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

Established in 1863, Politecnico di Milano (POLIMI) is one of the most outstanding technical universities in Europe, and it is the largest school in Engineering, Architecture and Design in Italy. POLIMI has been ranked among the best technical universities in the country, among the first 10 in Europe and the top‐30 in the world by QS World University Rankings. In 2014 the University received the Wharton-¬QS Stars Awards 2014: "Reimagine Education of the Nurturing Employability category, for having developed the best education system enhancing the employability of its graduate students in Engineering". POLIMI offers innovative programmes at all academic levels. Thanks to a strong internationalization policy, many programmes are taught entirely in English, attracting an ever-increasing number of talented foreign students, which now form a diverse community with more than 100 nationalities. Internationalization is a key element in the vision of the POLIMI, which reads as follows: “A university of international relevance, actively participating in networks of excellence, pursuing quality research activities as defined by international standards, attracting high profile international students in significant numbers at the Master of Science and PhD level, with high quality administrative services addressed to both international and national students and with a more and more international faculty.” As far as education is concerned, the strategic objectives that have been planned are addressed to enhance the attraction of international students (targets set: 20-25% at MSc level, 30-40% at PhD level), to select international students that are able to perform as well as national students and to have them equally distributed in all programmes. To reach these ambitious goals it has been established that from the a.y. 2014/15 all Master of Science courses will be exclusively offered in English. Furthermore, over the last years an ever increasing number of qualified foreign professors have been attracted, resulting in a greater internationalisation of the Faculty. In 2014 more than 80 visiting Professors were hosted for teaching purposes. Another key element of internationalization strategy are double degree projects. The POLIMI launched its first double degrees in 1988. Since then, more than 500 of its students have been awarded double degrees. POLIMI has been a founding member of the T.I.M.E. Association (providing also one of its Presidents). In that framework, POLIMI contributed to launch a “quality label” for double masters in engineering through a very strict quality control of the process. The Academic Senate established strict rules on choosing partners, on defining the process and on controlling the quality both of the process and of the educational outcome. This guarantees the awarding only of double degrees highly recognized by the job market. With more than 100 official double degree agreements with top class institutions all other the world the POLIMI is one of the most active institutions of the world in double degrees. POLIMI pays serious attention to mobility for study purposes. Mobility for Traineeship also gathers an ever increasing interest. Our Institution constantly monitors the quality and quantity of mobility agreements, taking students’ feedback into serious account. Agreements are rationalized and planned all over. Indeed, although some balance between incoming and outgoing students is sought, other quality-related aspects play a fundamental role in the evaluation process. Due to an ever increasing interest from foreign institutions, new agreements are constantly set up, with early student and teaching staff exchange activities resulting in strong partnerships. New projects and initiatives keep developing, such as double degree projects, internships, research projects and thematic networks. Numerous communication activities and events are organised to encourage incoming and outbound mobility, and to enhance POLIMI’s attractiveness. Specifically, incoming student mobility is currently higher in number than the outbound. New activities have been devised with the help of student organisations, aiming to the welcoming and integration of incoming students, such as the organization of a welcome week and a buddy project. The latter envisages a tutoring service where a small group of foreign students is supported by a local student. Lastly, all outbound students who take part in one of POLIMI mobility programmes are granted funding throughout their periods abroad. This choice has led to a rise in mobility numbers despite the adverse economic conjuncture.
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