Higher education student and staff mobility projec..
Higher education student and staff mobility project
Start date: Jun 1, 2014,
End date: Sep 30, 2015
PROJECT
FINISHED
University of Economics - Varna is part of the Erasmus programme since 1999 when the first inter-institutional agreement was signed. Since then the interest on European mobility has enormously increased and today the university has a list of more that 100 agreements for cooperation with higher educational institutions and over 20 agreements with business organizations. Regarding the predefined indicators of the programme the completion of the current project for individual mobilities under the Erasmus+ programme can be reported as being successful. All of the original quantitative and qualitative objectives of the project were met and some of them were exceeded. For the academic 2014/2015 in mobility under the Erasmus programme took part a total of 177 participants (including 153 students and 24 staff members). This represents an exceeding of the number of the contracted mobilities with 56,6%. Most of the participants reported to have increased their competences as a result of the mobility and has expressed their satisfaction with the Erasmus+ experience. In their final reports over 60% of the students declare that they would like to take part in Erasmus+ mobility again which by itself is an indicator for the success of the project.
The profile of the participants who have taken part in mobility can be divided in two main groups: students and staff. The majority of the students who were on mobility for education have preferred to apply for only one semester and the average duration of their stay was 4 months and 19 days. The main language of instruction at the host institutions was English. Other languages that were used were German, French, Spanish and Turkish for the corresponding universities and business organizations where one of these languages was official. 77 students took an assessment language test and to 50 of them were allocated licenses for online language course( the rest 27 have demonstrated a C2 level at the language of instruction). From the staff members who took part in the project 18 took part in teaching staff mobility and 6 took part in staff mobility for training. As a result from their Erasmus mobility some of the teaching and administrative staff members have made important contacts with professors from other institutions and they are decided to work together on future projects.
The main activities carried out by the University of Economics - Varna during the current project were: promotion of the Erasmus programme, selection of candidates for mobility, administration of the mobility process and recognition of the results obtained during the mobility. For the promotion of the programme during the current project were organized 4 separate events where the opportunities of the Erasmus+ programme were presented. The events were attended by more than 250 people (students and staff). There have also been printed out some promotional materials including flyers, posters and an information package for incoming students. All of the promotional materials were designed by strictly following the instructions at the Graphic design user guide.
The selection procedure for the participants in the project was carried out by the Central Erasmus+ Committee by following the procedure approved by the Academic Council and published on the official web site of the university. The procedure for application and selection was in accordance with the rules of the Erasmus programme and guaranteed the equal treatment of all applicants with no regard to their age, sex, religion or disabilities. The results from the selection procedure were officially published on the web site of the university. After the mobility has finished the results obtained were duly recognized by the Departmental coordinators.
The impact of the project can be sought in different fields such as personal, institutional and national outcomes. As personal outcomes can be listed the increase of multiple competences and the created networks of contacts that can be very useful for the academic and professional development of the participants. At institutional level the results are seen with regard to the strategy for internationalization and cooperation at European level. The wider impact of the project concerns helping the local, regional and national internationalization by the promotion of European mobility and European values.
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