1. WORKSHOP 1
Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility: opening up new opportunities for international cooperation
Dpt. of European Educational Programmes
Sophia Fourlari, Konstantina Tolia, Giorgos Veis
DEEP ©

2. What is the International Credit Mobility:
International opening of Erasmus
135,000 grants for 6 years (for all EU)
Mobilities for students and staff from/To Programme and Partner Countries
Managed by National Agencies of Programme Countries
Management of Mobilities:
European HEIs apply on behalf of the partnership to their National Agency
16 or 26 months to organize mobilities
Budget = Organisation support, living allowance, travel

3. Why this workshop? Let’s give it a try altogether! A new programme
To highlight the pros and the cons of the Erasmus+ International Credit mobility adventure
To exchange experiences
To review attitudes towards critical issues of the Erasmus+ mobilities
To suggest ‘solutions’ to difficulties
To talk on ‘whatever’ on Erasmus+
Let’s give it a try altogether! 3

4. Our discussion focused on
Partnerships under Erasmus+ ICM
Recognition of mobility and courses attended abroad/concerns on ECTS awarding
Erasmus+ International Mobility: Special services needed
Difficulties of the International Student and Staff Mobility under Erasmus+
…and on your thoughts on Erasmus+ ICM 4

5. How did we work ? Participants were split in 2 groups
- Exchange of thoughts on the 4 points (pros and cons, problems, good practices, possible solutions)
- Resume and presentation by the representatives of the groups
How do we work things out in AUTH?
Presentation, discussion, questions & comments
All our other thoughts put together 5

6. The 1st thing you think of…
Yellow group Study Research Experience Exchange Different opportunities about mobility in different countries Lots of work for us – Good for students Experience sharing Cultural sharing
Green group
Non – EU
Recognition of credits and examinations
Student exchange
Increasing capacities
New Options

7. Partnerships under Erasmus+ ICM
How you do it/Good practices
Former Erasmus Mundus partners
Prior long-term partnerships
Individual suggestions from Professors/colleagues from other Universities
Difficulty with contacts out of Europe
Usually the initiative comes from a partner university
Erasmus Officer tasked to create partnership
Some kind of unofficial board when a new partnership is proposed
Agreements may start running with staff mobilities and then with students
Preference to partners with similar accreditation system to ensure the recognition of the courses
Further thoughts:
Risk assessment of a future partnership/ranking of the university or other official lists/external evaluation of a University

8. Recognition of mobility and courses attended abroad/concerns on ECTS awarding
Use of learning agreement prior to the mobility
Academic records including ECTS credits
Difficulty to gain 30 ECTS / Recognition of courses if they have passed the 70% of the courses
Credits for research work (master thesis, undergraduate thesis) / Some universities encourage it, especially in case of small mobility duration
Other universities are discouraging the realization of thesis due to the difficulty of recognizing ECTS
Special examination committees at each Department / Special examination board for each course
Faculty boards which decide the courses that will be declared / They meet after the end of the mobility so as to recognize ECTS- “Conversion charts”
The recognition of the courses is not always obligatory e.g. in Germany) whereas in some case it is a mandatory (e.g. Turkey).

9. Erasmus+ International Mobility: Special services needed
Individual arrangements
Extra support for students with special needs/medication/company (they fill in different applications),
Counseling service,
Health care service,
Student club specializing to students with special needs,
Set up of the campus accordingly
Registration, airport pick up: there is a branch of the students’ network to help them, they pay with the lump sum for extra costs (e.g. taxi costs etc), they give money to students to participate in events abroad and in exchange they help the local students
Web-base with information regarding the country
International data-base for future partnerships/communication platform with info for students/courses etc.

10. Difficulties of the International Student and Staff Mobility under Erasmus+
Visa issuance
Allocation of travel expenses: It’s not possible to send money in advance in case expensive tickets are bought)
Difficulty in finding partners
Transparent selection process
Low number of outgoing students (e.g. Germany) vs. other universities that have the opposite problems (low number of incoming students - e.g.Turkey)

11. Department of European Educational Programmes Thessaloniki, Greece 
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