About us
Who we are
The European Council for Student Affairs (ECStA) is the largest network of student affairs and services providers in continental Europe.
The ECStA unites the key institutions, agencies and networks that provide crucial services for students in higher education, such as student housing and residence halls, social and psychological counselling and advisory services, cultural events and support for international students, dining services, student financial aid, diversity and equity programmes, and much more.
ECStA's members run the key services that respond to students' social, economic, financial, health, and cultural needs across the continent, rolling out services to about half of Europe's 20 million students in higher education.
Our vision
We are advocates for the social dimension and infrastructure of higher education in Europe.
We provide, promote and develop efficient, accessible, comprehensive and innovative student services in public responsibility and with public funding in all key areas that students need to make it into higher education, flourish in their educational paths, and succeed with their studies until they graduate to their intended professional paths.
Our history
The foundation of the ECStA in 1999 grew out of intensified cooperation of student service organisations in Europe, based on the belief that a European Higher Education Area should be embedded in a social dimension that promotes European values of public responsibility in higher education.
Our common interests and activities are founded on a much longer tradition of European Conferences for Student Affairs and Services at the end of the last century, and even dating back to the beginnings of international cooperation in student services in Europe in the framework of the French-German cooperation as early as the 1960s and 1970s.