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

The University of Zadar in its strategic documents has set the following strategic goal: ?To continue the development and improvement of all forms of international cooperation, primarily within the incoming and outgoing mobility of students, teachers and staff, followed by joint study programmes at all levels, joint international research and other projects and involvement in European programmes and projects.? In order to achieve this, the University participated in the Lifelong Learning Programme, sub-programme Erasmus starting from the 2010/2011 and its participation was successful. Therefore, the participation in Erasmus+ programme is a natural continuation of the former programme and the University strives to be equally and even more successful in its implementation. The University of Zadar is participating in other programmes that enable the mobility of students, teachers and non-teaching staff, but the participation in the Erasmus+ is the best, and certainly the most important way to achieve mobility as a significant element in the development of international cooperation of the University in Zadar. In the implementation of the Erasmus+ KA103 project in the academic year 2014/2015 participated the total of 86 participants, 18 students for traineeship, 45 students for studies, 13 staff mobilities for teaching and 10 staff mobilities for training. A total of 15 students from disadvantaged backgrounds received the top-up support and 44 students received additional financial means from their home departments. Being the University of Zadar entirely integrated university consisting of 25 departments, its International Relations Office is a central point where all the activities regarding the implementation of the Erasmus+ KA103 project are carried out, starting with the application of the University to the Agency for Mobility and EU Programmes, the call for applications for students and staff, information days, selection of candidates, meetings with the selected candidates, nominations, financial agreements, updates in Mobility Tool+ to the final payments. The Erasmus coordinators at the departments are responsible for the setting up the Learning Agreements before the student?s departure and for the recognition of the study period abroad, grades and ECTS credits upon student?s return. Similarly, the International Relations Office is responsible for the inbound students? and staff mobility, except the academic issues that are the responsibility of the departments. One of the tasks set out in the Strategy of the University relating to the development of the mobility of the University is the annual increase of the outbound students? mobility by 15% and of the incoming students? mobility by 10%. Comparing the numbers of the outbound student and staff mobility in 2013/2014 and 2104/2015, one can conclude the following: the overall increase is of 21.12%, the increase of the students? mobility is of 12.50% (SMS by 4.65% and SMP by 38.46%) and the increase of the staff mobility is of 53.33% (STA by 30.00% and STT by 100.00%). As far as the inbound student mobility is concerned, there were 45 inbound students? mobilities in 2013/2014 and 84 inbound students? mobilities in 2014/2015, which represents the increase of 86.66%. The long-term benefits of the participation of the University of Zadar in Erasmus+ are manifold. In our opinion, the biggest and the most important benefit is the participation of our students in the mobility abroad, which gives them the experience of studying in different academic and social environment, enables them to acquire different knowledge, skills and competences in comparison to those at their home university and increases their employability. The benefits deriving from the Erasmus+ staff mobilities are not limited to their personal and professional development, but they expand to the institution as a whole. It is noted that the experience of the mobility period abroad influences the teaching process, the increasing number of courses taught in foreign languages (mainly English) and the awareness of what the teaching in international classroom is. The benefits for the University of Zadar as the institution consist in increased visibility and attractiveness of the institution that defines itself as a regional oriented university. Throughout the project, Erasmus+ was promoted at the University of Zadar through the information days for students and staff, both on central and departmental level, the publication of information on the website of the University, on the Facebook page of the International Relations Office, in the International Students Guide, by printing posters, flyers and other promotional material and in direct personal and online contacts of the IRO officers with everyone who was interested in mobility. During the academic year 2014/2015, the entire web site of the University of Zadar was published in English language.
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