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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
The University of Bradford has participated in Erasmus for over 25 years and over those years has built up a strong portfolio of Erasmus partner institutions. However the demographic of the student body has changed over the years, as has the portfolio of degree courses in the UK. The University has also moved towards providing degrees in professional and vocational subject areas, which are typically less flexible in terms of opportunities to spend a semester or year abroad. It also no longer provides modern language degrees, which reduces significantly the number of students taking a year abroad. Through success in its widening participation activities the University also has a high proportion of first generation university students and those from non-traditional backgrounds; these students are statistically less likely to participate in international mobility activities. These factors have made the uptake of study abroad opportunities amongst students less predictable, and present a challenge to provide a wider variety of opportunities that fit students needs and the quality and structures of their degree programmes.
In its institutional strategy, the University recognises the importance of Internationalisation and is committed to providing mobility opportunities that are appropriate for the University?s student body. The variety of opportunities within Erasmus+ has played a key role in this, enabling students and staff to benefit from funding and opportunities to enhance their international experience. The University?s key objective in participating in Erasmus+ is to increase and diversify the opportunities for study abroad to our students, to provide them with a recognised and supported international activity, and to engage a diverse range of students in the project.
Engaging staff in teaching and training mobility improves the inter-cultural skills with which they approach our internationally diverse student body. It increases staff enthusiasm for international mobility ? which they pass on to students through their teaching and pastoral activities. We also aim to use staff mobility to strengthen our European links through visits to partner institutions and traineeship host institutions.
In total there were 61 instances of mobility in the 2014 project ? although this translates to 58 individual participants as three participants undertook two mobilities. There were 11 individual participants in staff mobility, 10 were academic staff and one administrative member of staff. There was a range of experience amongst the participants, from early career researchers to more senior lecturers. Most visited existing partner institutions with a view to strengthening those links, sharing practice and transferring skills.
There 9 study mobility participants, of which four were UK citizens, three were other EU nationalities and two were non EU (Nigerian and Malaysian). The majority were undergraduate, one was a taught postgraduate, and one PhD student. All of these students are studying in the humanities/business subject areas.
38 individuals participated in traineeships. All but one were EU citizens, nationalities included UK, Greek, Cypriot, Romanian, Polish, Lithuanian, Italian, Bulgarian, Pakistani. Traineeship participants were from a much wider variety of subject areas including Business, Engineering, Pharmacy, Nursing, Economics and Law. The average duration of a traineeship was 98 days, however the majority were 90 days or less and took place in the summer vacation. Most were voluntary traineeships relevant to the student?s degree, two were nursing students on an overseas clinical placement, one student was on a work placement year, seven students were recent graduates.
The University hosted 73 incoming Erasmus+ study mobility students, plus additional trainees and incoming staff. Being from a wide range of nationalities and subject areas, these students increase the internationalisation and diversity on campus, furthering Bradford's staff and students engagement with different academic approaches, cultures and languages. These students have integrated very well and have had an outstanding impact on campus through their participation in language exchange programmes and international events that our home students benefit from.
The overall number of participants was slightly lower than that provided for in the original grant agreement (61 out of 70) . Due to the lack of degree programmes with a compulsory period abroad all participants do so on a voluntary basis therefore demand for Erasmus places can be difficult to predict. The demand for traineeships was the highest and the opportunity to combine international experience and enterprise skills is attractive to students. University is developing new ways to use traineeships to fit within degree programmes that do not normally offer study mobility such as Chemistry, Nursing and Pharmacy.