Mobility is one of the core aspects of the challenge-based approach, and therefore an essential element of all ECIU University’s activities. The Erasmus Inter-Institutional Agreement was recently signed between all 12 partner institutions at the ECIU University and gives the necessary breakthrough to intensify the already existing mobility of students and staff.
Artur Silva, Work Package Lead for Mobility at the ECIU University and Vice-Rector at the University of Aveiro, Portugal, explains the significance of the agreement: “It is important because instead of bilateral agreements between individual institutions, as we have been practicing traditionally until just recently, now we have a multi-lateral, inter-institutional agreement that involves all partners at the ECIU University alliance. It really changes the mindset – now the mobility can include any faculty, any course at the ECIU University member institution. That significantly expands the traditional Erasmus agreements.”
The European scale of the mobility is not only written on paper – it will have an impact on every student and staff member who is willing to try out the ECIU University opportunities. The huge database of contacts opens up to the community, for example, a student studying Chemical Engineering at the University of Aveiro can check out the relevant programmes at the ECIU University Alliance and find much wider possibilities it his/her field. The same possibilities open for staff members at the ECIU University.
Artur Silva adds: “the agreement is signed by all the ECIU University members now, so it means that students and teachers can already take action: they just need to contact their international office. Of course, the COVID situation in autumn is still unclear and that might imply some of restrictions to physical mobility. Still, the window of opportunity is now opened for the community of the alliance”.
Erasmus Inter-Institutional Agreement will support new types of mobility: virtual mobility, blended mobility and the mobility through challenges and micro-credentials – the essential parts of the ECIU University activities. This means that teachers, students and learners will be able to work on challenges and take up micro-courses with other learners and teachers from other countries and do it flexibly.
“The year 2021 marks the introductions of numerous improvements in the Erasmus programme and a stronger financial commitment to education and training. With our new Erasmus Inter-Institutional agreement, it will be much easier to transfer the new concept and prepare our mind-set for very broad, real European scale collaboration. The signing of agreement might seem a bureaucratic step, but it is really a milestone for the ECIU University community; it opens many doors and sets an example for the deepening collaboration at European Education area”, - explains Artur Silva.
The ECIU University is an EU-funded initiative that creates a ground-breaking and innovative educational model on a European scale.
