The university as an advocate for responsible education about migration in Europe Erasmus Project

Project Title

The university as an advocate for responsible education about migration in Europe

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Migrants’ issues; Inclusion – equity; Social/environmental responsibility of educational institutions

Project Summary

The life of many individuals is shaped by mobility. In 2015, almost 5 million individuals migrated to the 28 EU member-states, of which about half held citizenship outside the European Union. While migration management is on the political agenda, questions about equality and inclusion are at the heart of debates about mobility and immigration in Europe.
REMix focused on the social, educational and intellectual role of the European university as an agent advocating for inclusion, equality and social justice in matters relating to migration. The engagement of universities in public contemporary debates plays an important role in shaping student’s understanding of societal matters and democratic and civic engagement.
The main objectives of the project were 1) to strengthen the role played by the university in advocating for constructive, responsible and inclusive education about migration in Europe, 2) to facilitate and improve the possibilities for immigrants and refugees to have access to higher education and 3) to encourage European universities to provide a rational vehicle for contributions to the knowledge and the informed debate around migration.
The consortium was composed of six entities that have been involved in the fields of innovation in education and work on immigration and cultural rights – each bringing with them a certain expertise and considerable knowledge: University of Akureyri (Iceland), University of Florence (Italy), Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), University of Madeira (Portugal), Znanstveno-Raziskovalna Sredisce Koper (Slovenia) and the network ARMES Progetti (Italy).
We have achieved the first and the third objective by creating an international and interdisciplinary online course, which has been taken so far by 74 students and is ready to be used in the future by our partners. In the summer 2020 the course had been tested locally in Iceland. In order to get proper feedback, two students had been selected to write an in-depth review (see attachment review), which enabled us to improve the course. Furthermore, the handbook „Inclusive societies. A textbook for interdisciplinary migration studies“ which was created in order to contribute to a rational discourse has so far been downloaded over 700 times and will stay available free of charge in the future.
We also achieved our second objective by compiling a collection of successful practices. In order to increase the visibility, we included a resume from the collection into the handbook. Unfortunately, due to Covid the international conference which we planed in spring 2020 needed to be postponed until spring 2021. Please find attached the updated call for papers.
The Handbook is available for being downloaded under: https://opinvisindi.is/bitstream/handle/20.500.11815/1906/Meckl_remix2020-4.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
The collection and analysis of successful practices is online on the website of the project. See link:https://www.remixerasmus.com/results
The online course has so far been taken by 74 students and more information can be found on the website: https://www.remixerasmus.com/results
The longer-term benefits are:
The handbook will stay available online and free of charge for users to download it.
The online course will be available and free of charge for all associated partners and organizations who want to use the course.
All partners benefited by learning to create online teaching material and saw the benefit of international collaboration.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 203757 Eur

Project Coordinator

HASKOLINN A AKUREYRI & Country: IS

Project Partners

• Armes Progetti
• Universidade da Madeira
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI FIRENZE
• ARISTOTELIO PANEPISTIMIO THESSALONIKIS
• ZNANSTVENO-RAZISKOVALNO SREDISCE KOPER