In the Rome Declaration, of 25 March 2017, EU leaders’ called for ’a Union where citizens have new opportunities for cultural and social development and economic growth’ and pledged to work towards ’a Union where young people receive the best education and training and can study and find jobs across the continent’. Therefore, in higher education great emphasis has already been placed on internationalisation in order to develop the transversal skills of students. In contrast, currently widespread methods of mobility reach only a very limited number of students. Especially considering the many social and physically disadvantaged students in Europe, this is an intolerable situation. Moreover, a modern workforce simply requires employees possess interpersonal skills to act as real European citizens. In addition to the international aspects, employers in a globalised world seek graduates with skills related to digitalisation and interdisciplinary competencies. This is where “New Modes of Mobility” (NewM) addresses students, teachers and higher educational institutions. By creating modules and courses with aspects of virtual and hybrid mobility, barriers to gaining experience in internationalisation and digitalisation will be lowered. With this inclusive approach, socioeconomic, financial and health issues can be overcome, and a substantially higher number of students will be able to benefit from a state-of-the-art educational system. All the partners – University of Applied Sciences Würzburg-Schweinfurt (FHWS) in Germany, Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences (SeAMK) in Finland, Stichting Fontys in the Netherlands, University of Zielona Góra (UZ) in Poland, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu (ULBS) in Romania and University of Debrecen in Hungary – will test the developed modules and courses. These are expected to increase • amount of students involved in international teaching and learning concepts – at least by 100% • awareness of internationalisation and transversal skills among students • knowhow of teachers as well as curriculum designers • joint course and curriculum design and implementation • number of students applying for learning mobility. The results will be presented at national and European level conferences and networks. Open access to the material developed - new models of mobility, virtual guide to build the capacity of the teachers to implement internationalisation at home, framework on a curriculum level, and New-Modes eBook - will be provided to other HEIs. National level education authorities will be sensitised on the results in order to present internationalisation at home as a vital option for educational institutions at all levels. Internationalisation at home should become a norm rather than an exception.
The following results were expected while applying for the project grant: 1. Increased cooperation between the participating institutions in course implementation and curriculum planning 2. Increased number of students from all partner institution involved in international teaching and learning concepts 3. Increased opportunities to build up international competencies for students that are facing invincible barriers when it comes to physical mobility 4. Increased awareness of internationalisation among all involved students 5. Increased transversal skills among all involved students 6. Increasing the knowhow of involved teachers as well as curriculum designers As response to CoVid-19, the following outcome was formulated while the project was still in progress: 7. Support for educators to respond appropriately to a forced virtual teaching environment. The specific goal is to maintain the quality and internationality of student education. These 7 expected results will be referred to as the EPRs 1 to 7 in the upcoming paragraphs of this report. Ultimately, the consortium wanted to create a package of tools and guides targeted at teachers and curriculum designers (also outside the project) to incorporate IaH-activities.
Internationalisation and mobility are an essential part of modern higher education. Nevertheless, some partners of this consortium experiencing even bevor the uprising of CoVid-19 a decline in outgoing exchange students. Despite this, the partners intended on continuing to strive for the following three major objectives: 1. Bringing Europe together by increasing awareness and understanding in Europe. 2. Increasing the transversal competences of the future workforce and therefore enhance their Europe-wide employability. 3. Reduce inequalities in international education. For this purpose, the key factors internationalisation and mobility had to be reconsidered. In higher education, great emphasis has already been placed on internationalisation, but currently widespread methods of mobility, by contrast, reach only a very limited number of students. Especially considering the many social and physically disadvantaged students in Europe, this is an intolerable situation. The partners have therefore committed themselves to responding to the following needs: 1. An alternative for physical mobility since the attraction of students is declining. 2. Students demand for more high-quality international content at their home university.