ERASMUS CHANGING LIVES OPENING MINDS fOR 25 YEARS

Désirée
Majoor
‘Erasmus was the kick-off for my career’
Home institution:
Utrecht University, the Netherlands
Host institution:
University of Bologna, Italy
Field of study:
Theatre Studies
Duration:
6 months (1987)
One of the first students to go on an Erasmus exchange, Désirée Majoor spent
six months in Bologna researching audience reactions to Futurist theatre performances
for her master’s thesis. A few months later, she attended an Erasmus
evaluation meeting in Ghent, where discussion turned to how to solve the practical
problems that a number of students had experienced. The result was the
creation of the Erasmus Student Network (ESN). ‘We thought the easiest way
would be for students to help students. That’s where the buddy system network
grew up. I lived relatively close to Brussels so I drafted the proposal.’
She set up an ESN section in Utrecht while others from the meeting did the
same in their cities. A year later, the 22 sections held the network’s first AGM
and she became its first president. ‘It was quite idealistic; it was never a job.
We did it as volunteers.’ In 2010 ESN celebrated its 20th anniversary in Utrecht.
Today it has 370 sections in 35 countries.
‘Erasmus was the kick-off for my career,’ she says. She went travelling after her
studies, and came back keen to work for an international organisation.
‘Because of my Erasmus experience, I got a job in the Nuffic, the Dutch organisation
for internationalisation of higher education. That’s what brought me to
higher education management.’ Now faculty dean of communication and journalism
at the HU University of Applied Sciences Utrecht, she makes sure her
own students make the most of the exchange opportunity. ‘It’s a terrific personal
experience. There’s so much you can learn.’
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