The Evolution of a European Student Network
With the ongoing development of telecommunication techniques the emergence of a
‘space-less world’ and the virtualisation of human communication were predicted.
By modelling the relation between telecommunication and face-to-face contact Gaspar and Glaeser (1998) showed that telecommunication is not a substitute but a complement for to-face contact and it can even increase the need for face-to-face contact. Besides the revolution in telecommunication the revolutions that ended the Communist era in Eastern Europe made communication and travelling between different European countries easier. The expansion and the integration of the EU continued. Student mobility increased enormously because of the Socrates and Erasmus programs. Because of fading borders, economic growth and European integration we might expect more mobility in the EGEA network. On the other hand, some destinations might have become less ‘exotic’ and new travel opportunities may compete with EGEA events.
Methods
To find out how EGEA (geographically) developed we wanted to know which entities were active during which period. This was researched by analysis of the participa-tion of the Annual Congresses. The participaparticipa-tion lists of the Annual Congresses provide a fairly reliable picture of entity involvement, although it is possible that an otherwise active entity is not able to delegate a member to the Annual Congress. It is also possible that individuals that participate in an Annual Congress, are not (yet) involved in other EGEA events. However, that said, the participant lists provide us with a sufficiently accurate view of the development of the EGEA network. Data available from other activities is fragmented and to specific to be used.
To say something about which factors and means of communication play a role in the expansion of the network we asked by email the entities’ contact persons if they knew how their entity got involved in the network. 36 entities responded. In those cases of entities that have been reactivated, we used the information on how the entity was reactivated.
The European Geography Association
EGEA, the European Geography Association for students and young geographers, was founded in 1989 after the first congress. In 1992 EGEA registered in Utrecht as a foundation. The entities form the general board of EGEA. At the Annual Congress they appoint the Board of Executives. EGEA is divided in four regions;
the Northern and Baltic region, The Western region, the Eastern region, and the southern ‘Euromed’ region. Every region has one regional representative chosen at the regional meeting during the Annual Congress. The four regional representa-tives form the Board of Execurepresenta-tives of the EGEA foundation. They divide the tasks of chairman, secretary, treasurer and vice-chairman. The fifth member of the Board of Executives is the organiser of the Annual Congress of the next year.
The current entities are very different in age, size, and activities. The organisa-tional structure of the entities range from well organised independent foundations
to entities with only one active individual, other entities are part of the local student organisation and some exist out of a small group of friends.
The main event of the EGEA foundation is the Annual Congress, usually taking place for six of seven days in September or October. The congress exists of work-shops, excursions, presentations, parties and meetings. Since 1990 there was, besides the Annual Congress, every year a Western Regional Congresses organised. From 1997 also the other regions organised a regional congresses. Regional Congresses are smaller and one or two days shorter than the Annual Congress.
The other main activity organised in the network are the exchanges. Two entities visit each other for a week or a weekend. The host entity takes care of the program, food and accommodation. Other activities organised are the New Year Party, national weekends, and seminars. Some entities organise introduction and other activities for the foreign exchange (Erasmus) students at their Universities.
Today an important feature of the organisation is the website. On the extensive forum members stay or get in contact with each other, activities are announced and European issues are discussed.
The Annual Congresses
The general picture shows great dynamism in which entities visited the congresses.
From 1995 till 1997 the total number of participants is relatively low (Figure 1). It does not necessarily have to mean that EGEA was smaller at that time. There could have been a maximum to the accommodation. But except for the last Annual Congress where over 300 people subscribed and where only 206 could be invited, we did not find evidence that people had to be rejected on a large scale in the past.
Figure 1. Number of participants at Annual Congresses
The EGEA entities from Amsterdam and Warsaw attended all 15 congresses (Figure 2) The data from the third Annual Congress in Rackeve, Hungary are missing and the data from Prague 1990 are a bit unclear. At the first congress we already had participants from 22 different universities. Figure 2 does not include the total number of participants from an entity present at a congress.
Figure 2. Present at Annual Congresses per entity
This does not show a clear geographical pattern in the development of the EGEA network. But we see very active countries and some ‘blank spots’ on the EGEA map.
The Netherlands have been active from the beginning, with Utrecht and Amsterdam as main entities. All Dutch cities with academic geography studies are active in the EGEA network. The number of Dutch participants at congresses has always been high. Germany has the most entities and often the most participants at congresses.
Germany is of course a big country with around 44 geography departments. The active EGEA entities in Germany are changing. Germany has many entities that
‘died’ and have been ‘revived’ again (for example Hamburg, Münster, Göttingen, Bremen, Bonn, Hannover, Mainz). Poland has been active and relatively stable from the beginning, with Krakow and Warsaw that have always played an important role in the network. The Czech Republic has been active in the early days of the EGEA network but at the moment there is no EGEA entity there any more. Bratislava in Slovakia has recently been revived again.
Finland has been active from the beginning with several entities, only Oulu managed to survive over the years. Scandinavia has been almost absent over the years. In the very beginning and since very recently Sweden is on the EGEA map. The Baltic States have two very active entities, with Tartu in Estonia active from almost the start of EGEA. In Russia, Saint Petersburg has a long EGEA history, Moscow has
been recently revived again. Greece developed into an active EGEA country since Mytilene started in 2000. Slovenia has a strong entity in Ljubljana, responsible for the start of other entities in the region. Zagreb is a very active entity in Croatia since 1999, and in the recent years Belgrade and Novi Sad are developed into two active entities in Serbia. From Spain many different entities have participated in EGEA congress, but they seem unable to establish a sustainable entity.
One of the EGEA founders, Barcelona died more or less in 1994 and was back in 2000 and 2004. Because of efforts from EGEA Valencia, new entities have been established in Spain. Portugal has been very active in the network, especially Porto and Lisbon, but at the moment there is not much activity. France has a relatively low number of entities, compared to the size of the country. The United Kingdom is heavily underrepresented in the EGEA network given the number of geography departments. Since 2000 Glasgow is a steady entity. Italy has been totally absent in the whole EGEA history except for one participant from Genoa in 2000. From the beginning EGEA was present in different parts of Europe. The development of EGEA does not show a specific geographical direction of growth but there are some striking blank spots on the EGEA map.
The number of members that an entity has had in the Board of Executives – BoE (Figure 3) tells something more about which entities played a main role in the network.
Figure 3. BoE years per entity and Annual Congress organisers