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Higher education student and staff mobility projec..
Higher education student and staff mobility project
Start date: Jun 1, 2014,
End date: May 31, 2016
PROJECT
FINISHED
The objective of the project was to develop internationalisation of Nicolaus Copernicus University by increasing mobility of students, graduates and staff. We have achieved 310 study mobilities, 146 training (incl. 54 graduates) and 65 staff mobilities (42 for teaching and 23 for training). The list of partner universities exceeded 580. Academic years 2014/15 and 2015/16 subject of this Report were the 17th and 18th years of Erasmus at NCU. It is for the first time in history that the number of incoming students was higher than that of outgoing for studies. This proves that NCU gained international reputation as a partner institution. It is also visible that the policy of developing a study offer in foreign languages and our rich experience in international exchange bring expected effects. Of great importance are the changes introduced by the Erasmus+ Programme itself, ie the “mobility capital”, which gave a possibility of multiple student mobilities, and training mobility of recent graduates. Student mobility comprised students from all 17 faculties of NCU, the most from the faculties of languages, law and medicine. Training mobility was more popular among the students of chemistry, biology, fine arts and medical studies. In case of graduates we consider it a success of our new procedures as all beneficiaries completed their training on time and provided all necessary documents.
Erasmus+ has become identifiable trademark at our University and provides a consistent input to internationalisation of studies. Erasmus+ participants are nearly a half of all our international students. Erasmus+ provides grants to over 90% of outgoing students and is the unique opportunity for longer studies at the receiving universities.
For many years Erasmus has been implemented by a harmonious team: the International Programmes Office in Toruń, Office for International Programmes in Collegium Medicum, Bydgoszcz, faculty coordinators and specially trained staff at dean’s offices. During the term 2012-16 Erasmus was supervised by Vice-Rector for Education. Good horizontal cooperation with central units (Dept for Education, Dept for Recruitment and Univ. Computer Centre) should be stressed. IPO supervised the activity of Erasmus Student Network at NCU. ESN students are priceless support in assisting and integrating incoming students by organising dozens of excursions, sports & cultural events, competitions.
Thanks to the new opportunities of Erasmus+, 62 students in difficult social situation were able to participate in mobility. No participants with disabilities applied for special support, which may result from more strict rules of financial reporting based on documented real costs.
Interesting proposal of Erasmus+ was the language support: on-line tests and language courses OLS. Test licenses were sent to 213 students, course licenses to 37.
Also the Mobility Tool+ can be considered positive. It allowed systematic registration of participants, clear calculation of the due grant, facilitated financial control and preparation of the Final Report. In spite of some difficulties at the beginning, the Tool is handy and offers new opportunities.
As in previous years, monitoring visits were completed – 6 partner universities and 1 receiving institution were visited by 4 academic teachers and 3 administration staff.
A novelty was the invitation of a staff member from a foreign company to provide lecturing at our Fac. of Fine Arts - from a company that for several years admits our students as trainees and mutual cooperation has taken a durable form.
Other sustainable benefits consist of improvement of professional qualification of students. Many students after their first study mobility perceive the necessity of further development and decide to undertake traineeship. This results in their better start at the labour market. As for the benefit of the University, most sustainable effects can be associated with staff mobility. In spite of decreasing ST grant and stiff individual and travel support rates, the number of participants was close to that in the previous years. This type of mobility provides the development of university staff, especially as far as work with international student groups is concerned, and guarantees durability of experience. Most of mobilities are completed by those who already participated in ST exchange (37 staff, incl. 27 STA and 10 STT). 28 ‘Newcomers’ are 15 STA (36%) and 13 STT (56%), so the group of more experienced is supplied by those who try for the first time. Erasmus exchange also enables to build international contact network useful for other international projects.
Erasmus+ grant also permitted to upgrade the facilities of the International Programmes Office, to adapt premises, employ a new staff member, accommodate trainees, which considerably improved the comfort, organisation and efficiency of our work. Outside NCU the Project enriched social life and potential of Toruń and Bydgoszcz.