For Howest University College it is of the utmost importance that its staff and students develop an international mindset and participate actively in international programmes. Each Howest graduate • has a solid insight in the international developments within his field • possesses the necessary skills and attitudes to keep the international context in sight and to co-operate efficiently with international actors at home and abroad, • is able to function fluently in our globalized society as a responsible citizen Undertaking international mobility is crucial to reach these goals. Also Howest staff needs to have an international experience at least once each 3 years. In the framework of the 2014-2015 Erasmus KA1 project Howest has realised 100 outbound student en 37 outbound staff mobilities, and welcomed 57 incoming students. 23 students spent a semester of study at a partner institution, 77 did a traineeship abroad. Of the staff mobilities 34 were for teaching, 3 for training abroad. These activities involved over 80 higher education institutions and 74 enterprises/workfield organisations. The Erasmus programme makes a major contribution to the long-term student mobility achieved by our institution : 137 of our students did a study programme or traineeship abroad for at least 3 months or 15 ects credits, which represents 13.15% of the graduating students, and the Erasmus programme accounts for 73% of those. Almost 30% of the outbound Erasmus students belong to a lower income group, which is slightly more than the average number of students from lower income groups at Howest (28%). The impact of the Erasmus student mobilities is high in terms of and increased • insight in the value of different cultures and tolerance towards different attitudes and values • adaptability and capacity to act in unknown situations • competencies to co-operate with people from different cultures & backgrounds • “open mindedness” and curiosity for new challenges • problem solving skilss • confidence in one self and self empowerment • insight in own strengths and weaknesses Also the overall satisfaction rates are very high: 95% of the outbound students, 92,5% of the inbound students and 100% of the out- and inbound staff give a positive satisfaction score. Also among participating staff the Erasmus programme realised important impact, in terms of increased professional and sector specific competencies, co-operation and networking opportunities, foreign language skills, job motivation & satisfaction and intercultural awareness and skills. The multiplier effect of the Erasmus staff mobilities is very high, for the following main reasons: • participating staff play an important role in raising enthousiasm for international mobiliy among their students • in 14-15 again, new staff participants have again increased the support for the international dimension within the organisation, which has lead to the allocation of additional ressources for international co-operation within and also outside Europe, allowing us as a rather small-size university of applied sciences to develop numerous active intercontinental partnerships. • Howest applies a 3 tier strategy for international mobility, in which short-term mobility projects play an essential role. Our departments can run a relatively high number of these projects, together with their Erasmus partner institutions, thanks to the possiblity of granting Erasmus STA funding to their participating staff. This way they generate high numbers of (non Erasmus) mobile students. For many of the student participants, these mobilities lower the treshold to undertake a long-term (Erasmus) mobility in their last year of study. For quite some of them, belonging tot the group op student with a lower income background, they constitute the only possibility of getting an international mobility experience, since it's short-term nature makes it affordable for them. The impact of the Erasmus mobility project on Howest as an organisation is diverse, ranging from an increased capacity to cooperate with partners within and outside Europe, improvement in methods and procedures for the implementation of the institutional internationalisation strategy, better qualifications for our lecturers, learning from and sometimes even implementing good practices shared by visiting staff into the institition's educational practices In Flanders as well as abroad, socio-economic actors and enterprises benefit from our incoming Erasmus SMS students, who do projects in close co-operation with the work field and see those organsiations (partially ) implementing their results and insights, as well as from our outgoing students who, some of whom make a significant contribution to the enterprises where they do their traineeship, often in combination with their bachelor thesis.