The Project

The Buddy System is an online platform that brings together international and local students through a mentoring programme. This platform enables local actors to manage and coordinate the integration of new international students.

Once the matching process is complete, international students can benefit from a personalised welcome from their local buddy, whether they need help with administrative formalities or simply want to discover the city.

Objectives of the Buddy System

The Buddy System is dedicated to international students who, thanks to the platform, will have the opportunity to develop a relationship, interact with local students and enrich their lives through an intercultural experience.

In addition, by promoting intercultural exchange and open-mindedness, the platform helps to develop the internationalisation of local young people.

Finally, the Buddy System aims to strengthen student mobility institutions (universities and associations) and to enable the local stakeholders to develop long-term partnerships by providing them with shared communication, facilitation and training tools.

History & Results

Designed in 2013 by four students in Lille following a year abroad with the Erasmus+ programme, the Buddy System was supported by the University of Lille and disseminated through the ESN France network.

Since the new version of the platform was launched in June 2018, more than 100,000 users of 145 different nationalities have benefited from the Buddy System. Every year, more than 10,000 pairs are created by coordinators in France and abroad.

The project achievements

- An intuitive, complete and secure BuddySystem web platform providing the matching of buddies

- An European study of best practice in welcoming international students with a focus on relational systems. The results are available here.

- The creation of training tools, communication support and activities for the coordinators and local volunteers to bring the Buddy System community to life.

The BuddySystem
dissemination

In order to disseminate the Buddy System project internationally, ESN France can rely on its network of more than 550 associations in Europe and beyond. In total, the ESN network is present in more than 1,000 higher education institutions in over 40 countries.

In France, ESN relies on a large network of partners with more than 30 higher education institutions that have already chosen to use the Buddy System to improve the reception conditions for their international students.

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