The project consortium consisting of Eötvös Loránd University, UniLaSalle, University of Alcala, the Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe (UNICA) and the European University Foundation (EUF) has identified that staff mobility for teaching is often not of sufficient quality and not easily accessible for (especially junior) teaching staff. For this purpose, the Teach with Erasmus+ project (TWE) is trying to tackle the accessibility to teaching mobility, as well as to set a framework that allows Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to measure the quality of teaching mobility. Furthermore, the consortium aims to collect a catalogue of innovative pedagogical tools & methods to be made available to the Higher Education sector. The project’s target group are mainly higher education teaching staff, as they will be the main beneficiaries of the project outcomes. Students, as well as administrative staff working with administering Erasmus+ staff mobility will indirectly benefit through the project, as teaching quality will improve and administration of staff teaching mobilities will be reduced. At the centre of the project outcomes will be the Erasmus+ Teaching Mobility Platform (ETMP), a Marketplace where institutions/teachers can offer and find teaching opportunities. The ETMP will be a logical continuation of staffmobility.eu, the current platform providing a marketplace for staff mobility for training. Throughout the project, those platforms will be incorporated and developed as open-source platforms. Furthermore, the project will establish a framework for the assessment of quality teaching mobility, as current measures do not exist. Lastly, the project will produce a catalogue of pedagogical tools & methods that will be made available publically and combines with the marketplace, so that teachers embarking on a mobility will be supported by the right tools to improve their teaching capabilities. All project outcomes will be translated into practice and also discussed on a political level, as the consortium would like to ensure that a long-term impact through the incorporation of quality teaching mobility in the future EU higher education programme post-2021 can be guaranteed. To achieve this goal, the consortium will create policy recommendation, which will be presented and discussed during multiple conferences for higher education stakeholders. All elements of the project will be elaborately tested within the consortium through the organisation of focus groups, study visits and teaching pilots, as well as by collecting necessary feedback via the pilot of the ETMP and the current staffmobility.eu platform.
The project consortium consisted of Eötvös Loránd University, UniLaSalle, University of Alcala, the Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe (UNICA) and the European University Foundation (EUF) has identified that staff mobility for teaching is often not of sufficient quality and not easily accessible for (especially junior) teaching staff. Therefore, the main aims of the Teach with Erasmus+ (TWE+) project were to promote internationalisation of teaching staff and to create effective and innovative tools to enhance the quality and quantity of Erasmus+ teaching mobilities. The Erasmus Impact Study (2014) revealed that teaching mobility offers great benefits, but it also has obstacles and lack of access. In 2017, The European Commission included teacher training as an important element of its renewed agenda for higher education. Previous research projects (e.g. the Erasmus+ KA2 REALISE project) revealed that staff members who took part in a mobility program are more likely to promote these opportunities to students, overcoming the common obstacles, such as lack of information or recognition. The project considered teachers as the engine of higher education, and their mobility is a key element in internationalisation of HEIs. Teachers’ mobility is an essential factor in reaching the 20% student mobility objective that is a part of the Education and Training Strategy 2020 (ET2020) strategic framework. The consortium delivered four intellectual outputs during the years of project implementation between 2018 and 2021. The first intellectual output was a research report that tackled the quality aspects of teaching mobility, and it also set a framework that allows higher education institutions to measure the quality of teaching mobilities through the Quality and Impact Tool for Teaching Mobility Assessment. The research was based on an online survey with 745 individual responses, and 33 semi-structured interviews. It also utilized the results of a focus group with 22 HEI experts. The second intellectual output was a catalogue of innovative pedagogical tools and methods, which allows teachers to prepare for their mobility and have access to several innovative pedagogical practices. A focus group with 12 HEI and pedagogical experts supported the creation of the catalogue. which is available for everyone on the Erasmus+ Teaching Mobility Platform. The third intellectual output was the core of the project as the main intellectual output: the Erasmus+ Teaching Mobility Platform (ETMP). It was built on the results of the IMOTION project and the staffmobility.eu platform. The ETMP is a separate, but complementary online space for academic staff who want to engage in mobility and take part in their institution’s internationalization processes. The platform supports academic and non-academic staff with guidelines about teaching mobility, the catalogue of innovative pedagogical tools and methods, and its primary function is to connect higher education institutions and individual academics from any European higher education institutions. The ETMP platform is designed to be the standard platform for teaching mobilities and its main aim is to facilitate the whole process of teaching mobility organization in the academic as well as the administrative aspects, in an effective and transparent way. As the project tackled a range of European policy priorities, the consortium developed the fourth intellectual output, the policy recommendations on effectively promoting teaching mobility in Europe. The document was a result of several consultations within the consortium, involving external policy experts and the DG EAC. The recommendations are formulated on three levels: European and national policy-makers, higher education institutions and individual academics, and their purpose is to provide all stakeholders with well-founded and practical recommendations. The consortium held four online multiplier events that altogether attracted more than 380 participants, including representatives of DG EAC, staff of European national agencies, HEI leaders, staff of HEI International relations offices, and the most important target group, teaching staff. Although three teaching mobilities were planned to test the functions of ETMP, only one was organized, and two was cancelled due to COVID-19. The intellectual outputs, multiplier events, focus groups and the teaching mobility were a result of excellent collaboration between prestigious European universities and university networks. The intellectual outputs and the full content of the multiplier events are available on https://teachwitherasmus.eu/. Erasmus+ Teaching Mobility Platfrom: https://teachingmobility.eu/ The main impact of TWE+ is that it created a structured dialogue on teaching mobility within the European Higher Education Area, and it also created the necessary instruments to facilitate better quality teaching mobilities.