Erasmus Student Network Croatia

Erasmus Student Network Croatia is an independent, non-profit, student, voluntary, apolitical, non-governmental and non-religious national organisation governed by the principles of Erasmus Student Network AISBL. ESN is the biggest student association in Europe. It is present in more than 1000 higher education institutions from 42 countries and the network is constantly developing and expanding. We have around 15 000 active members who are in many sections supported by non-members or so-called buddies mainly taking care of international students. Thus, ESN involves around 40 000 young people offering its services to around 350 000 international students every year.

ESN works towards the development of a more mobile and flexible education environment by supporting and developing the student exchange from different levels and providing an intercultural experience also to those students who cannot access a period abroad (“internationalisation at home”).

All of our volunteers share the same mission, vision, and values. Our areas of work can be described under a common name – causes. Six causes of ESN are Culture, Environmental Sustainability, Health and Well-being, Education and Youth, Skills and Employability, and Social Inclusion.

ESN is operating on the local, national, and international levels. ESN Croatia is considered to be the national level of ESN present in the Republic of Croatia and it has six local sections in six different cities across the country: ESN Dubrovnik, ESN Osijek, ESN Rijeka, ESN Split, ESN Zadar, and ESN Zagreb.

Students Helping Students

In ESN we value volunteering and active citizenship, so we work in the interest of international students and that is why we represent their needs and rights on the local, national, and international level. For the international students who come to study in Croatia, we work on improving their social and practical integration and provide relevant information about their stay and the country’s culture.

We are doing that through:

• ESNbuddy programme (a project that aims to assign an incoming Erasmus student with an “ESNbuddy” who is a local student willing to help an exchange student to get up on their feet in their first weeks in a new country);
• Welcome Weeks (a week at the beginning of a semester with many orientation activities for introducing the international students to each other, their university, and to the city);
• integration in the local communities (activities in the local sections, which include cultural and social events such as trips to various places within the country, film nights, language projects, international food festivals and last, but not least, parties). We also provide help to the students going abroad from our country by providing relevant information about mobility programmes, motivating students to study abroad, working with the reintegration of homecoming students, and contributing to the improvement and accessibility of student mobility.

We especially focus on:

• sharing personal mobility experiences from our ESN volunteers;
• providing contact information for mobility programmes;
• having contact with the universities in Croatia through our local ESN sections.

Erasmus Student Network Croatia

Email: info@esn.hr

Address: Istarska 5, 31000 Osijek, Croatia

Facebook & LinkedIn: Erasmus Student Network Croatia

Instagram & Twitter: @esncroatia

Website: www.esn.hr