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Description
One of the main priorities of the partnerships between "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi (UAIC) and EEA higher education institutions is to expand the international academic cooperation. On the one hand, UAIC aims at attracting students and staff from EEA institutions to choose UAIC for a study/traineeship/teaching or training mobility. Within the past few years, UAIC has witnessed an evergrowing desire of students deciding to take up Norwegian classes provided by the Faculty of Letters. In addition, a significant number of students undergoing an EAA mobility at one of our partner institutions this semester has informed us about their wish to extend their study or traineeship mobility. In this respect, EEA Programme offers UAIC the opportunity to address to these requirements and challenges, both in terms of students'' and staff''.
The main objective of this project is to strengthen the cooperation between UAIC and EEA institutions by promoting academic excellence and institutional improvement, by exchanging and acquiring good practice, and reducing mobility obstacles.
There are three types of target groups that are expected to benefit from mobility exchanges: students and staff from UAIC, students and staff from the three partner countries, and UAIC and EEA partner institutions, in general. In addition to the academic knowledge, the students (from UAIC and partner countries) will have the opportunity to develop and acquire new linguistic skills, to become more familiarized with a new environment etc. On the other hand, incoming and outgoing staff are expected to exchange and to acquire new good practices, to improve student services and academic curricula.
Donor partners are higher education institutions and other institutions in EEA countries. Whereas both HEIs and private institutions will play the role of host institutions for UAIC students and staff, only HEIs will act as home institutions for students and staff benefitting from mobilities to UAIC.
Summary of project results
The main objective of this project has been to develop the cooperation with institutions from the European Economic Area through the academic mobility of students, as well as of teaching and administrative staff in order to exchange good practices, acquire new knowledge and valuable information on a large scale, and thus balance the disparities between Romania and the EEA countries.
The project has aimed to increase the number of beneficiaries, while ensuring the best conditions for study / practice / teaching / training as well as living at partner universities and institutions; to ensure transparency and equality of chances in all EEA actions; to increase the quality and volume of multilateral cooperation with academic institutions in the EEA, with the business, cultural and social environment of these three countries.
Even though cooperation between UAIC and EEA HEIs is not something new, the project was needed to further expand the scope, both domain-wise and geographically, of UAIC academic international cooperation mainly by attracting EEA students and staff to UAIC as their exchange destination. In addition, this project has been a great opportunity to extend the collaboration with more HEIs in the EEA and also identify new institutions for student placement.
Taking into consideration the Covid-19 pandemic and its effects on travel and academic cooperation at international level, the EEA Project has been rather successful among all the categories of participants (students and staff) of Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, which is reflected in the number of mobility exchanges: 30 student internships, 9 study abroad periods, 3 teaching visits and 2 staff training visits (summing up 44 exchanges altogether). The number of both outgoing and incoming grantees was reached only partially. Only 6 incoming students carried out placement mobilities in our university and only one incoming staff came with a teaching assignment.
The number of planned staff mobilities was considerably higher. According to the minutes of the selection from UAIC, 10 administrative staff were selected for training mobilities in Donor States and 6 academic staff were selected for teaching mobilities.
In addition, colleagues from University of Oslo, University of Bergen, NTNU, and University of Stavanger expressed their wish to carry out teaching and training visits at UAIC, visits that were canceled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Summary of bilateral results
During the previous EEA projects, UAIC has witnessed a great desire for students to have academic experiences in the EEA outside the EU. This desire can be illustrated, for example, by the large number of students enrolled in the optional Norwegian language course and the large number of applications and mobilities in the former EEA Programme. The 2-year suspension of the EEA Programme has had a serious impact with respect to the number of mobilities carried out in these countries.The bilateral collaboration is planned to continue, both through the EEA Grants and through Erasmus+ Programme.