Search for European Projects

Higher education student and staff mobility project
Start date: Jun 1, 2014, End date: Sep 30, 2015 PROJECT  FINISHED 

This report refers to an Erasmus + project for the learning mobility of students and staff at the University of Winchester, UK. This applies to certain programmes in the University only, those who have negotiated inter-institutional agreements with other institutions via the University's international office and as agreed by the University's Director of Internationalisation. Signature for inter-institutional agreements is made by Deputy Vice Chancellor only, who is also the LEAR. The objective of a study abroad for a substantial period (a semester) is in accord with the University's Internationalisation Strategy which seeks to increase the number of outgoing students whilst welcoming incoming students as part of an Internationalisation at home approach, both placed with the overall objective of producing a sense of global citizenship among the student population. A significant challenge comes from the fact that Winchester has no foreign language degree programmes, therefore all of our mobility is of necessity focused on partner institutions which teach their programmes in English and do so at the appropriate level. This is understandably restrictive of possible partners and of agreements and accounts for the relatively low rate of outgoing mobility which Winchester is able to generate and encourage (this is usually under ten students per year.) However, the impact for individual student participants is considerable, with all the transformational benefits for independence and self-reliance that are to be expected, as well as the gains in academic breadth, pedagogical novelty and the evident benefits to their overall employability (as evidenced in their HEAR statements as well their personal CV and job applications.) Mobility by Winchester staff is the more active component (usually about 20 per year) and the benefits of Erasmus + for Winchester probably do lie more strongly in gains for staff, particularly in the networking and contacts which this has allowed. This has been especially true for our Teacher Training degree programmes, which have gained new locations for short term overseas trips via their contacts and experiences and have become more active members of parallel organisations such as Comenius. As a result, we hope to host a Comenius conference in July 2016. Overall, the impact of Erasmus + is very small scale and concentrated at Winchester, but it is significant nevertheless. The longer term benefits come in the contribution made to our larger efforts to make the institution, the academic staff and the student body more outwardly focused and globally aware. We thank the British Council and the European Union for the opportunity to take part.
Up2Europe Ads

Coordinator

Details