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Description
The project assures the opportunities for running of mobilities for students and academic/ administrative staff in the framework of the partnerships between TUIASI (“Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University of Iasi, Romania) and 3 partner universities from Norway: NMBU (Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway), NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology) and UiT (The Arctic University of Norway).
With this project we intend to improve the communication system between public organizations, administrative authorities (county / government) and civil society (also represented by local NGOs) in some demo site located Danube Delta and to provide dissemination of information of interest. The agreement with NTNU was signed recently in 2018 for the field of Enginnering for Master and Phd. students and academic staff. In November 2019 professor Daniela La Rosa from NTNU attended as a Training former the "International School for Ph.D. students and Researchers" organised at TUIASI in the period 24-30 october 2019. With this occasion both partner universities discussed and agreed on the extension of the agreement also for Bachelor students and added more mobility for academic and administrative staff.
The inter-institutional agreement between TUIASI and UiT came as a consequence of the participation at the "Staff Week with focus on EEA and Norway Grants" organised in Norway in the period 04-07 November 2019. Professor Irina Lungu, Vice-rector for International Relations within TUIASI took part at the Staff Week and met colleagues from the same area of interest from UiT, in this way the inter-institutional agreement has been established.
Summary of project results
The application for the project has been written in close collaboration with the donor partner, they have send us all the information needed so the application could be successful.
The role of informing our donor partners about the awarded funds is the responsibility of the teachers who initiated the agreements. The calendar for the mobilities has been establishes once the financing has been approved.
All the activity for this project has been monitored by the International Relations Office within "Gheorghe Asachi" Technical University of Iasi, who drafted the Regulation for the project.
The students and academic staff from the faculties involved have been informed about this type of mobility and received support from the responsible of the agreement to choose the type of mobility and courses.
The administrative part was the responsibility of the IRO within TUIASI.
As for the incoming mobility at TUIASI, the academic staff from Norway that performed training mobility has been supported by contact person from TUIASI to choose the appropriate theme for their training.
The main difficulty in implementing the project was the COVID-19 pandemic because of the restrictions in both countries to perform mobility, in this respect the financial contract has been extended for 1 more year. There were selected more students to perform mobility at the partner university but they were unable to make the stage due to border closures and sanitary conditions.
For TUIASI the project is the third one of this type, since the university did applied or received funds in the previous EEA 2017 call for mobility projects.
Among the TUIASI students, the interest for the periods of mobility abroad has decreased compared to the previous years, the majority of the students choosing to go away with scholarships for placements to universities and partner companies in the European space. The option of our students to spend a period of academic mobility outside the country is influenced by the compatibility of the study programs and by the level of knowledge of the host country''s language.
In terms of teaching and training mobility, the interest has increased significantly compared to previous years.
Number of staff from beneficiary states in exchanges (disaggregated by gender and Donor State) NO - 4
Number of staff from donor states in exchanges (disaggregated by gender and Donor State) NO - 4
At the level of the beneficiaries both students and teachers the mobility had a positive impact.
The impact of mobility at our university has been a positive one, through the modernization of the curriculum and the growth number of partnerships with higher education institutions from other countries. In turn, the teachers have
had the opportunity to personally observe the universities from Norway.
Upon returning to their home university, the academic staff have applied the teaching and training methods met at the host universities, the courses taught are in more interactive presentations and students find greater openness among teachers.
One of the main objectives of the partner institutions is the continuous development of quality among its academic community. They is concerned with preparing the necessary framework for students, academic and administrative staff in order to access existing opportunities at European and international level. At TUIASI level ICT and language training programs are developed for the academic and administrative staff. TUIASI is committed to ensure a high quality of student and staff mobility, ensuring full recognition of stages and all mobile students receive the Diploma Supplement.
Through the cooperation with the norwegian universities all institutions involved in the project could benefit from each other experience.
Summary of bilateral results
The university has signed the agreement with the partner university from Norway since 2014, but because the financing was very poor within the Erasmus+ or other programs the students could not afford to perform a mobility.In this respect starting with the EEA grants students can apply for mobility and benefit from this experience.It is very important to have a donor project partner because the value of the grants is higher compared to other European programs and this way the beneficiaries are more attracted to apply.Due to the COVID-19 pandemic our project has been very affected and the number of mobility was very low, a total number of 9 mobilities were conducted, out of which 4 mobility are from Norway to Romania (4 mobility for training staff) and 5 mobilities are from Romania to Norway (4 academic staff for training and 1 administrative staff for training ).Our project with Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) is continued, in this respect starting with 01.02.2022 the project 21-MPO-0019 is running.