EWP and course data - finishing what we started
All of the EWP functionalities showcased during its launch in 2018 have gradually come to reshape the fabric of international cooperation and of how Erasmus+ is managed – inter-institutional agreements have been in the spotlight between 2021 and 2023, Learning Agreements have taken centre stage from 2023 until now, with digital nominations going mainstream from 2025 and Transcripts of Records approaching the same state. All functionalities but one: course data. In this article, we zoom in on why this is the case and why it will change soon.
A renewed focus on course data
The EWP API for the exchange of course data was one of the original focal points of EWP, as the consortium was well aware of how important these data points are for the purpose of preparing a good quality mobility and supporting recognition processes. Already in 2018, the draft API was tested on the Online Learning Agreement, which yielded a list of changes and improvements. But the run-up to the start of the Erasmus+ programme in 2021 didn’t allow for the time and resources for these to be implemented, while course data was also not part of the European Commission roadmap that shaped how EWP-related activities were prioritized. In practice, this means this API never left the draft stage, and was not ready for wider deployment. But that will soon change.
Since 2021, two aspects have reshaped the perception of course data: one is the emergence of European University Alliances and the focus on establishing joint study portals, which are ultimately powered by sharing data from the respective course catalogues; this has been an important contribution to raise awareness of the value and importance of course data. The second has been the explosive pace at which digital Learning Agreements have been adopted, which in turn has also helped bring attention to the importance of ensuring the course data contained in the Learning Agreements is of the highest quality – a point that has been echoed in several EWP Governance meetings and that has also been highlighted in the large-scale consultation that has been carried out throughout 2025.
Building on proven solutions
This is why the EWP Consortium has been looking into adopting a specification for course data which can enrich and complement the functionalities available. But this time we’ve done things differently, and instead of resuming the work from 7/8 years, we will instead adopt a solution which has already been put into production and meets the EWP functional requirements – the Open Course Catalogue API.
This approach brings with it a huge advantage: when a new EWP API is adopted there is always a process to ascertain whether it works as expected; by turning to a solution which is already being used in production by several universities since several years we significantly reduce risk and uncertainty, effectively building on the work already carried out by IT colleagues from different parts of Europe. Another advantage is that the integration of Open Course Catalogue API with the Online Learning Agreement has already been tested in 2021/2022, as part of the OLA 3.0 project (see more info here). Furthermore this solution has also been benchmarked against the Open Education API (OOAPI) maintained by SURF, which is in a very mature implementation with which the Open Course Catalogue API shares many elements; the OOAPI was also considered as the backbone of the new EWP API, but its scope is wider and the level of integration it entails goes considerably beyond Erasmus+ processes and requirements.
In order to make the Open Course Catalogue API as robust as possible, over the summer of 2025, a thorough revision of its specification has been carried out, which paved the way for a new updated version which is easier to deploy and adds support for course instances as well as controlled vocabularies from the European Learning Model. This provides us a sound basis for, in the months ahead, finally bringing course data exchange capabilities to EWP.
Specific functionality for EWP Dashboard users
In addition to the above, and in order to make machine-readable course data as widely used as possible, the EWP Dashboard will also offer new functionality to higher education institutions which do not have the technical capability to implement the Open Course Catalogue API. Since 2022, smaller institutions have asked us to make it possible to let them share their course data via a file upload , and thanks to the groundbreaking work carried out in the DACEM project we are delighted to be able to positively respond to this request. It’s important to remark that an API implementation provided by a higher education institution will always be preferable to merely uploading course data onto the EWP Dashboard, insofar the data set the latter can realistically support is not as extensive and detailed, and this data sharing method does not benefit from the real-time updates an API caters for. So while an API implementation is always the preferable way forward, this alternative is an important step to uphold the ethos of leaving no universities behind in the digitalisation of Erasmus+ processes.