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

The Philipps-Universität Marburg (UMR) participates in ERASMUS since the launch of the program in 1987. With the release of the Internationalization Strategy in 2012, UMR has defined the priorities regarding its international standing in teaching and research. The quantitative increase, but even more the quality of international mobility have been confirmed as core activities of the university. UMR implements all areas of individual credit mobility: student mobility for studies and traineeship as well as teaching staff mobility and mobility for administrative staff. At UMR as a classical full university, all 16 faculties take part in ERASMUS. The percentage of students from the Social Sciences, Languages and Cultural Studies is distinctly higher than from Mathematics and Natural Sciences. Economics, Law and Medicine send relatively high numbers as well. Numbers have increased continuously. With 374 participants for mobility for studies, the number for 2014/15 was considerably higher than expected, with a trend to study abroad for one semester. One factor is the new possibility for multiple mobilities within ERASMUS, an option students make use of to build on their experiences from their first mobility, or to realize studies abroad for various study areas. The effect of this new factor has to be monitored over the following projects to analyze the results. In the area of traineeships, the numbers have increased considerably; with 54 participants, UMR has been able to nearly double the number as compared to the preceeding project. One factor here is certainly the reduction of the minimal duration of mobilities to 60 days, making the program much more flexible for students. Students of Medicine and Psychology represent a large group of participants who thus gain first experience on the international labour market. For teaching staff mobility, UMR has not quite reached the projected numbers, but the numbers in both taching staff and administrative staff mobility are stable. The reduction of minimum duration to 2 days offers more flexibility, though the trend is still towards one-week mobilities. For administrative staff, UMR intends to put a stronger focus on internationalization. One means here is the intensified cooperation with the department for human resource development. In the training of the apprentices at UMR, a new module on "international competence" has been integrated, which includes not only language competence, but a "mobility window" as well. The long-term goal is to establish a structured exchange with specific partner universities to ensure the quality and continuity of the offer. To increase the visibility of the program and improve the quality of the processes, several actions have been taken: implementation of a webbased database with an online application platform; improvement of online information in preparation of a relaunch of the website at the end of 2016; information sessions on central and decentralized level; improvement of counseling, on faculty level in close cooperation with the departmental coordinators; intercultural trainings in preparation of the mobility activities; cultural events, in cooperation with student initiatives. For our incoming students, UMR offers a wide range of activities and support services: intensive pre-semester language course; orientation programme; language competence training during the semester; andof course the cultural program which offers ample opportunity to network and further social integration and intercultural competence for German and international students alike. One central aspect of the new ERASMUS program is the recognition of credits. With the launch of the project, a process of evaluation has been set into motion in order to confirm and improve the recognition processes within the faculties as well as on central level, and to support transparent structures in all areas. One desired outcome is the development of a manual for grade conversion, to guarantee fair, transparent processes and support the faculties in the recognition process. For staff mobility, recognition of the mobility activities functions in cooperation with the personnel department.
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