IDEM Concludes
Time to Put Inclusion into Action
2025/03/17
After three years of dedicated collaboration, the IDEM project has come to a successful close. Funded from 2022 to January 2025, IDEM brought together five Unite! universities – TU Darmstadt (coordinator), UPC Barcelona, Aalto University, Universidade de Lisboa, and Grenoble INP-UGA – with Politecnico di Torino as an associate partner. Their shared mission: to make student mobility more inclusive and equitable.
Breaking Barriers to Mobility
For many students, studying abroad remains out of reach – not just due to structural barriers like financial constraints and lack of information, but also psychological barriers such as fear of discrimination, cultural anxiety, and the absence of role models. These challenges often discourage underserved students from even considering mobility programs.
IDEM has tackled these issues head-on, ensuring that mobility programs become accessible, welcoming, and supportive for all students, particularly those who may otherwise be left behind.
Key Results: Practical Solutions for Real Change
Through close collaboration across institutions, IDEM has developed resources that empower higher education institutions (HEIs) to remove barriers and support students at every stage of their mobility experience.
The IDEM Mobility Guidelines and the IDEM Toolkit provide universities with concrete approaches to fostering inclusion in mobility programs.
The Toolkit is built around four essential elements:
- New Concepts for Inclusive Mobility – Shaping a more student-centered and barrier-free approach.
- IDEM Squad & IDEM Clubs – Strengthening peer support networks and fostering belonging.
- Inclusive Engagement – Encouraging student involvement in shaping mobility experiences.
- Inclusion Officers – Institutionalizing support structures for long-term change.
These tools help institutions not only expand access to mobility programs but also ensure that students thrive during their time abroad.
As part of the Toolkit, the IDEM Wall Magazines bring these key concepts to life in a visual, interactive format. They serve as an engaging way to raise awareness about inclusion, highlight student experiences, and encourage reflection on mobility challenges and solutions. By making these topics visible and accessible in everyday settings, the Wall Magazines help keep the conversation on inclusive mobility ongoing within Higher Education Institutions.
Driving Implementation Across Institutions
While the IDEM project itself has concluded, its impact is just beginning. The Unite! alliance is committed to integrating these recommendations within its member institutions, embedding inclusion and equity into their internationalisation efforts. Together, we can ensure that mobility opportunities are not only open to all students but also genuinely inclusive, supportive, and transformative experiences.
The challenge ahead is clear – but so is the opportunity. Now is the time to turn IDEM’s insights into action.
“As the National Erasmus+ Agency in Germany, we have been working together with German universities for many years to promote greater equality of opportunity for stays abroad. The involvement of the various stakeholders is crucial to the targeted development of inclusion measures and activities in the Erasmus+ programme and at universities. IDEM has addressed this topic in a special way by placing the experiences and perspectives of students at the centre of the project. During the final meeting, I was particularly impressed by the sense of trust and open exchange between the project participants. At the same time, discussions in my role as Erasmus+ inclusion officer, both personally and professionally, have shown me that the voices and needs of students in the higher education context are still not being heard. I am sure that the IDEM results can help many universities to implement inclusion measures in practice – because they come from the community and because they can be used according to the individual needs of organisations.”
Dr. Frauke Stebner, Team Leader Social Inclusion and Diversity, Erasmus+ Inclusion Officer at the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
The universities: TU Darmstadt, TU Graz, Aalto University, UPC, ULisboa, Grenoble INP-UGA. mho
