Partners and experts with complementary expertise in the field of policy, social dimension and mental health implement the project activities.

European Students' Union (ESU)

The European Students Union (ESU) is an umbrella organisation of 45 National Unions of Students from 40 countries and represents over 20 million students in Europe. Since 1982, ESU has represented and promoted students’ educational, social, economic, and cultural interests at a European level towards all relevant bodies (European Union, BFUG, Council of Europe, and UNESCO). ESU’s work is focused on Social Dimension and lifelong learning, Quality of Higher Education, Students’ mobility and Internationalisation of Education and Public Responsibility for Higher Education. Its activities include conducting European-wide research, partnership projects and campaigns, providing information services and producing a variety of publications for students, policy-makers and higher education professionals. The organisation brings together and offers resources and training for national student representatives on policy developments in higher education at the European level.

Why participate in the project?

Two of ESU’s goals are “to promote equal opportunities for ALL students” and “to work towards facilitating widened participation among students in higher education, most notable students from marginalised groups and students lacking representation”. The year 2020 and 2021 is marked by the global pandemic of Covid-19. The strategic work of ESU has been intensively influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, which magnified the inequity and imbalances in accessing traditional higher education systems around the world. Our members’ new priority is to ensure education systems are more inclusive. Participating in this project is of great value to ESU.

Our role in the project

ESU will contribute to the project through the following activities:

  • Participate as an active member of the Transnational Steering Group
  • Organise four peer-learning activities (PLAs)) and provide input on the PLA report
  • Provide guidance and input during the different phases (desk research, focus groups, design/revision toolkit, implementation) of the development and testing of the PAGs toolkit and the mental health framework
  • Provide guidance and input during the different phases (desk research, focus groups, design/revision web portal, implementation) of the development and testing of the ‘Web portal Scholarships’
  • Contribute actively to the dissemination and communication activities regarding the PLAR-U-PAGs project, including organising the final dissemination conference

Our project team

For PLAR-U-PAGS, ESU has nominated staff with vast experience in peer learning activities and social dimension:

Horia Onița

Project officer - Project associate PLAR-U-PAGs

Horia Onița has been involved in the student movement for over eight years, serving as president of the National Alliance of Student Organisations in Romania (ANOSR) and coordinating portfolios such as Quality Assuranceand Bologna Process Implementation in Romania. In ESU, Horia coordinates the Quality Assurance of Higher Education cluster, represents ESU as co-chair of the Bologna Follow-Up Group (BFUG) Working Group on Social Dimension, and follows EU developments on education funding and monitoring through National Recovery and Resilience Plans and the European Semester. Horia holds a Bachelor of Law and a Master of Public Procurement degree from the University of Bucharest.