Realising the potential of the international mobility of staff in higher education Erasmus Project

Project Title

Realising the potential of the international mobility of staff in higher education

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 2016

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Reaching the policy level/dialogue with decision makers; Quality Improvement Institutions and/or methods (incl. school development); International cooperation, international relations, development cooperation

Project Summary

PARTNERSHIP
The REALISE project brings together 10 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) from 10 European countries. Their repartition on the European territory enabled the project to take into account the differences between countries and institutions such as their size and structure/organization (for the institutions), but also cultural and legal differences as far as the countries are concerned.

CONTEXT
The REALISE project originated from a number of observations by university decision-makers and operators (International relations offices’ directors, vice-presidents in charge of international relations, Erasmus+ officers…) on the management of Erasmus+ staff mobility at institutional level, and from the frustration that what appeared as poor “value for investment” roused among them.
Indeed, much European and institutional funding, time and energy are spent on staff mobility programmes. However, it is difficult to assess their impact both on individuals and institutions and to make it consistent with higher education institutions’ international strategies.

In order to contribute to the adoption by the largest number of European institutions of the recommendations of the Bologna Follow-up Groups, the REALISE project has pursued 3 main objectives:
– Improve the quality of staff mobility aiming at improving the quality of teaching, the quality of the administration, management and student services as a whole, contributing to the modernization of Higher Education benefiting to the students.
– Strengthen quality through mobility and cross-border cooperation by improving the management and implementation procedures of the Erasmus+ programme for staff, its evaluation and recognition.
– Improve the governance and funding to reach a more efficient and effective use of the funds allocated to institutions in order to maximize the potential and the impact of the programme on institutions.

These objectives were achieved by the consortium, in particular through the realization of the project activities.

MAIN ACTIVITIES AND RESULTS
The project can be summarized in 7 main activities, closely related one-to-another and respecting a constructive logic:
– Survey in the 10 countries of the consortium: 6202 respondents
– Writing of a Comparative Analysis: 58 pages
– Creation of a Toolbox gathering actions to improve the management and recognition of staff mobility: 4 chapters including 25 actions to be tested
– Testing phase: Test the actions of the Toolbox in order to evaluate their effectiveness and/or the difficulties related to their implementation
– Handbook: Detail of the tests of the actions and evaluation, with elements allowing their reproduction: 22 actions tested, 50 tests in total
– A Staff Training Week for other European institutions to train them to the implementation of the actions tested and improve the management/quality/recognition of staff mobility: 87 participants, 20 countries, 70 institutions.
The actions tested are meant to be reproduced; the impact of this event is very strong and contributes to the sustainability of the project results.
– A European conference aiming at communicating the obstacles to staff mobility as closely as possible to the European Commission and other decision makers and communicating recommendations for a change in the Erasmus + program and European policies: 34 participants from national and European authorities acting on this issue field (completed by 22 representatives of the management of the partnership institutions)
– A Policy Dialogue that took place from the beginning to the end of the project at several levels: local/institutional, national, European level. 86 dissemination actions, reaching more than 1,200 people, 400 institutions, and 200 representatives of relevant authorities from 50 institutions, which represents a high qualitative impact.

LONG-TERM BENEFITS
Although the project has many short-term and medium-term benefits, a long-term vision is obviously necessary given that the project advocates a real evolution of the culture of Higher Education Institutions, its staff, and ideally should be accompanied by measures at national and/or European level:
– an increase in the number of beneficiaries and in the quality of staff mobility;
– towards recognition of the international involvement of agents in their careers and at national level;
– towards an evolution of the Erasmus + programme, giving more incentives regarding staff mobility and offering more flexibility for the organization of staff mobility;
– towards a greater influence of European institutions (in terms of welcoming international audiences, developing excellence projects, etc.).

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 416016,16 Eur

Project Coordinator

UNIVERSITE PAUL-VALERY MONTPELLIER3 & Country: FR

Project Partners

• MIDDLESEX UNIVERSITY HIGHER EDUCATION CORPORATION
• UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA
• UNIVERSIDADE DE COIMBRA
• UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI CATANIA
• UNIVERSITEIT GENT
• LINKOPINGS UNIVERSITET
• UNIVERZA V LJUBLJANI