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

The Norwegian Academy of Music (NAM) has been participating in the ERASMUS program since 1993. Over the years, the institution has used the program to develop international collaboration and activities including student and staff mobility, intensive projects and strategic partnership. The objectives for participation is stated in the Academies vision in the institutions European Policy Statement: :”the institution aims to be one of the most well recognized institutions within higher music education in Europe”. In an international context, this means to participate, contribute, learn and compete. International projects are an integral part of the institution’s artistic/academic development work”. During the academic year 2014/15 the ERASMUS+ project has included student and staff mobility and participation in a strategic partnership coordinated from Iceland Academy of the Arts “NAIP, New Audiences and Innovative Practice: Innovation in higher Music Education”. (This project is not a part of NAM’s project and report, but a consequence of the ERASMUS+ program). Teaching staff mobility is the keystone to international collaboration and to keeping collaboration alive. Contact between the institutions’ academic/artistic staff is often a result of mobility activities. Artistic/academic contacts between specialists initiate activity in research and artistic development work. 36 professors from NAM have participated in the teaching mobility program, giving master classes and lectures on bachelor, master and PhD level. This means that 20-25 % of the artistic/academic staff have been involved in ERASMUS + mobility activities. NAM has received 28 exchange teachers offering tuition on all 3 levels. Since most of the students at NAM carry out their whole degree program at the home institution, the teaching mobility activities creates an international learning environment at the institution, giving the students an opportunity to experience other approaches to teaching methods, music and interpretation traditions. 3 administrative staff members have visited other institutions and NAM has received 2 administrative staff members from partner institutions. To experience how partner institutions structure and organize their activities opens up for other approaches to common administrative challenges. The participants report that the learning outcomes are valuable and inspire to new approaches and new solutions. 15 students from NAM have participated in the mobility program and the reports from the students are mostly very positive. The majority of the students are on bachelor level. NAM has received 16 students. NAM has developed an internal electronic evaluation form making it possible to get feed back from the inbound students and if necessary take actions for necessary changes. A long term effect of the inbound student mobility is recruitment. A number of former exchange students apply each year to the different master programs at NAM and several applicants are accepted. Spring 2015 an application from NAM for a strategic partnership, coordinated from NAM, was approved, “ECMA, European Chamber Music Academy”. In addition NAM will participate in a new strategic partnership from 2015/16 coordinated from the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre “Modernizing European Higher Music Education through Improvisation”. This is a long-term effect of the established collaboration over the years, building international competence and confidence. Teacher mobility generates student mobility. Experience shows that, after meeting a guest teacher from a partner institution, a student wants to study with the teacher for a shorter period and the ERASMUS+ program is then a tool to facilitate an exchange. A challenge for higher music education is, however, that almost every single student requires individual instrumental/vocal lessons and tuition in small groups. This limits a professors classes and the number of students possible to accept. This is different from regular university classes where it is possible to include a high number of students without increasing the tuition costs.
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