On October 17th 1982 seven national unions of students (NSU Norway, NUS United Kingdom, SFS Sweden, SHÍ Iceland, UNEF-ID France, DSF Denmark and ÖH Austria) gathered in Stockholm to create WESIB, the West European Student Information Bureau. The aim of WESIB was to coordinate the flow of information between the members and from European and international bodies such as the Council of Europe, the European Communities and UNESCO. In line with this aim, WESIB organised seminars twice a year on matters relating to higher education, and held its highest decision making meetings - Board Meetings - at the same time.

WESIB logo 1986

WESIB was chaired by one of its member unions and headed by an employed Director. From the beginning the WESIB secretariat was situated in Stockholm, but in 1986 it moved to London.

The political changes in eastern Europe at the end of the 1980-ies affected WESIB as well, as it was opened for national unions of students from the former east and at the 17th Board Meeting (BM17) in February 1990, WESIB dropped the “W” to become the European Student Information Bureau (ESIB). These changes resulted in a surge of membership applications and the number of members rose from 16 in 1990 to 31 in 1992! The fact that the WESIB secretariat had moved to Vienna in 1988 and by that had come very close to the events of 1989 probably also helped in getting new members from the former east.

As the European Communities started to gain more influence on the scene of higher education in Europe with its exchange programmes Socrates and Erasmus, the national unions of students in Europe decided to change the aim of ESIB from just an information sharing organisation to a political organisation that represented the views of students to European institutions. Thus the members gave ESIB policy-making powers at BM21 in November 1991. At BM23 in November 1992 the Director also got more representative powers and Working Groups were established. As ESIB no longer was only an information bureau, the Board decided at BM24 in May 1993 to change the name once more, this time to The National Unions of Students in Europe, but retaining the old and well-known abbreviation ESIB. The representative powers of ESIB demanded more work from its members and at BM31 in November 1996 it was decided that ESIB should be headed by a chairperson together with an Executive Committee rather than by one of its member NUSes.

ESIB logo 1998

Eventhough ESIB had both representative and policy-making powers, its field of work was somewhat limited during the 1990-ies as higher eduation wasn't within the competencies of the European Union or any other European institution for that matter. This situation came to an abrupt end in 1999, when ministers of education from 29 European countries signed the so called 'Bologna declaration', where they stated the intention to create a European Higher Education Area by the year 2010. This gave ESIB a European arena to act on and at the Bologna ministerial follow-up summit in Prague in May 2001, ESIB became an official observer in the Bologna Process, representing the students of Europe.

As the Bologna process demanded a greater presence by student representatives on a European level, BM37 in November 1999 decided to form expert committees who could deal with certain aspects of higher education. At that board meeting, the Committee on Prague was created (today: Bologna Process Committee) and it was to be followed at BM40 in May 2001 by the Committee on Commodification of Education. As more and more policy and decision making at European higher education was centred to Brussels in the 1990-ies, ESIB moved its secretariat there in 2000.

ESIB logo 2003

ESIB went on to become the umbrella organisation of 47 national unions of students from 36 countries and, through these members, represent more than 10 million students.

In May 2007, at the 52nd Board Meeting , held in London, it was decided that ESIB needed to change its' name in order for the role of the organisation to be better reflected nominatively. The ESIB acronym no longer represented the work of this organisation and, with the 25th Anniversary fast approaching, this seemed as good a time as any.

The Executive Committee proposed ESU - Europeans Students' Union. This was unanimously accepted by the Board of members.

The aim of ESU is to represent and promote the educational, social, economic and cultural interests of students at a European level towards all relevant bodies and in particular the European Union, Bologna Follow-Up Group, Council of Europe and UNESCO.