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

For the Open University of Cyprus (OUC), its aim is to achieve its mission as open & distance teaching university with global reach, offering quality innovative programs to produce graduates with employment prospects. OUC?s internationalization policy seeks to establish a growing network of HEIs, research, governmental & business partners in EU and third countries, to provide a basis for the development of internationally oriented teaching & learning and collaborative research & knowledge transfer. This strategy stems from the University?s Strategic Plan 2012-15 approved by OUC?s Governing Board seeking to exploit the international context by a holistic approach aiming to: ? Establish a high quality in-country presence ? Offer innovative programs for the needs of society, industry & labor market, primarily in Greek/English, with future target also to other languages ? Offer programs jointly with esteemed partners ? Enhance international student recruitment ? Internationalize curricula & align syllabus with international norms ? Establish sound partnerships to provide quality transnational education & research ? Improve student & staff mobility ? Establish an international alumni base. Based on these, the 2014 Erasmus+ ?Learning Mobility of Individuals? project had important goals: Firstly, to improve student mobility participation. 9 students in total secured Erasmus+ funding for quality mobility activities. More students participated in SMT mobility activities and during the 2014-2015 academic year OUC had its first outbound participants for study mobility abroad. Another important objective that was met was to welcome the first incoming students for studies at OUC, which is a distance teaching University. In 2014, OUC had indeed welcome the first incoming students that chose the Open University of Cyprus for their study mobility experience. Their experience was a successful one as highlighted in their final reports. The impact of the Erasmus+ mobility project was also high for OUC academic and administrative staff. Faculty had the opportunity to engage in successful teaching programmes and develop and/or reinforce their network of collaborators, which led to new joint actions, such as research projects and design of joint Master degrees. Likewise, OUC administrative personnel utilized the opportunities offered by Erasmus+ to receive quality training abroad. It is important to note that during the 2014-2105 academic year, the Open University of Cyprus has expanded even further its network of collaboration with foreign HEIs and enterprises. The impact was evident in the number of quality mobility activities and the fact that OUC?s International Staff Week had participants from seven countries. This has been a worthwhile, productive and enjoyable project implementation for the Open University of Cyprus. With respect to the overall implementation of Leonardo da Vinci mobility projects. The experience and impact of participating in Mobility programmes is valuable for OUC, especially being a distance teaching university, which implies that the majority of OUC students are working people with family and other obligations and constraints. The fact that OUC managed to improve significantly its outbound student mobility numbers and that during 2014 the University welcomed its first incoming students for study mobility is important, as it is now expected that OUC will be further engaged in mobility programmes. Moreover, the fact that OUC has established strong collaborations with large HEIs in Europe will further improve its participation in Erasmus+ strategic partnership projects. A success story and outcome of this positive mobility project is that OUC is participating in a new Erasmus Mundus joint Master degree programme.
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