Description
Improving transnational student and staff mobility is one of the key objectives of the Bologna process and a core principle of European integration in general. Strengthening the institutional cooperation in higher education between Romania and Norway and thus, establishing structured, intensive and long-term cooperation. Increasing the number of students and teacher mobility between Romania and Norway. Students: personal and academic fulfillment in terms of progression, employment, international alumni, language competence. Staff: language competence, collaborative research. NUPSPA: international profile, quality enhancement. New and improved content of courses/case studies, full recognition of the study periods in Norway and will facilitate the transfer of knowledge and expertise between partners. Direct beneficiaries: students and professors. To cooperate and support the beneficiaries and the activities agreed and to respect the principles and conditions of the EEA Grants guidelines. A platform for future scientific collaboration between partners and also a coherent strategy for addressing the sustainable quality in higher education.
Summary of project results
The international relations that one university manages to develop are among the main elements according to which an academic institution is evaluated by both a higher education assessment agency or by any interested party. SNSPA has always highly regarded this area and therefore encouraged more and more mobility projects. Once this EEA opportunity presented itself it was regarded as a real chance to quickly develop study and placement mobility with countries that can only increase the level of knowledge of those benefiting from those grants. The outputs were delivered for both the staff teaching and training mobility, and for student mobility. The lectures delivered during the staff teaching mobility and the best practice gathered during the staff training account for the first category, as for the second one, the student mobility, their experience has been actively shared during the informational workshops organized at the specific request of the student beneficiaries. Outcomes: For students: improved learning performance; enhanced employability and improved career prospects; increased self-empowerment and self-esteem; improved foreign language competences; enhanced intercultural awareness; increased motivation for taking part in future (formal/non-formal) education or training after the mobility period abroad. For staff: improved competence linked to their professional profiles; broader understanding of practices, policies and systems in education, training or youth across countries; better quality of their work and activities in favor of students; increased support for and promotion of mobility activities for learners; increased opportunities for professional and career development; improved foreign language competences;increased motivation and satisfaction improved foreign language competences in their daily work.
Summary of bilateral results
Among the benefits of studying abroad perceived by our students are the cultural enrichment and improved language skills, high-status qualification, and a competitive edge to access better jobs. Studying abroad helps students to expand their knowledge of other societies, languages, cultures and business methods, and to leverage their labor market prospects. The most important achievement is the fact that the students from our university had the chance to study and to participate in different research projects in a different higher education system. At the same time, the Romanian and Norwegian professors had the great chance of sharing their knowledge and best practices, which, in the end created new opportunities in collaborating in different conferences or in what concerns the presentation of different articles. The partnership has been signed for a three year period, but both partners decided to prolong it as the bilateral relation has brought a lot of collateral activities that can only strengthen the two partners: international conferences, workshops and events that explored the knowledge gathered through the initial exchange, and comparative analyses that were written by both parties and disseminated in common events. On one hand, SNSPA, the home university, as one university coming from the academic field pertaining to administrative sciences, is able to provide a consistent expertise with regard to PA reform, European integration, from which the partner could really extract knowledge for eventual comparative studies. On the other hand, HSN, the host university, not only has quickly embraced the expertise of the partner, but also provided students with the needed guidance to help them adapt to a system that is far more developed in technical terms. The mobility project aimed at encouraging both staff and students to know these two very different environments – Romanian and Norwegian – and thus provided all the needed support to make this process as smooth as possible: academic network, technical expertise, innovative laboratories, student networks, so on and so forth.