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
In compliance with the objectives set out in the Erasmus Charter for Higher Education, YTU has performed student and staff mobility under the Project type ?Learning Mobility of Individuals? with similar numbers projected in the application. With special attention on non-discrimination, equal access and full academic recognition, YTU aimed not only to achieve its quantitative objectives but also qualitative ones. The participants are monitored at each step of their mobility in terms of the quality of their mobility and the risk for decreasing the quality is prevented or kept under control to a great extent thanks to the mechanisms for monitoring and supporting.
In the relevant academic year, out of above 3700 student applicants and 116 staff applicants, 550 students and 9 staff obtained the opportunity to take part in the Project as participants as a result of a detailed and eliminative selection and nomination process. The underlying objective that YTU had adopted while conducting the selection and nomination process was to obtain the optimal outcomes from that particular mobility Project. Language competence and academic performance were the basic measurable criteria that were considered during the nomination, and the distinguished participants from each group (student & staff) were selected and nominated as a result of a transparent and fair process. Erasmus Office put special attention on transparency of each process step and provided equality of opportunity for all students and staff.
However, being aware that nomination is only the starting step, it was followed by a guidance and monitoring process so as to preserve the quality of each mobility. Orientation and supporting activities were performed on a regular basis by both academic and administrative coordinators with an aim to illuminate the participants about the fundamentals and significance of their upcoming mobility. YTU not only aimed to increase the number but also the quality of the mobility as it is aware of the fact that a successful Project should be comprised of qualified participants in a good quantity so as to reach its objectives by means of an effective chain of activities conducted by the Departmental and Institutional Erasmus Coordinators. Guidance, monitoring, supporting, mentoring activities were scheduled within the relevant year and all of the participants were informed about that in advance.
The most visible impacts were obtained on the foreign language strategy and the participants? approach for a study mobility abroad. As language competence was one of the basic criteria that YTU looked for while making the nominations, the student participants were more willing to be qualified in English Language, which urged the academic authorities to offer more programmes so as to improve the students? foreign language level and to update their study programmes in accordance with the feedbacks that they received from especially the staff who performed a teaching or training mobility. This is a basic example for supply demand theory. Other than that, as the demand for taking part in this mobility activity increases each year thanks to the informative and motivational activities as well as the good feedback of the previous participants, the tendency to apply in order to benefit from this opportunity has increased and we have received above 4000 student and 221 staff applications in the following year.
YTU?s good performance in this type of project attracts the attention of many local, national and international institutions, and therefore we welcome many visitors from those institutions in order to share our experience and provide guidance in terms of implementing such kind of a project. This makes a good contribution to our reputation, which in the long-term will increase our chance to take part in more projects or to establish more qualified partnerships.
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