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Higher education student and staff mobility project
Start date: Jun 1, 2014, End date: Sep 30, 2015 PROJECT  FINISHED 

Visshe Uchilishte po Menidzhmant (VUM) is a private business school strongly committed to the principles of internationalization. The higher education institution has been participating in the Erasmus programme for academic mobility since 2003. VUM has one of the highest international business students rates in Bulgaria and students from more than 30 countries study together at VUM in undergraduate and master programmes fully delivered in English. The current Erasmus+ mobility project aimed at fostering the internationalization of VUM academic community and its curriculum and at extending its international academic and non-academic stakeholders network. The Erasmus+ mobility project was carried out in line with VUM Internationalization Strategy and EPS. The project primary target groups consisted of VUM academic community members, e.g. students, faculty and administrative staff who took part in academic mobility. Project secondary target groups included VUM students and academic and non-academic staff members who did not personally participate in mobility but who benefited from the knowledge and international experience gained and shared with them by their mobile peers. Outside VUM, project secondary target groups included prospective employers of the mobile students as well as VUM local community members. In 2014/2015, in total 32 outgoing Erasmus+ mobilities were carried out at VUM, 9 of which student mobilities for studies, 12 student mobilities for placement and 11 staff mobilities. Given the large number of full-time international students at VUM, 8 of the 21 mobile students held citizenship other than Bulgarian. All mobile students studied in VUM English language undergraduate programmes in the fields of business, management, tourism and hospitality. As a result of their mobility, the mobile students obtained new practical knowledge in these subject areas and improved their global skills, including their foreign language proficiency and ability to work and live in a international environment. Last but not least, through the mobilities for studies and placements, the students developed also other key competencies such as a sense of entrepreneurship and initiative, critical and analytical thinking and ability to learn. The staff mobilities for teaching carried out in the mobility project aimed at exchange of good practices and gaining new professional knowledge and innovative skills for teaching. As a result of the teaching mobilities, VUM teachers were introduced to new teaching methods and pedagogies and got acquainted with new trends and developments in their specific teaching and research fields. Thanks to the teaching mobilities, the curriculum at VUM will be gradually updated and will become more global and reflective of the new concepts and practices applied in the business, management, tourism and hospitality areas. The staff mobilities for training of VUM staff members provided opportunities for exchange of good practices in the fields of university management and financial diversification, international students recruitment, student engagement and management of the academic processes. In addition to the outgoing mobilities, in 2014/2015, 14 incoming students studied at VUM in the framework of the Erasmus+ programme. Through their integration in the academic and social life of VUM, VUM non-mobile students benefited from the opportunity to learn how to learn and communicate better in a multicultural environment. The incoming students' involvement in VUM student life contributed to the so called processes of "internationalization at home". Thanks to the outgoing and incoming mobilities carried out in 2014/2015, VUM established and/or further developed academic partnerships and links with employers in more than 10 European countries. This enhanced VUM international profile and enriched the institution's international cooperation portfolio.
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