HOME

HOME (Home Of Mobile Europeans) is a threeyear Erasmus+ project started in September 2019 which promotes international mobility by providing students and young professionals with an easier way to find their new home abroad.

HOME project ultimately aims at supporting the student accommodation industry by boosting international mobility and improving the information available to students in order for them to make more informed choices. The project integrates quality accommodation options with both current and future European initiatives for the digitisation of Higher Education. Such initiatives include: the European Commission’s Erasmus+ App and Erasmus Without Papers (EWP). In this way, HOME makes quality accommodation options available at the fingertips of mobile Europeans, paying particular attention to disadvantaged groups. To continue doing so, HOME aims at:

• Establishing the Student Accommodation Quality Labels;

• Defining a Digital Data Standard for student housing and developing a public API, to make information on quality student housing more accessible for mobility participants and Higher Education Institutions.

In this project UIPI is entrusted with the research on the minimum legal requirements as well as the average quality standards of student accommodation in 6 selected countries in Europe (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands). Based on these standards, the above mentioned Student Accommodation Quality Labels will be developed, notably one label on the physical conditions of the accommodation (“Room Quality Label”) and one on additional features which could be appealing for international students, such as Wi-Fi or the contract available in English (“International student friendliness” Label). Besides the labels, the possibility of displaying the accessibility of the accommodation is foreseen through the establishment of an “Accessibility Badge”. The labels will be independent from each other. Whether interested, housing providers will be able to obtain one or more labels for their properties by means of self-certification and using the tools made available by HOME.