More information
Description
The project assures the opportunities for running of both students and teaching staff mobility in the frame of partnership 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).The current agreement with NMBU for the period 2021 -2023 has been recently signed, after the previous one was successfully implemented. The initial agreement was signed based on our activities performed in the frame of a previous bilateral project “Bioconcepts in environmental protection and management: promoter of bilateral relationship between Romanian and Norwegian research entities” awarded through Bilateral Relations Fund of the Programme RO14 ”Research within Priority Sectors” funded through the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism. The agreement with NTNU was signed in 2018 for the field of Engineering for Master and Ph.D. students and academic staff. Professor Daniela Angela La Rosa from NTNU attended as a Training former the "International School for Ph.D. students and Researchers" organized 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 now the agreement signed for the period 2021-2023 includes only students at Bachelor level.The agreement with UiT came a consequence of the participation at the "Staff Week with focus on EEA and Norway grants" organized 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 form the same area of interest from UiT, in this way the inter-institutional agreements has been established.
Summary of project results
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 post pandemic COVID-19 pandemic period because of the low interest in both countries to perform mobility. We have selected more students to perform mobility at the partner university but they withdraw from the project due to personal reasons.
For TUIASI the project is the third one of this type, since our university did applied or received funds in the previous EEA 2017 call for mobility projects.
Going on the skeleton of the Erasmus+ mobility that is running at our university since 1998 and having the experience of 3 Erasmus Mundus projects and several Erasmus+ KA107 projects we did not encountered any major problems in implementing the project.
One other difficulty we can mention here is the students'' lack of interest in exchanging experiences. All the universities involved carried out several rounds of call for mobility, but the number of students that applied is low.
Here we can mention the lack of experience of donor universities to work with the documents requested in the project: prior to the mobility - selection documents (Minute for the selection and Statement for the conflict of interest) and after the mobility - filling the report mobility.
The project assured 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 4 partner universities from Norway: NMBU (Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Norway), NTNU (Norwegian University of Science and Technology), UiT (The Arctic University of Norway) and Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, Norvegia.
At our university level this project is a continuation of the previous project implemented at our university level within the EEA grants and because in the last years we encountered some difficulties in sending students to our partner universities. Nowadays students can travel to Europe on their own, this being the main reason why the number of outgoing students decreased. In this respect, by applying to this project our university gave to students the opportunity to perform a mobility to a partner university in Norway and the mobility offer is wider. Learning mobility, that is transnational mobility for the purpose of acquiring new skills, is one of the fundamental ways through which individuals, particularly students, can strengthen their future employability as well as their personal development.
In this project was implemented only the mobility academic staff for teaching and training. During this project a total number of 2 outgoing staff training mobilities were performed with just one partner university from Norway: Western Norway University of Applied Sciences.
We consider that the cooperation will continue further from the EEA grants as the academic staff involved are discussing the possibility to propose a consortium and create the framework for exchanges between students and academic staff.
Internationalization at TUIASI is a priority, with emphasis on: developing regional and European partnerships, globalization of the didactic process by aligning curricula to all disciplines and at all levels, supporting the international framework necessary for the development of research, in order to create new centers of excellence, growth of the number of foreign students. Mobility programs, both for teachers and students, have had a great impact on our university at the institutional level, especially by facilitating access to academic and scientific communication networks through new opportunities for institutional development, offering a wider European openness.
At the level of the beneficiaries both students and teachers the mobility had a positive impact.
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.
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.
Outcome:
Number of staff from beneficiary states in exchanges (disaggregated by gender and Donor State)
Summary of bilateral results
Within 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 post COVID-19 pandemic period our project has been very affected and the number of mobility was very low, a total number of 2 mobilities were conducted, both mobilities are from Romania to Norway (2 academic staff for training).The inter-institutional agreement with Western Norway University of Applied Sciences has been signed in 2023, this new partner has been added later to the project. The collaboration with this university is coming form previos contacts and partnerships.