Supporting the connection of HEIs is one of the KA2 call priorities under the ESCI, further to the European Commission announcement in March 2019 that from 2021 HEIs participating in the Erasmus programme will have to gradually adhere to the EWP standards. Another mention of digitalisation is also placed in the new Erasmus Charter for HE for which the call has been published in February, 2020. As a consequence, the next Erasmus Programme framework is foreseen to be digital in nature taking into account a gradual shift towards fully digital mobility management. The main objective of the SUDTE project is to facilitate this change of paradigm by ensuring extensive support in achieving a smooth and well-coordinated digital transformation process. The project seeks respond the challenges of digital transformation that HEIs, students and National Agencies will face in the next Erasmus+ programme. The EU Commission as the regulatory body needs to provide stability and future certainty for the overarching initiative to be harmonious and streamlined. The digital platforms provided to the HEIs must be able to serve to the needs of more than 5000 universities taking part in the Erasmus+ Programme. To do so, they need to be implemented and tested by HEIs of different structures as early as possible. A systematic set of supporting initiative will be offered by the SUDTE project which is expected to play an important role in contributing the roadmap of the ESCI with the following goals: -Determination of the needs of HEIs and NAs in the integration process through a systematic mapping -Assessing and comparing the available digital tools to address the challenging infrastructural transformation -Assisting HEIs in design and execute their implementation strategies based on evidence-based decision-making and policy formulation -Measuring efficiency gains and impact assessment regarding workload reduction -Equipping students and staff with the knowledge and skills with a view to ensures readiness for next Erasmus programme -Developing software modules to expand available IT services Digital transformation of the HEIs is at the core of how we will interact with ESCI in the next Erasmus programme. The EUF universities have been key drivers in bringing about this change of paradigm, and are thus particularly well positioned to take leverage on their shared know-how. The SUDTE project will bring together a consortium of five EUF partners from Italy (Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico), Spain (University of Vigo), Luxembourg (EUF) and Turkey (Selcuk University and Izmir Institute of Technology). The project activities leading to achieve expected results and outcomes as described in the Intellectual Outputs are designed to allow active collaboration of all the consortium partners. The SUDTE project will be employing a traditional management approach which uses sequential phases to define, build, test, and release project deliverables, known as waterfall method. When changes of requirements (e.g. as a result of new technologies, changes in the higher education area) cannot easily be incorporated with the waterfall method, more flexible methodology like Agile may be followed to be adaptable above all other qualities. During the project all partner institutions will expected to take leverage on their shared know-how to upgrade and update their IT infrastructure in compliance with ESCI requirements. While the project partners consider their role in addressing digital transformation within their organization as critical, it is targeted to ensure other EU Universities as well as National Agencies benefit from the outcomes of the project on its completion. Moreover, through the training activities, students and academicians will be able to equip themselves with the digital skills which is necessary to cope up with the challenges the scale of the transition presents as the world moves to a digital era. Facilitating the digital transformation of Higher Education Institutions in line with European Commission’s initiative will contribute to overcome the challenges in streamlining the gradual shift towards fully digital mobility management. The outcomes of the project are therefore intended to have a significant impact on the stakeholders of the ICTs. The general impacts of project implementation are also related to increased digitalisation, modernisation of HEIs and EU standardisation of mobility management. This strategic partnership will enable a meaningful, project-oriented and policy-relevant exchange of know-how between the participating institutions. Moreover, it will spread that knowledge to other individuals and institutions through a series of project outputs in which new content can be developed for the interested stakeholders. The project aims to improve in the long-term the quality of university services, the skills of staff of HEIs so as to guide students and aims in the adoption of the ESCI throughout Europe.
The main objective of the SUDTE project is to facilitate the change of paradigm by ensuring extensive support in achieving a smooth and well-coordinated digital transformation process. A systematic set of supporting roadmaps were offered by the SUDTE project to meet the expectation of the ESCI with the following sub-objectives: -Determination of the needs of HEIs and NAs in the integration process through a systematic mapping -Assessing and comparing the available digital tools to address the challenging infrastructural transformation -Assisting HEIs in design and execute their implementation strategies based on evidence-based decision-making and policy formulation -Measuring efficiency gains and impact assessment regarding workload reduction -Equipping students and staff with the knowledge and skills with a view to ensures readiness for next Erasmus programme -Assisting in house system user universities in getting connected to the EWP network
SUDTE is a project focusing on the preperation and planning processes of HEIs in the digital transformation of Erasmus+. Supporting the connection of HEIs is one of the KA2 call priorities under the ESCI, further to the European Commission announcement in March 2019 that from 2021 HEIs participating in the Erasmus programme was going to gradually adhere to the EWP standards. As a consequence, the new Erasmus Programme framework was foreseen to be digital in nature taking into account a gradual shift towards fully digital mobility management. For the parties involed (HEIs, NAs, 3rd Party providers, policy makers etc.), it was crucial to determine their readiness for digital transformation and adapt the most appropriate transformation method for them. The project seeks to respond the challenges of digital transformation that HEIs, students and National Agencies were facing in the new Erasmus+ programme. Specifically for the higher education sector, universities are addressed by the project in terms of technical knowledge, planning and strategic choices that are required in the process of connecting to the digital platforms such as EWP, EduGAIN and ESCI.