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Higher education student and staff mobility project
Start date: Jun 1, 2014, End date: May 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

International experience is in high demand in the labor market. Good knowledge of at least one foreign language is taken for granted in Germany. A study abroad period of one to two semesters, therefore, has become an important part of the study programs to prepare students effectively for work and life in an intercultural and globalizing world. Study options abroad include student exchanges, internships or doing a degree dissertation. Hochschule Konstanz (HTWG) supports their students by creating study options abroad in Europe and overseas especially with inter-university agreements that include tuition fee swappers. The outstanding international mobility of HTWG students of previous years is maintained. In the academic year 2014-15, there were 432 study visits (cases), either for an integrated study abroad period, performing an internship or for the preparation of the thesis, usually for six months. This means that currently more than half of all students have gained international experiences at the end of their studies. The 2010 graduate survey (universities of applied sciences) in Baden-Wuerttemberg (Statistisches Landesamt Baden-Wuerttemberg 2010) revealed impressive 53% of HTWG graduates with international experience. The high average rate of student mobility differs with regard to the target countries: with a total of 194 student mobilities in Europe, the EU is the number one destination for HTWG students (followed by Asia with 164 student mobilities). However, student mobility under the ERASMUS program is quite low with only 30 study abroad periods. Unfortunately, this phenomenon can be observed for the last couple of years and any attempts to control and increase the number of student mobilities under the ERASMUS program have not been successful so far. At the moment, the overseas exchange programs remain more attractive for HTWG students. With regard to Key Action 1 "Learning Mobility of Individuals", there were two teaching mobilities in the academic year 2014-15. Although HTWG Konstanz applied for funding of four teaching mobilities, only two teaching mobilities could be realized with the ERASMUS grants. One lecturer taught at the Ecole Nationale Superieure d' Ingenieurs de Caen, another lecturer at the ArtEZ in Enschede, Netherlands. In the Staff Training Program, HTWG employees worked abroad at partner universities in Caen (France), Dundalk (Ireland) and Seville in Spain. The Staff Training Program which aims at sending administrative staff abroad, is an excellent way of introducing this group to the internationality in their own working environment and to increase their intercultural competence (which they need when working with international students). This is why the program was additionally subsidized with university funds.
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