The European Union has long been committed to a policy of promoting “global awareness of the high quality and the rich cultural and linguistic diversity of European higher education”. Since 2014, a central programme has been Study in Europe. This initiative produces promotional material, offers expert guidance, organises real and virtual education fairs and hosts a one-stop portal on the EU’s official Europa website designed to drive traffic towards national sites.

A session at the mid-September European Association for International Education conference in Liverpool set out to explore the “results and lessons” so far “from a 33-country collaboration”. Study in Europe chair Adrian Veale — who works at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Education and Culture — explains that the aim of the initiative is to “make Europe a more attractive and better-known destination for students”.

It is funded by the Erasmus+ programme and includes all 28 member states as well as three in the European Economic Area (Norway, Iceland and Lichtenstein) and two candidates for membership of the EU that have been willing to pay to be part of the initiative (Macedonia and Turkey). All are being promoted as potential study destinations, said Veale, through “a number of activities to get European universities better known”.

There have already been live fairs in South Africa, South Korea, Ecuador and Peru this year. Virtual fairs should follow in North America, Russia, Nigeria and elsewhere. Each gives national promotion agencies and sometimes individual universities the chance to display their wares.

“There is no common ‘European-ness’ in higher education we can sell,” admits Veale, so Study in Europe is “about raising the visibility of the entire range”. This should help potential students make comparisons about quality, fees level, specialisations and value for money.

Yet in reality this is likely to be particularly effective in providing a platform for countries which don’t benefit from the resources and experience of the worldwide network of bigger countries. The British Council, DAAD (Germany’s academic exchange programme) and Campus France, for example, have extensive networks and do a lot of their own promotion.