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Higher education student and staff mobility project
Start date: Jun 1, 2014, End date: May 31, 2016 PROJECT  FINISHED 

International mobility has been and is highly prioritized in Estonian Academy of Arts' (EAA) internationalization strategy and we have managed to live up to our aims and goals in achieving high numbers in terms of and quantity and quality, in choosing carefully our partners whom we work with. The EAA has been participating in ERASMUS programme since its beginning in Estonia, we started with a very small number of participants - both in terms of student and staff/teacher outgoing mobility and also regarding incoming exchanges. Today, the numbers speak for themselves - we are indeed doing very well in ERASMUS+ programme. The EAA has currently nearly 1000 students and almost 30% of them participate in some term of mobility (ERASMUS, Nordplus, and other programmes). Feedback from participants also shows that they recognize that the institution prioritizes mobility and it is considered very important at the EAA. We try to approach all participants individually in choosing the best options for exchange term to the students and staff. Following closely our alumni, we know that the most successful of them have usually have conducted ERASMUS exchange abroad - in one of the art, design or architecture centres of Europe - be it Vienna, Paris, London, Berlin or Copenhagen. It is inevitable that students who gain their degree in somewhat peripheric Estonia, must go and learn in the cosmopolitan centres in order to be able to create multidimensional perspective of the art world today. However, we have also a range of partners outside the big cities for the type of students who do not feel that a big city life is for them. Besides ERASMUS+, the EAA is also leading partner in several Nordplus networks and we are therefore quite aware of the situation, conditions and possibilities in all Nordic-Baltic partner schools, since many of our staff members have either visited or conducted projects with them. Now, when unfortunately there is no more a possibility to participate in EILC courses and the OLS system clearly does not reach the expectations of studying a language (information gained from focus group with our students), we must ever more be aware of the partner institutions and their language of tuition, when we send our students out. A good command of English among local students and staff is critical for one's output in terms of mobility abroad. Equally, we have made and are still making efforts to improve the volume and level of English courses at the EAA available for our exchange students. With the project we managed to receive significant 15% growth in terms of student and staff numbers, who participated in exchange. We sent abroad around 230 individuals - our initial goal with the contract was to send abroad 197 individuals. Our project participants were: students on exchange studies and traineeships, recent graduates on traineeships, academic staff teaching, incoming experts and staff at trainings. Hence, we used all measures available in the project. Longer-term benefits include several levels: at organisational level it means more educated and open students and staff, at society level exchanges give us more individuals who can see and understand bigger contexts and are more tolerant about different groups in society, at sectoral level it means more versatile knowledge and information for specialities. European democratic values are being reinforced throughout ERASMUS+ programme projects and it is a high value to the Estonian society and to the Estonian Academy of Arts in itself.

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