Description
The University of Barcelona has been involved in the Erasmus Programme right from the start. Erasmus is considered a strategic tool that contributes to the internationalization of the university by encouraging student mobility. Universities in Norway and Iceland are thought to be excellent destinations for exchange students from the UB, as they offer high quality courses. We have agreements with 13 universities in these countries. The Vice-Rector for International Policy has set the goal of increasing the number of student exchanges with universities in these countries. As students clearly have an academic reason for selecting Norwegian and Icelandic universities as Erasmus destinations, the opportunity to increase funding with supplements to the Erasmus grant would be an incentive that could contribute to increasing the number of exchanges. The NILS programme will enable us to strengthen our collaboration with universities in Norway and Iceland.
Summary of project results
The crisis situation in Spain threatens the bilateral mobility at bachelor and master level with donor states, due to the higher cost of living at these countries and the reduction of funds available for students for this purpose. NILS programme and the project intended to contribute to mantaining or increasing the students mobility from Spain to Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein, within the frame of the Erasmus+ programme. University of Barcelona managed a call addressed to its students at Bachelor and Master levels, in connection with the institutional Erasmus+ call, in order to promote and fund stays to be performed in Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. As a result, 25 students carried out stays at higher education institutions in Norway. All of them were Bachelor students. Out of them, 17 were women, that is, 68%, face to 8 men, 32%. These 25 students performed stays in 7 different institutions They performed around 125 months of stay and received an average grant of 4098 euro per person for the whole period, with an average length of stay of 4.98 months. Their study period received an official recognition of ECTS (European Credit Transfer System), with an average of 30,88 ECTS per student. Most of the students declare that without the NILS grant they wouldn't have been able to perform their stay. They also declare that such stay shall be beneficiary for them on the academic side, but also at professional and personal levels.
Summary of bilateral results