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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
LCC International University received new Erasmus Charter for Higher Education 2014-2020 that allowed the university to continue the Erasmus+ program and provide students and staff/faculty with opportunities to study, train and gain work experience abroad. The overall goal of the project was to increase the percentage of students and staff participating in Erasmus+ mobilities as well as to strengthen our presence in the EU higher education scene by establishing new partnerships.
Number of mobilities achieved in 2014-2015 academic year was 21 (9 students for studies mobility; 8 students for traineeship mobility; 4 staff members for teaching mobility) comparing to 2013-2014 were the number of mobilities was 16. All Erasmus+ participants were majoring in International Business Administration, whereas staff mobility for teaching involved faculty from International Business and English departments. Student participants were second through fourth year students with a cumulative GPA 7.5 and above. It is important to mention that in the last academic year we have established 7 new partnerships with universities in Germany, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Belgium, Italy and Estonia for both studies and teaching mobility. Participating partners in 2014-2015 academic year for studies mobility included Coruna University (Spain), ESDES School of Business and Management (France), Anglo-American University (Czech Republic), Savonia University of Applied Sciences (Finland) and Hogeschool West-Vlaanderen (Belgium). The top three partners remain ESDES School of Business and Management (France), Anglo-American University (Czech Republic) and Hogeschool West-Vlaanderen (Belgium). Traineeship mobilities were carried out in Austria, Germany, Malta, the Netherlands and Romania in private business sectors.
The introduction of alumni traineeship was a welcomed addition to the Erasmus+ program. There is a high interest in the student body, especially because LCC has two graduation dates in December and in May. This particular program eases the students into the job market and allows them to explore various professional fields. It allows students to not only gain valuable real-life skills, but to also gives them a prospect of employment upon the completion of their traineeship.
Students reported that Erasmus+ program enabled them to gain professional and personal development that led to a greater maturity and improvement of such skills as tolerance of ambiguity, pro-activeness, awareness of own strengths and weaknesses, decisiveness, advanced language skills, etc. Staff / faculty mobility for teaching enriched professors' knowledge of the European Higher Education system and encouraged the exchange of teaching practices. Importantly, such programs have long term impacts on the Higher Education Institution itself, as it helps to shape and change the education quality that is improved through new teaching methods that were gained at partner universities. During the visits staff / faculty members were able to engage in generating new ideas for future cooperation with existing partners, which resulted in two joined projects hosted by LCC.
Erasmus+ significantly contributes to the university's internationalization strategy through not only sending, but also welcoming students, staff and faculty from various European countries. During the 2014 - 2015 a strategy was developed to attract more incoming students from various partner institutions by developing promotional materials and increasing communication with partners. The strategy has paid off as we welcome more students from various existing and new partner institutions, which contribute to the diversity of our student body.