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Mobility of higher education students and staff supported by internal policy funds (KA131-HED) - Coordinator: Groupe ESIEA

2023-1-FR01-KA131-HED-0001189482023Mobility of higher education students and stafffinalized
Countries: FR · Grant: €63,057

Objectives

Creating and implementing top-quality international mobility opportunities for each and every one of our students is a top priority for ESIEA Graduate School of Engineering. The Erasmus+ program represents both the foundation of all our efforts towards internationalization and our springboard towards future initiatives. ESIEA is a private, top-ranked engineering school focused on digital sciences and technologies and with a student body of 1800. Its 5-year engineering degree is equivalent to a Master of Science. An international study semester became a requirement of the ESIEA engineering degree starting August 2021, pushing the International Relations team to create upwards of 300 semester spaces to accommodate all candidates. This goal has been accomplished largely thanks to ESIEA's extended Erasmus+ partner network. During the academic year 2024-25, ESIEA organized 394 outgoing student mobilities, of which 138 took place in Europe or the United Kingdom. It was mathematically impossible to finance these 138 mobilities via ESIEA’s Erasmus+ envelope. ESIEA has gone beyond Erasmus+ by negotiating and self-financing additional semester spaces with long-term Erasmus+ partners (Amsterdam University of Applied Science, University of Zagreb) and 2-month study programs with our Erasmus+ partners at University of Zilina and with our former Erasmus+ partners in Wales (Wrexham University) that specifically target students enrolled in ESIEA’s apprenticeship program. ESIEA’s yearly budget for these additional mobilities has reached upwards of half a million euros. ESIEA’s active engagement in the Erasmus+ program for the past 20 years has been a crucial factor in ESIEA’s success in reaching its objective of organizing a significant period of international mobility for 100% of its students. ESIEA also chose to mobilize the Erasmus+ budget to send 4 staff members for training mobilities. 2 young staff members participated in a BIP for BIP organizers. The ideas and enthusiasm they brought back from this experience helped ESIEA organize a successful BIP in Cybersecurity this year. ESIEA also sent its 2 academic advisors, who counsel our students and then approve and sign their learning agreements, to our long-term partner campus at Amsterdam University of Applied Science to gain crucial insights into a completely new pedagogical approach that has been put in place there. The time spent observing the courses and exchanging with the instructors at AUAS, as well as collecting feedback from the ESIEA students on campus, helped our academic advisors better understand the new program and will go far in ensuring better curriculum matching between ESIEA and AUAS. Finally, for the first time, ESIEA is participating in an Erasmus+ KA2 Capacity Building project. Running from 2024 to 2027, this project aims to analyze and improve the ecosystem for international student mobility in Europe. With work packages involving curriculum matching enhanced through AI tools, more effective communication on study mobility opportunities through the development of a chatbot, and innovative analysis of green travel decision factors, the project is mobilizing ESIEA’s research team in addition to its international relations team. Our ongoing partnerships with project member institutions are strengthened through this initiative (University of Zagreb, University of Zilina) and new partnerships have been established (University of Maribor, University of Belgrade). Our ambition is to use this project as a springboard for stronger collaboration on the level of European research in artificial intelligence. Now that quantitative objectives for international mobility have been met (100% of ESIEA graduates having carried out a significant international mobility), ESIEA's current goals include better curriculum mapping of the international semester mobility programs offered, helping students with fewer opportunities better access international mobility programs, and inciting students to reduce the carbon imprint of their mobilities by focusing on European destinations. We also strive to modernize and professionalize the work of ESIEA's International Relations department, where nearly all of our processes have now been digitalized. Active participation in the Erasmus+ program each year helps ESIEA improve continually in these areas.

Project partners (1)