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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 Portsmouth has an established history of accessing the Erasmus programme (Socrates, LLP) for the benefit of its staff and students, and is currently placed within the top 25 UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) with regard to number of Erasmus+ student participants, and in the top 5 UK HEIs for number of Erasmus+ staff participants. The project this year was a continuation of that activity within the new Erasmus+ programme, and as such, much of the activity was centred on ensuring that staff and students at the University understood and complied with any new regulations, and ensuring that the University worked towards improving adherence to the new European Charter for Higher Education. The University has also been developing a new Institutional Strategy during this period however, which will refer to the period 2015-2020, and makes clear reference to the importance of career-enhancing opportunities (such as exchanges) for all students in order to ensure that it is creating graduates who can not only compete, but excel in the global academic and employment markets. Likewise, by offering an increased number of excellent overseas opportunities to staff - both academic and administrative - the University anticipates personal and professional benefits to the individual participants, but equally, expects the benefits of these international experiences to assist in internationalising the curricula, supporting and enhancing Higher Education partnerships, creating excellent networks with overseas employers, and ultimately enhancing the student experience and objectives of the University Strategy. As such, it is essential that the University's qualitative approach to Erasmus+ compliance is well grounded in order to ensure that appropriate support and guidance can be provided for the proposed increased numbers of participants. The feedback from the project this year has been invaluable in providing an overview of the perspective not only of our outbound participants, but also from inbound participants - something which we have not previously had access to, and which we are keen to use to improve our service to those participants from other UK HEIs as well as that which we am to provide to our own. The University has historically had significantly greater numbers of students from Language and Business courses accessing the Erasmus programmes, but with a growing number of participants across other subjects (notably Biological Sciences, Pharmacy, and Architecture), and a significant interest amongst students to undertake overseas traineeships, we are aware that participants are accessing a wider range of opportunities, across a number of different countries other than the traditional four of France, Germany, Italy and Spain. As such, we are increasingly aware of limitations to language ability of participants and of the difficulties in providing language support in non-traditional languages. Likewise, the University's student demographic has traditionally included a significant number of widening participation students from the local area, who tend to be less inclined to participate in these types of activities, particularly given financial concerns (both perceived and real) regarding the economy and the cost of completing their chosen Higher Education programme. It is also interesting to note that female students are in the significant majority for both study and traineeship placements, and although the University is proud of the engagement of its female students, it is also clear that greater efforts may be needed to encourage male students to participate. By analysing these figures and comparing it to feedback obtained via the European Commission and directly from participants, it is the intention of the University to not just aim to increase participation of students in general, but specifically to target those who have not traditionally engaged in any meaningful way.
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