status; finalize procedures.
The teachers and faculty management will be able to receive applications, submit evaluations, send feedback to international office
Why EASY is so special – a collaborative effort
It is the first and only system of this kind being multi-national and subject-based
It follows the same procedure for all institutions
Incoming and outgoing applications handled by the same system
System developments are centrally controlled by the AEC with direct inputs from the users
EASY is connecting to the EU Erasmus Without Papers Project
the more institutions join the better the system works
users can refer to fellow IRCs in the EASY working group for questions and help
What the Student can do with EASY
• Apply for exchange online
• Fill in application form (including study plan)
• Upload documents and media files
• Edit own data
• Confirm final decision
What the Coordinators can do with EASY
Manage ERASMUS SMS (Student Mobility for Study), Nordplus and other incoming and outgoing applications
• manage relations with partner institutions
• manage the pre-selection procedure (optional)
• nominate students to apply for exchange
• share applications with media files with teaching committee
• send out acceptance letters with customizable templates and attachments
• generate exportable tables of applications
Highlighs of the system
•“controlled autonomy” of the student
• automatic emails
• catchy graphic design – user friendly
• email notifications from the system to the IRCs
• automatic nominations email to external institutions
• automatic confirmation of nominations from external institutions
• export of application data in Excel
a unique online tool to fill in the Learning Agreement, which is pre-filled with data from the study plan, is editable by both coordinators and students, who can put their electronic signature, save and print the documents of parts of it
New EASY Working Group 2017-2018
Hanneleen Pihlak – Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, Tallinn, Estonia
Lucia Di Cecca – Conservatorio di Musica L. Refice in Frosinone, Italy
Jose Luis Fernandez – Conservatorio Superior de Musica de Vigo, Spain
Anna Stina Sinisalo – Sibelius Academy Helsinki, Finland
Salvatore Gioveni – Conservatoire Royale de Bruxelles, Belgium
Sara Primiterra – AEC Office
do you have questions or comments to the working group? please mail Sara at events@aec-music.eu
