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Description
The project allows for increased mobility in higher education between the University of Wroclaw in Poland and eight institutions from Norway and Iceland. The project will be carried out in the scope of:
a. Student mobility:
• Outgoing mobilities of Polish students to University of Bergen, University of Tromso, Volda University College, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, University of Akureyri, Østfold University College and Norwegian University of Life Sciences incoming mobilities of students from these Norwegian and Icelandic universities for study periods lasting from 3 to 12 months within an academic year,
• Outgoing mobilities of Polish students to Norway and Iceland and incoming mobilities of students from these Donor Project Partners'' universities for work placements from lasting from 2 to 12 months within an academic year.
b. Staff mobility:
• Teaching assignment-based mobilities of academic teachers between Polish University of Wroclaw, an Icelandic university and seven Norwegian universities for a period of between one day and six weeks (a minimum of eight hours of teaching at the partner institution must be provided during one week of mobility).
• Higher education staff mobility between Poland, Iceland and Norway for job shadowing, participation in seminars, training, workshops and conferences aimed at improving skills and expanding knowledge in a given field for a period of between one day and six weeks.
Expected results are professional development of staff working in the field of higher education, mobility of students and university staff between Polish, Icelandic and Norwegian universities in institutional partnership to improve the quality and relevance of educational offerings in the field of higer education.
Summary of project results
The Education programme project was not the first mobility project coordinated by the International Office of the University of Wrocław. In the past, we managed FSS projects funded by Donor Countries, such as Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. We had a positive experience, so after the opportunity to apply for a grant under the Education programme became available, it was decided that this project would perfectly complement our offer of student and staff exchange programmes. Of course, the financial value was also important, as compared to the offer of the Erasmus+ programme, it meets the needs related to the high costs of living in the Donor Countries to a much greater extent.
We managed to recruit a total of 20 participants. These were mostly mobilities from Poland to the Donor Countries (17 mobilities), but also students and staff member from the Donor Countries came to Poland (3 mobilities).
The participants from Poland were students (10 people) of law, communication and journalism, psychology, European studies and geography who went to study for a semester at the Norwegian universities N ELVERUM02, N VOLDA01 and N BERGEN.
All students returned very satisfied, and some of them showed keen interest in returning to Norway for further exchanges or internships, as well as for professional career purpose in the future. Everyone assessed their stay at Norwegian universities very highly and emphasized that it was a very rich experience, not only scientific, but also cultural.
The project beneficiaries, of course, shared their experience with their fellow students at the University of Wrocław, who now would also like to spend a semester in Norway or Iceland, which will probably affect our recruitment under the Erasmus+ programme this year.
Our UWr staff returned from Norway and Iceland with similar feelings and visited Norwegian universities - in Volda and Akureyri (6 people) as part of staff training, and teaching mobility (1 person) in Bergen. The employees of the University of Wrocław drew attention to the high technological level of universities from the Donor Countries, their modernity, professionalism, and at the same time a very friendly and warm welcome.
As part of the project, we managed to invite for our Staff Week, the coordinator from the International Office of the University of Akureryi. For the first time we had a guest from Iceland at the University of Wrocław. It was a unique experience for both us and her.We are proud that, thanks to our very good relations with INN University in Lillehammer, we hosted two Norwegian students who came to the University of Wrocław for one semester exchange to study political science. Despite the very large number of exchange students coming to us, about 500 incoming students a year, we have not had any Norwegian students so far, apart from a few Norwegians with Polish roots.
All the above-mentioned mobilities enriched the participants'' knowledge about Norway and Iceland, as well as Poland, opened their eyes to new opportunities and dispelled stereotypes.
Relations with our partner universities in Donor Countries have become closer and warmer. We hope that this will result in greater mobility of our students and staff in that direction in the near future and that the mobilities of students from Norway were not just a one-time event and will be repeated in the future.
Summary of bilateral results
Before joining the project, our university had already cooperated with Norwegian and Icelandic universities under Erasmus+ programme. Unfortunately, after the pandemic of COVD-19, some universities revised their partnerships and did not continue these less known, and therefore less attractive, contacts. At that time we lost some valuable partners in these countries, but we hope that thanks to the Education programme our Norwegian and Icelandic relations will become closer.The cooperation of the University of Wrocław with universities from Norway and Iceland participating in this project was successful. We are happy not only with the quantity, but also with the quality of the mobilities carried out, which hopefully will shed new light on our inter-university relations and become a standard.The high quality of cooperation with our partners who decided to actively participate in the project gave us a sense of certainty that all planned project activities would be implemented, and so they did.