RUN-EU Ready to Serve programme (RETOS) launched for 2025-2026

ESEC is pleased to announce the launch of the RUN-EU RETOS programme for the academic year 2025-2026. The programme includes, among others:

• Short Advanced Programmes for lecturers on the teaching and learning method “Service-Learning”
• Exchange of best practices in volunteering and service-learning or developing
• Implementing collaborative volunteering opportunities for RUN-EU students

 

RETOS stands for Ready to Service Programme, which brings students closer to real issues faced by people in their regions. Instead of learning only from textbooks, students will now have more chances to work directly with community partners and contribute to meaningful projects. RETOS is a programme built on shared principles, yet flexible enough to adapt to the unique context of each of the ten RUN-EU universities. At its core, students learn by helping others in their communities and engaging with real matters that affect people around them.

 

A central part of the programme is the Service-Learning component, where students collaborate, often internationally, to address similar social challenges. Because these challenges take different forms across Europe, bringing together students from various regions makes it possible to explore multiple ways of approaching and addressing them. RUN-EU students of the RETOS programme engage in joint learning experiences such as COILs (Collaborative Online International Learning), where they follow a shared programme of learning and work collectively. Through these activities, students exchange ideas, compare local realities, and develop creative solutions together.

 

Social work students at FHV currently learn about the living conditions of people affected by poverty in Romania. Using the service learning method, students work together with those affected to develop solutions.