Description
The planned project is needed to stop the reciprocal and intensive decline in mobility exchanges with our Norwegian partner universities during the last two years, and at the same time to develop and expand bilateral cooperation with the Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) not only in Norway but also in Iceland and Liechtenstein. In order to stop negative trend in the mobilities mentioned above, our objective is to enhance and develop reliable student, teaching and staff mobility exchange frameworks with EEA EFTA HEIs by supporting and developing quality cooperation. Particular attention will also be paid to guidance and counselling services to create and sustain the mutual benefits of participants of the programmes. The expected outcomes of the project are long-lasting partnerships with present and new partner institutions in the donor countries in the framework of intensive mobility programmes and increase in the number of exchanges involving students, teaching and administrative staff.
Summary of project results
The aim of the project was to stop the reciprocal and intensive decline in mobility exchanges with our Norwegian partner universities during the years 2012-2014, and at the same time, to establish further partnerships and develop bilateral cooperation with HEIs also in Iceland and Liechtenstein. When the EEA project started in December 2014, the University of Szeged (USz) had 18 Erasmus+ bilateral agreements with 9 universities in 2 EEA countries: 6 of them in Norway and 3 of them in Iceland. As a first step of the implementation plan the USz set a series of goals to be achieved on long-term by the end of the project timeline. The EEA Calls for proposals were published through different communication channels such as university websites, Electronic Study System, mailing lists addressed to students and university staff, forums and workshops dealing with internationalization topics, by consultations and personal advisement of the ERASMUS+ coordinators at departmental and faculty levels.The USz International Mobility Centre (IMC) created a separate EEA Scholarship Programme website aiming for ensuring continuous and update programme information as well as to keep up the interest among university target groups. IMC informed the ERASMUS+ EEA partner universities on the new EEA cooperation programme and grant opportunities. As one of the results of these dissemination arrangements, the Faculty of Arts of the USz succeeded in establishing a new cooperation with the School of Humanities and Social Sciences of the University of Akureyri in Iceland, financed by the EEA project. In this new cooperation framework altogether 11 teaching mobilities were realized, 6 professors from Akureyri visited the USz and 5 professors from Szeged visited the University of Akureyri during the spring semesters of 2 academic years. Strong ties are developing between the two universities, which aim at establishing a permanent cooperation in the area of Modern Studies. Considering achieved outcomes and benefits the two faculties decided to elaborate a specialization in „Modern Studies” at BA level and to be delivered in Hungarian and English languages with a value of 50 ECTS credits. On behalf of the USz the Institute of Social Sciences, Institute of English and American Studies and the Institute of History are going to take part in the development of the curriculum.
Summary of bilateral results
All visiting exchange professors delivered lectures for students at hosting institutions thus enriching the home curricula with special subjects and presentations. The professor of the Institute of Economic and Rural Development from USz Faculty of Agriculture had a possibility to visit The Agricultural University of Iceland in Hvanneyri. Our universities have been cooperating since 2010 supported by the ERASMUS programme. With the support of the EEA project’s grant it was an excellent opportunity for the cooperating partners to make the collaboration even more active and the idea of a prospective common research project was also discussed. Furthermore, our professor could have visited the Icelandic Meteorological Service owing to his EEA grant. At the University of Szeged the cooperative projects with Norwegian institutions were established under ERASMUS umbrella. During the years the numbers of mobility exchanges declined between the USz and partner institutions, flows had been getting less than those agreed and stipulated in bilateral agreements. The support of the EEA project’s grants successfully contributed to reversing this process and 14 mobilities were successfully accomplished during the project period, in case of University Tromso and University Bergen, the numbers of flows have been raised. Unfortunately, our intention to establish cooperation with a HEI in The Principality of Liechtenstein was unsuccessful, as the institution was not willing to accept our visiting professor. The EEA Institutional Programme Coordinator of the University of Szeged did not participated in a preparatory visit (Measure 1).