This year was an exciting period of successfully marking our visibility and engagement at a global level. Nannette presented at many international education conferences, including NAFSA, EAIE, CIGL in beautiful Costa Rica, and the Canadian CBIE, among others. These opportunities allowed ELM to participate in sector-wide conversations and share our work with colleagues worldwide. We look forward to building on this momentum in the year ahead and continuing to make a meaningful impact on international higher education.

This year, we also saw large engagement for survey respondents. The International Student Barometer (ISB) captured a vast amount of student responses with 106,427 international and 66,678 domestic students, offering a rich insight into student experiences globally. In parallel, the DETAS Employer Toolkit: A Practical Guide for Employers on Recruitment, Support and Evaluation was developed with input from 265 employers. These initiatives are a testament to the data-driven support that we provide at ELM.

In 2025, ELM trained 412 international PhD candidates from universities across the Netherlands. The general goal of each workshop is to provide career guidance. Some sessions explored the nuances of workplace cultural differences, while others guided participants in identifying their career values and long-term ambitions, and provided useful tips for job hunting.

The ELM team expanded its knowledge-sharing efforts through a series of blog posts and articles on not only the official ELM website and CareerProfessor.works, but also on other platforms like World University News and Etio. The topics span employability, AI, labour mobility, and Gen Z, along with fresh perspectives supporting students, institutions, and employers alike. In the coming year, we look forward to continuing our commitment to insightful research and actionable steps.

Throughout the past year, we participated in two cross-European collaborations funded by the European Commission. First, we wrapped up our three-year journey with the Erasmus Careers project and all partner institutions. Meanwhile, we dived into the DETAS (Digitalizing Erasmus Traineeship Application & Support) project, in which we developed the Employer Toolkit: A Practical Guide for Employers on Recruitment, Support and Evaluation.

All this work wouldn’t have been possible without our trusty coffee machine and our coffee beans from Heilige Boontjes (holy beans). None of us at the office drinks coffee the same way. Here’s a blog post that explores all the different ways Europeans drink their coffee.