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

Historically, St Mary's has had a low level of Erasmus activity. During the 2014/15 academic year, the university drafted a new internationalisation strategy emphasising the need to bring social and cultural diversity to campus, to create a range of influential networks throughout the world and to develop an enhanced, sustainable global profile. The Erasmus+ programme was identified as a crucial tool in achieving these objectives. One concrete action arising from the strategy was the creation of a new European Mobility Officer post with responsibility for promoting and administering Erasmus activities. In January 2016 this position was filled and the new member of staff is dedicated to managing the Erasmus+ programme, increasing participation and enhancing the experience for participants going forward. It is highly important to note that all Erasmus activities from 6/2015 to 9/2016 will be mentioned in a different report and are not reflected here. This could lead to a misinterpretation of the current report, looking at success and outcome of the 2014 project. During 2015/16 academic year St Mary's managed to increase numbers significantly, sending 7 members of staff and 4 students. All 2015/16 mobilities will be documented in the 2015 Report - St Mary's Beneficiary Grant Agreement 2015-1-UK01-KA103-013147. This 16-months agreement is running from 6/2015 - 30/9/2016, parallel to the 2014 project running from 6/2014 to 5/2016. Mobilities created after June 2015 are not mentioned here but will be reported in November 2016. The level of outgoing participation from St Mary's in 2014/15 was disappointing, with one staff mobility and no student mobilities taking place. The outgoing member of staff, a senior lecturer in Tourism, undertook an eight-hour teaching mobility at the Université de Montpellier. Although this was St Mary's only outgoing mobility, it was successful in achieving its objectives of further internationalising the curriculum at both institutions and developing links to facilitate future student mobility. In the most successful strand of the programme, St Mary's welcomed eight one-semester students from partners in Spain, Germany and Ireland on incoming study placements in 2014/15. In addition to receiving a quality Erasmus+ experience, these students helped us achieve our goal of adding an international dimension to the classroom.
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