Project for higher education student and staff mobility between Programme Countries and Partner Countries (2016)

Unipi Team Leader: Francesco Marcelloni, Vice-Rector for International Cooperation and Relations

This 2016 project’s aims were to reinforce the already existing partnerships and mobility flows with universities in Asia, Central Asia , Serbia, Morocco and to enhance the existing links with partner universities through academic contacts based on mutual staff interests.
The quality of our project was developed through a procedure for managing the exchange mobility perfected in many years of participation in the Socrates and Erasmus LLP and TEMPUS programme.
UNIPI was already engaged in projects that link its teaching and research activities in the key world regions which it considers strategic, especially China, South East and Central Asia and Latin America, as mentioned in its ECHE mission statement. It has taken an important role in developing ECTS (starting with the ECTS Pilot Project in 1989) and the Bologna Process. It is a key Tuning partner in Europe, Central Asia, Latin America and elsewhere. It is dedicated to supporting international mobility and cooperation in general, and especially in those macro-regions. It is a partner in the Tuning South-East Asia CBHE (TA-SE).
The areas of particular cooperation in Asia is Health in a broad sense, with emphasis on Food Safety, Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences. Thanks to the possibilities offered by KA107 a mobility link has been consolidated, both for those sectors and also other areas of interest for students like Engineering, Economics and Management, ICT.

In Asia we have as partners the Royal University of Agriculture in Cambodia, the Savannakhet University in Lao, the Vietnam National University of Agriculture Hanoi in Viet Nam. The partners are involved in the ASEAN Community, but they believe that Erasmus+ mobility with European partners, who can offer high levels of training and collaboration in their fields, can boost their quality and attractiveness internationally. They consider the mobility with the University of Pisa suitable for building up and consolidating networks and cooperation capabilities.

In Mongolia we have 3 partners: the National University of Mongolia (NUM), the Mongolian University of Life Sciences (MULS), and the Mongolian University of Science and Technology (MUST). NUM’s strategy includes networking with important universities around the world. It counts links with 129 universities and is a member of the IAU (International Association of Universities). It consolidated its existing collaboration with UNIPI through Erasmus+ mobility. MULS focuses on education, research, and innovation in its field. It strengthened relations with UNIPI to enhance academic and cultural exchanges. MUST’s internationalization strategy was to increase mobility with Western European Universities. It was the first university in Mongolia to implement a Credit Based System in its activities.

In 2016 we improved the mobility of students and staff from Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.
The International University of Kyrgyzstan and the Naryn State University have with UNIPI long-term agreements for proactive collaboration in HE reform, enhancement and research. All the requested flows have been completed.

In Uzbekistan we implemented the mobility with 7 Uzbek Universities including both general and thematically focused universities, chosen because of their efficiency and commitment: Andijan State University (ASU), Bukhara State University (BSU), Namangan State University (NamSU), Namangan Institute of Engineering (NIET), Samarkand Agricultural Institute (SamAI), Tashkent Pediatric Medical Institute (TPMI) and Tashkent State Agrarian University (TSAU).

Among ENI South countries we have Egypt (Alexandria University and Suez Canal University), Israel (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and Morocco (Cadi Ayyad University).

In Serbia we have as partner the University of Novi Sad. It participated in 16 Erasmus Mundus projects for the region between 2008-2015 becoming one of the most valuable Western Balkans partners to EU universities. The success of the mobility implemented with UNIPI under the first KA107 call has been evaluated very positively and has improved the participation in the mobility.

The partners agreed to ask for support for incoming MA and Doctoral students, for six months in Kyrgyzstan, Lao, Vietnam, Cambodia and Egypt; for all cycles students in Mongolia, Morocco, Israel and Serbia; for PhD for 3 months in Uzbekistan; one or two incoming training or teaching staff and one outgoing teaching staff for a brief period (5 days, eight hours minimum of teaching). We completed 104 exchange mobilities of incoming students and staff and outgoing teaching staff.
The impact includes the improvement of the international attractiveness and the enhancement of the Partners’ role at regional level. The preparation of capacity building projects and cooperation for the development of higher education in the disciplinary areas involved, and the enhancement of the capacity for international networking of universities and staff ensure long-term impact.

Coordinator:  UNIVERSITÀ DI PISA  (Italy) 

Start date: 01-06-2016

End date: 31-07-2018

EU Grant: 381.149 €

Project website: http://erasmuspluska107.unipi.it/