1. EMREX Rolling out data transfer services for mobile students in Nordic countries and beyond
Cape Town,

2. Agenda What is EMREX How it works Current state Future Demo
User scenario
Data standard and platform
Current state
Field trial, solution
Evaluation
Future
Other use scenarios
Call for cooperation
Demo

3. What is EMREX? EU Erasmus+ project (2015-2017)
Ministry level initiative
Increase student mobility (20%)
Recognition of previous studies
Electronic and secure transfer of student data between HEIs
Field trial and evaluation of impact
Denmark, Finland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Sweden
Key requirement was to involve at least three ministry-level participants to be eligible for funding
EU2020 target to increase student mobility to 20%
“Field trial on the impact of enabling easy mobility on recognition of external studies”

4. Host CountryResults Service
How it works?
Country A
Country B
Home country HEI SIS
Host CountryResults Service
Oodi
Oodi
Oodi
HEI SIS
Student
Mobility
Plug-in
National
Contact
Point
ELMO (XML)
Platform
Registry
NCP (National Contact Point) – one per country
SMP (Student Mobility Plug-in to local SIS)
Authentication
Student returning home can retrieve his achievement data electronically

5. Current state – field trial
Institutions in live field trial
All HEIs from Norway and Sweden
All HEIs from Finland for incoming, 4-10 HEIs for outgoing students
All universities from Denmark, incoming (NCP, June)
Two HEIs (Verona and Siena) from Italy
(Polish internal mobility next year, several HEIs)
Common data format and solution
EMREX-ELMO ver. 1 posted on GitHub
Example NCP/SMP on GitHub
Info material and support (also in national languages)
Newsletters and info on
Live production systems in the Nordic countries and Italy. Poland not officially part of field trial, but has own system for national mobility
All code open source and freely available in GitHub
Field trial has started, with 50+ unique users (SWE-NOR-FIN)

6. Current state – evaluation
Administrative data – statistics on the number of outgoing and incoming students for each HEI in partner countries were collected.
Qualitative research
Positive response to digital system for academic records’ transfer.
Could significantly speed up the recognition process.
Scepticism on short-term impact on students mobility.
Surveys
EMREX evaluation, survey part of the system
EMREX users are asked to rate their experience
“Very quick and straightforward to use”
“Wow, can I find results from all European countries?”
Survey regarding the recognition process
Over 500 completed questionnaires so far
Only 47% got their transcript before leaving for home
Fast and reliable service most important
Administrative data – statistics on the number of outgoing and incoming students for each HEI in partner countries were collected.
Qualitative research
Respondents are optimistic about the prospect of having a digital system for academic records’ transfer.
They anticipate that EMREX could significantly speed up the recognition process.
Interviewees are sceptical about EMREX’s short-term impact on students mobility, i.e. increase in number of exchange students caused by EMREX.
Surveys
SMP evaluation
A short survey for SMP evaluation has started.
EMREX users are asked to rate their experience after they use the SMP.
Recognition process evaluation
A longer survey regarding the recognition process has been launched in Finland and soon it will disseminated in other countries.
There are over 450 completed questionnaires so far.

7. Future – other scenarios
Other use scenarios – EMREX a building block
Internal national mobility
Admission to educational institutions
Recruitment for jobs
Validation of degrees and diplomas
Informal learning
Further steps
Expand to other countries
More automatization of recognition, admission, recruitment, certification etc.
Issues to be worked out in a broader perspective
Long-lived authentication services for students leaving academia
Common eID for EU
Other possible issues
Software reuse (open source)
Scalability

8. Future – call for cooperation
Pre-conference workshop on paperless student mobility at EUNIS 2016 in Thessaloniki
Co-operation with other projects (e.g. ERASMUS Without Paper, On-line Learning Agreement)
Needed: European organization responsible for automatization of administration processes behind mobility

9. Additional information
EMREX website:
EMREX-info mailing list, e.g. monthly reports
GitHub:
Survey for mobile students on recognition
EUNIS pre-conference workshop „Informal evangelist meeting on paperless student mobility”

10. Demo
A demo of the EMREX solution