Citizen forums show how the Once-Only Technical System can save students time and money
01 April 2025 | 5 minutes read
Discover valuable insights from interviews with students and recent graduates.
In 2024, the European Commission organised two ‘citizen forums’. These participatory events aimed to better understand how the Once-Only Technical System (OOTS) and other Single Digital Gateway initiatives can reduce the administrative burden of studying or requesting study financing abroad.
The Single Digital Gateway Regulation(opens in a new tab) requires the European Commission and Member States to jointly establish the Once-Only Technical System, a fully automated framework for secure cross-border sharing of authentic data and official documents.
By December 2023, 21 procedures(opens in a new tab) will have to be made available to users fully online, allowing citizens and businesses to identify themselves by electronic means, fill in the application, provide supporting evidence or request it through the Once-Only Technical System, sign and submit the application to the competent authorities.
The forums focused on two cross-border procedures in scope of Annex II of the Single Digital Gateway Regulation that are particularly relevant for students across the EU:
- Initial application for admission to public tertiary education institutions abroad: This procedure involves the application for enrolment at a public higher education institution abroad (excluding Erasmus+), along with any necessary supporting documentation in digital format.
- Application for tertiary education study financing abroad: This procedure involves submitting an online application for study financing, along with any required documents.
The forums aimed to understand the current user journey for each procedure and compare this journey to the one facilitated by Once-Only. The participants were asked to assess the impact of the Once-Only Technical System on the duration, cost and experience of completing these cross-border procedures.
To ensure that participants were able to assess the current user journey, the study team selected participants that had real-life experience in completing these procedures, namely students or recent graduates who had studies abroad (hereafter ‘students’).
In total, 56 students from 19 Member States joined the forums. The forums collated the participants’ insights through online questionnaires, user journey mapping exercises, usability testing and plenary discussions.
Time savings
Once-Only speeds up administrative procedures when applying to study abroad
The citizen forums showed that nowadays, applying to study abroad is a tedious task. To collect all required documents, students typically need to contact various information providers, request official documentation (such as language certificates), and physically visit public authorities.
The Once-Only Technical System will greatly simplify and speed up this process. It makes administrative procedures faster and search-free, reducing administrative burdens for students. It maps the evidence required for cross-border procedures and enables competent authorities to automatically exchange relevant data, without students having to map, fetch, and resubmit this information themselves.
The forums found that the Once-Only Technical System reduces the time spent on identifying evidence providers, collecting documents, requesting certificates of equivalence for secondary school diplomas or official translations, and filling in and reviewing the application forms.
Around 80% of the students expect to save at least half a day when applying to study abroad using the Once-Only Technical System. In addition, nearly half of the students expect to save more than a week when completing an application to study abroad.
I like that you can do things easily from your house, for which you should [usually] go and spend your time and nerves with several public services.
Once-Only greatly reduces time to apply for study financing abroad
A similar pattern emerges when students apply for study financing abroad. Today, a mix of online and offline procedure steps slows down the process of collecting all necessary documents to apply for study financing abroad.
With the Once-Only Technical System, 95% of students expect a reduction of the time needed for identifying the relevant evidence provider(s) and collecting documents from them.
In addition, four out of five students also expect that the Once-Only Technical System will reduce the time needed for understanding which documentation is required, identifying equivalent evidence in the destination country, requesting an official translation of their documentation and filling in the application form.
As a result, nearly 60% of students expect to save at least one week when applying for study financing abroad with the Once-Only Technical System. At the same time, over 40% anticipate saving more than two weeks.
The tool directs you immediately to the right websites to collect documents and information
Cost savings
Once-Only reduces the costs of applying to study abroad
When applying to study abroad, students typically need to obtain physical copies of documents, collect them from one authority and send them to another. They also often need to request official translations or certificates of equivalence, which results in monetary costs. The citizen forums found that Once-Only Technical System has the potential to reduce these costs.
With the Once-Only Technical System, as all procedure steps can be carried out online, students would no longer need to pay fees for issuing physical certificates or spend money for traveling to public authorities, printing documents and sending them through postal services.
The Once-Only Technical System also maps procedures with the evidence required to complete them. For example, students would no longer need to submit additional documents, such as certificates of equivalence for secondary school diplomas.
The citizen forums found that three out of four students expect to reduce the costs related to retrieving the documents required for applying to study abroad.
The idea is amazing to connect different governmental administrations and reduce the pain of bureaucracy.
Once-Only reduces costs for applying for study financing abroad
Nowadays, students who apply for study financing abroad, typically have expenses for collecting all necessary documents, requesting official translations, and printing and sending documents via postal services. With the Once-Only Technical System, students expect these costs to decrease.
As most steps for applying for study financing can be carried out fully online, students anticipate lower costs for traveling, printing or issuing physical certificates. They also expect to spend less money on requesting official translations and on external support services, as they would not require assistance for completing the procedure.
When applying for study financing abroad, 62% of study participants expect savings when retrieving documents through Once-Only.
It is a European system that will change everything! No need to keep uploading the same documents, giving translations, paying so much money, saves you a lot of hassle!
User Friendliness
Once-Only makes admin easy and stress-free
Once-Only substantially improves the experience of completing cross-border administrative procedures, both when applying to study and receive study financing abroad.
Participants particularly welcomed the system’s timeliness, which allows them to complete procedures faster and in one go. They also found that the Once-Only Technical System increases user-friendliness as it is intuitive and simple to use. Finally, students highlighted the system’s clarity, as it provides clear guidance on the steps to be followed.
An easy, smooth and stress-free way of applying to institutions for studies.
Once-Only brings benefits to all Europeans, be it students, citizens or businesses. Read this study(opens in a new tab) to find out how Once-Only helps to save European SMEs and self-employed workers time and money.