enhancing student mobility in a digital world sharing ... · of the decentralised erasmus...
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Réseau des Universitésdes Capitales de l’Europe
Network of Universitiesfrom the Capitals of Europe
EDITORS J. HAYWOOD - University of Edinburgh, A. METTINGER - University of Vienna & UNICA President
Enhancing Student Mobility In A Digital WorldSharing Experiences In An Enlarged Europe
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Enhancing Student Mobility In A Digital WorldSharing Experiences In An Enlarged Europe
This publication is the Proceedings of the SUMIT Conference entitled
“Enhancing Student Mobility In A Digital World: Focusing On An Enlarged
Europe”, University of Warsaw, 11-12th October 2007. The SUMIT Project
(SUpporting Mobility through ICT) was a collaboration between UNICA,
Brussels Education Services, the University of Warsaw, and the University
of Edinburgh. It was part-funded by the European Commission Directorate
General for Education and Culture under its Socrates Programme.
Editors : J. Haywood, A. Mettinger
Octobre 2007 - ISBN/EAN: 978-90-9022635-4
Graphic design: [email protected]
Contents
A Word From The Unica PresidentArthur Mettinger 5
Introductory Word Of The Vice-Rector Of The University Of WarsawFacts & FiguresWojciech Tygielski 7
Enhancing Student Mobility In A Digital WorldJeff Haywood 13
Role Of ICT Instruments In The Management Of The Decentralised Erasmus ActivitiesDorota Rytwi ́ ska 25
Enhancing Student Mobility In A Digital World: Sharing Experiences In An Enlarged Europe – Croatian ExampleMirta Baranovic 29
Student Mobility At Sofi a University: Tendencies And Perpectives Tsvetan Bogdanov 37
Mobility And IT Support At Vidzeme University CollegeIveta Putnina 41
Digital Tools In Service Of Mobility – From Local Case To National PerspectivesEwa Derkowska-Rybicka 47
How ICT Is Used By Erasmus Student Network At The University Of Warsaw.Anna Laudy 55
Enhancing Student Mobility By A Web 2.0 Platform: The Erasmus Student Network ExperienceChristof Devriendt, Peter Vanhee, Antonio De Marco, Andrea Pescetti 65
University Of Warsaw Library E-Resources And Information Services For The Academic Community Ewa Kobierska-Maciuszko, Noelia Cantero Gonzálvez 79
Virtual Orientation And Online Peer Support For Incoming Exchange Students At LaureaRaisa Saviaho 85
The Sumit Project And The Bologna ProcessJolanta Urbanikowa, Noelia Cantero Gonzálvez 93
Working Group ReportsDenise Haywood 97
Conclusions And Summary Jeff Haywood 109
A Word From The Unica President
Acknowledgements
The editors wish to express their thanks to all who contributed to the Warsaw
conference and the production of this book. We especially wish to acknowledge
the contribution of:
- Baranovic, Mirta – Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing,
University of Zagreb, Croatia.
- Bogdanov, Tsvetan – International Relations Department,
Sofi a St Kliment Ohridisk University, Bulgaria.
- Cantero Gonzálvez, Noelia – Brussels Education Services, Belgium.
- Derkowska-Rybicka, Ewa – International Relations,
Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland.
- Devriendt, Christof – Erasmus Student Network, Brussels, Belgium.
- Haywood, Jeff – Information Services, University of Edinburgh,
United Kingdom.
- Kobierska-Maciuszko, Ewa – Central Library, University of Warsaw, Poland.
- Laudy, Anna – Erasmus Student Network, University of Warsaw, Poland.
- Putnina, Iveta – International Relations,
Vidzeme University College, Latvia.
- Rytwi ́ ska, Dorota – Foundation for the Development of the Education
System, LLP Erasmus National Agency, Poland.
- Saviaho, Raisa – International Relations, Laurea University of Applied
Sciences, Helsinki, Finland
- Wojciech, Tygielski - Research And International Relations,
University Of Warsaw
- Urbanikowa, Jolanta – University of Warsaw, Poland.
Special thanks for their contribution to the SUMIT project and the running
of the Warsaw Conference are acknowledged to UNICA (Arthur Mettinger, Kris
Dejonckheere & Sarah de Heusch), Brussels Education Services (Koen Delaere),
University of Warsaw (Dorota Kazinska and Sylwia Salamon) and University of
Edinburgh (Denise Haywood). We also thank the following chairs of the Workings
Group for their input: Alina Grzhibouska (University of Latvia), Leszek Rudak (Uni-
versity of Warsaw) & Chantal Serman (Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris3).
As president of the UNICA network I am very proud to introduce the
publication “Enhancing Student Mobility in a Digital World: Sharing
Experiences in an Enlarged Europe”.
In this publication you will fi nd the presentations, the conclusions
and recommendations of the seminar organised October 2007, in the
framework of the “SUMIT”- SUpporting Mobility through ICT-, project.
This project, funded by the EC through a Socrates Complementary
Measures grant, aims to support the objective of 3,000,000 Erasmus
Students by 2011 through the setting up of a seminar highlighting
and exchanging best practices on virtual aspects related to mobility
during three stages: before, during and after mobility.
As an institutional network of excellence of UNIversities from the
CApital Cities of Europe, UNICA has developed a goal oriented approach
aiming at academic excellence and at being a driving force in the
development of the Bologna process.
The network provides a forum in which member universities refl ect on
the demands of strategic change in research, education and university
policy. Therefore I am very happy that UNICA can concretely contribute
to the making of the European Higher Education Area (E.H.E.A.) together
with the University of Edinburgh, Brussels Educations Services and the
University of Warsaw, a very active member of the network for many
years and the host of the seminar.
From its start UNICA has aimed to facilitate the integration of univer-
sities from Central and Eastern Europe into the E.H.E.A. and counts
many Universities from these countries amongst its members. UNICA
offers a fertile soil to strengthen the links with universities in the
new member states and the candidate countries, which is a key
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factor in balancing the mobility fi gures for incoming and outgoing
students within the E.H.E.A. The issue of attracting more students
to the new & candidates countries was discussed with enthusiasm
at the Warsaw Seminar, and I am convinced that you will fi nd excel-
lent suggestions and guidelines in the conclusions of this publica-
tion. Therefore, I would like to invite you to visit the UNICA website
(www.unica-network.eu) where you will fi nd the e- version of the
publication “Enhancing Student Mobility in a Digital World: Sharing
Experiences in an enlarged Europe”. We also invite all stakeholders
of the mobility process to post constructive remarks and sugges-
tions to [email protected]
The results of the SUMIT project and its seminar will be widely
disseminated within the 41 UNICA member Universities and sent
to the Socrates National Agencies, other networks and partners.
I would like to express my gratitude to all those who contributed to
the success of this interesting and vibrant seminar. First I would like
to mention the partners of the project, the University of Warsaw for
the excellent organisation, the University of Edinburgh and Brussels
Education Services for their extremely valuable contribution and, last
but not least, the participants to the seminar, coming from universi-
ties from all over Poland, EU Members State Countries and Candidate
Countries.
Mobility allows students to improve their personal skills and to in-
crease their employability. By creating opportunities and improving
the quality of mobility - including ICT - universities offer a unique
platform for students to contribute to the shaping of Europe’s future.
Prof. Dr. Arthur Mettinger,
Vice-Rector University of Vienna
& UNICA President 2004-2007
Introductory Word Of The Vice-rector Of The University Of Warsaw
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to express my satisfaction that the seminar “Enhancing
student mobility in a digital world: Sharing experiences in an enlarged
Europe” took place at the University of Warsaw, which is one of the most
active European universities in the fi eld of student mobility and works
hard and successfully on the ICT implementation and development.
Mobility which is so often and widely discussed is the key to individual
development and it also has a profound infl uence on the changes tak-
ing place in higher education. It infl uences not only individuals, but
also study programs, research, social, cultural and linguistic aspects
of education and economy. Without international cooperation, which
in the XXI century means also both virtual and “traditional” mobility,
a university cannot aspire to be an active and important actor in the
European higher education and research area.
The Mission and the Strategy of the University of Warsaw (UW),
Lisbon and Bologna goals form the base for the University activity.
Being aware of the importance of the period 2007-13 for its develop-
ment UW gives priorities to:
- the development of innovative educational products in order to
meet the growing demands of the market - particularly at cycles 2
and 3, post-diploma studies, lifelong and e learning, with stronger
focus on teaching in foreign languages,
- the increase student and staff mobility as a key tool for personal
development, enriching the learning and research experience,
improving knowledge transfer,
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- the promotion of EHEA through active participation in multilateral
projects, thematic networks, joint degrees and initiatives at
regional and international level,
- the pursuit of the University mission within the society in order
to give wide access to knowledge and acquisition of skills to all
who are entitled (incl. students from rural areas, disabled persons,
adults) by increasing the number of open events/lectures
delivered by experts and/or through Internet courses (Centre for
Open and Multimedia Education),
- fostering UW-industry cooperation e.g. by means of the New
Technologies Centre (CeNT) and the University Technology
Transfer Centre,
- the improvement of the electronic University System for Study
Support (USOS) ensuring high quality modern management,
teaching process and mobility,
- the full implementation of comprehensive and effi cient QA system
in teaching and research.
Please fi nd hereafter most basic data on mobility at the University
of Warsaw, which provides the general overview. However, numbers
don’t count for everything – there is still lots of information on UW
mobility to be disseminated. E.g. the University of Warsaw has been
chosen by the European Commission out of a competition of 2.500
higher education institutions taking part in the Erasmus programme
in 2000-2006 and has been awarded one of 20 Erasmus success stories
in Europe.
Let me please emphasize once again that all the above activities
focused on student and staff mobility and internationalization of
research requires overall development of computer tools and positive
approach to the so-called digital world. I wish all the participants of
the seminar as well as readers of this publication to get inspiration for
the digital development at your institution and workplace.
With kindest regards,
Wojciech Tygielski
Vice-rector For Research And International Relations
University of Warsaw facts & fi gures
The University of Warsaw (UW)
PL WARSZAW01 – Erasmus University Charter 45834 Extended
www.uw.edu.pl; www.bwz.uw.edu.pl
1. University of Warsaw in fi gures
• University established in 1816
• Public university, the largest in Poland
• 65 462 students (full-time: 30 755, part-time: 25 878, PhD: 2 255 & post-
diploma: 6 574 ), including over 1400 international students in 2006
• 3015 faculty members, including 849 professors
• studies in 34 fi elds of arts and sciences
• 19 faculties and 24 independent research and didactic units
• 12 degree programmes in English in American Studies, Business
(MBA, International MBA, International Business),
Economics (Development Economics, International Economics,
European Finance and Banking), European Studies, International
Relations, Philosophy, Political Science and Psychology
• Courses in foreign languages
2. Accreditation
• The State Accreditation Committee and the University Accreditation
Committee attestations of all the study fi elds
• European Language Label for the Centre of Foreign Language Teaching
and the Chair of Sinology
• USA Federal Student Financial Aid Program – Foreign School
certifi cation
• The best Institution of Higher Education in Poland 2007 according
to several press ranking lists (Perspektywy, Polityka,
Rzeczpospolita, Wprost)
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3. International cooperation
3.1 > 159 bilateral agreements with universities from 49 countries (2006)
3.2 > Erasmus agreements with 292 partner institutions from 25 countries (2006)
3.3 > UW’s experience in Erasmus 1998-2006:
- 4500 outgoing and 1500 incoming students, 650 TS fl ows, 8,4 million € spent.
- In 2007 the University of Warsaw has been chosen by the European Commis-
sion out of 2.500 higher education institutions as one of 20 Erasmus success
stories in Europe taking part in the Erasmus programme in 2000-2006
3.4 > UW’s participation in the EU Framework and Development Programmes
in 2006
- 5 and 6 FP Programmes – 77 projects
- 3 Centres of Excellence in physics (CESSAR, CEMOS) and computer
modelling (MAMBA)
- 3 Networks of Excellence in physics (METAMORPHOSE, NEMO)
and economics (DIME)
- Marie Curie Training Site in Physics
3.5 > Member of numerous scientifi c, teaching and managerial associations
and networks, among others:
European University Association (EUA), UNICA (Network of Universities
from the Capitals of Europe), HUMANE (Heads of University Management
& Administration Network in Europe)
4. ICT at the University of Warsaw
• IRK – Internet Registration of Candidates for studies
• ELS – electronic student ID being a student ID, library card and
bus ticket in one
• USOS – University System of Study Support and USOSweb
(website for the system)
• HMS – Human Management System
• USNJO – University System of Language Provision
• E-learning at COME – Centre for Open and Multimedia Education
• VTLS/Virtua Library system
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The past 10 years have seen substantial changes
in many aspects of European Higher Education,
both as a consequence of policy and practice
decisions by the member states of the EU itself and also as a result of pressures
and developments from beyond Europe.
In the fi rst group of ‘change drivers’ we can identify the political instrumentalist
agenda for change (‘modernisation’) of European HE as a means to ensure that
it adequately supports the vision for a ‘knowledge economy’ able to compete at
the highest levels in the global economy. Resulting from this vision have come
various actions and programmes designed to achieve this goal, through harmo-
nisation of the diversity of degree structures of the individual states (‘Bologna
Process’); establishment of a common Higher Education Area, including a Re-
search Area to coordinate developments and support; creation of a mechanism
to facilitate mobility of students and lifelong learners through a transparent
educational credit scheme (ECTS), and a Supplement to the degree or diploma
that makes clear the knowledge and competences attained in the graduate’s
Recent developments in European Higher Education
Enhancing Student Mobility In A Digital World
Jeff Haywood, Information Services,
University of Edinburgh, UK
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provision by traditional universities, and due to their flexibility and agility
are often at the leading edge of innovation, especially in distance education.
Cheaper world travel has enabled more independent student mobility in addition
to the support schemes offered by national governments, and as a consequence
the number of students in Europe who hail from beyond its boundaries has
risen substantially, and come to represent a vital income stream for some
universities and countries. Such students have choices in where to study
and so high quality educational and support provision is essential to main-
tain recruitment.
An excellent introduction to all these topics, plus links to the EU sources can be found
at the Europe Unit website at: www.europeunit.ac.uk/home/index.cfm
One of the most obvious changes in higher edu-
cation to an outside observer taking a snapshot
view of universities 20 years ago and today would
be the pervasiveness of information and communications technology (ICT).
Clearly some universities have embraced ICT more enthusiastically than others,
but even in universities with low central and systematic management of ICT, indi-
vidual faculties and departments have adopted technology in its various forms,
especially email and websites. All recent surveys agree that uptake is wide-
spread [2,3,4]. These developments are global and refl ect wider changes in the
permeation of technology throughout almost all aspect of society and everyday
life. Computers of various types are everywhere, and staff and students spend
much of their time working and studying with and through them, as well as using
them for social communications and information gathering. Mobile phones are
in extensive use, and many now interface with the internet, bridging the gaps
between the fi xed or laptop PC, the network and the mobile user.
Summarising the major uses of ICT in universities and colleges, we see these
types of developments becoming more common, and in some cases essentially
ubiquitous:
Digital technologies in universities
curriculum (Diploma Supplement). The importance of mobility of learners and
workers in the expanding Europe as a means to ensure that best value is gained
from their skills and for their intrinsic personal development has been repeat-
edly emphasised, and support programmes have been put in place and strength-
ened to maximise uptake and minimise disincentives and barriers. In higher edu-
cation the most important of these actions is the Socrates Erasmus Programme
begun in 1987. Although the Erasmus Programme is a very important support for
exchange students, and has become a ‘shorthand’ name to describe this type of
short-duration, credit-bearing study visit by a student to a university in another
country within an existing degree programme, it is important to remember that
many such visits take place by students outside the Erasmus Programme, funded
by themselves or other agencies (so-called ‘freemovers’ [1]).
Recently, the recognition that there will be limits to the extent that these physical
mobility measures can overcome some barriers to student mobility, for example
family commitments, combined study and employment, especially amongst
the increasing percentage of older students, has resulted in an emphasis
also on ‘virtual mobility’ (VM). The EC e-Learning Programme states: “Devel-
opment of existing instruments, in particular those concerning virtual mobil-
ity as a complement and reinforcement for physical mobility (virtual Erasmus);
recognition and validation schemes (based on ECTS); information and guidance
services, and any other synergies between virtual and traditional models.”
VM takes advantage of developments in e-learning to enable students to take
courses or modules at another university as part of the degree programme in their
‘base’ university. Although presently limited in scope as experience of such educa-
tion is explored by universities and their teaching staff as well as by students,
it offers a route to expansion of international education in the near future. Most
work is currently at Masters degree level, and the Erasmus Mundus Programme
directly supports some of this developmental activity.
Beyond Europe internationalisation of higher education is also high on the
agenda of all developed countries to gain income and expand influence,
and of importance to developing countries as a route to enhancing national
skills and knowledge. Commercial education providers are filling gaps in
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> Laptop/PC/internet om a variety of locations;
> Lots of sources of digital information, possibly in preference
to physical sources;
> Chat, email, sms, blog, social network software (eg friendster,
myspace, youtube);
> Mobile phone, usually internet-capable – less commonly ‘smart
phone’ or PDA.
Care must be taken not to generalise this profi le too far. It is clear that older
students (who make up an increasing fraction of the university population) are
less technology-confi dent or exploratory, and some young adults are relatively
technophobic or techno-conservative. Despite this caveat, we know that stu-
dents are online for substantial periods and would also like universities to pro-
vide high quality information online. They value reliability and predictability in
this respect, and would like their interactions with universities to be fast and
seamless, that is without the need to interact with several different agencies
and departments to achieve a solution to their ‘request’. In practice, as most of
us are aware from our experiences in dealing with our own and other universi-
ties, higher education has some way to go to achieve these goals. In the light
of the importance being placed on virtual mobility for European students, and
the need to understand the experiences of current students in their use of ICT in
their studies, we and others have taken the opportunity of EC funding to explore
some aspects of this area.
As noted above, at present there is very limited
opportunity for experiencing education at anoth-
er university through virtual mobility within Eu-
ropean traditional universities. This is especially true at fi rst degree level where
most student exchange takes place. In addition, the special case nature of the
online courses offered so far tend to be the result of special efforts by the faculty
or department, and by the university.
The VICTORIOUS Project – physical mobility as a proxy for virtual mobility
> Learning and teaching with technology (e-learning);
> Digital libraries (e-journals, e-books, online databases & help);
> Integration of digital databases holding staff,
student and course records;
> Portals as single gateways to digital resources;
> Email as a major or the dominant communications channel;
> Single/reduced sign-on to authenticated systems
(eg to portal, email, library);
> Secure off-campus access to restricted resources (eg via VPN, proxy);
> Websites as a major or the dominant method of information
provision.
The majority of students still study in a campus setting, although now with
such a signifi cant level of technology-supported education that the expression
‘blended learning’ probably describes the experiences of the majority. However,
the ability to release education from the constraints of the campus and the time-
table through the use of technology, whilst maintaining communications as well
as distribution of information and learning materials, has enabled increased
development of distance education by single courses and degree programmes
as well as whole universities. These experiences are likely to feed back into and
re-shape mainstream on-campus education over time.
Uptake of technology by students, especially
young adults, has outstripped that of almost
all European universities, and ICT is systemati-
cally used by them as an integral part of studying (and socialising) irrespec-
tive of the use made of it by their university. Recent studies show that there
is substantial commonality in uptake of, and attitudes to, ICT by higher edu-
cation students in developed countries [2,5,6]. We can summarise the young
adult student in Europe in 2007 as a user of:
The digital student 2007
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It is easy to offer up an unbalanced view of the
experiences of students in their visits to other
universities by reporting an excess of problems
over the successes, and so although there clearly were for many students tech-
nology-related problems of various kinds, a balanced summary is appropriate at
the outset. Most universities were substantial users and providers of good ICT
facilities and support, having made great progress over the past few years in
moving from complete reliance on traditional methods involving paper forms,
face-to-face interactions, physical visits during opening hours etc to provision of
electronic methods of business and academic processes. Students valued these
efforts and, although for some moving from lo-tech to hi-tech education was a
kind of ‘culture shock’, generally wished to see them become widespread along-
side high quality personal interactions. They did not see these as mutually exclu-
sive. The great majority of students enjoyed their visit to another university in a
different country, learned self-reliance, made local friends etc, even when some
aspects could have been managed better.
Some key messages emerged from the surveys
and interviews that we carried out with students
who were currently making or had been on study
visits. These were that in general information in host universities for visiting stu-
dents was generally not well organised or presented, and was often only in the
local language and so rather inaccessible to those who had not yet been able to
take language courses (often these courses were just before or in the early phase
of a visit). Technical information about IT facilities and services were problem-
atic, especially for those with lower IT skills and knowledge. There was too little
focus on visiting students to enable them to fi nd information of most relevance
to them. Course choice was often hard to navigate. Home universities were also
often less than effective in preparing students for study in another country, and
especially the ICT aspects of this, for even though many students had travelled
Enhancing student mobility in a digital world
The student perspective
The greatly increased reliance on digital technologies by universities and stu-
dents affects all on-campus, traditional study students. The library, learning and
teaching, communications with teachers and administrator have increasingly
digital components, and in universities which have progressed furthest along
this ‘digital path’ electronic methods may have surpassed traditional methods
in some areas of work. Many students now rely on a digital identity to enable
them to access materials and services, make heavy use of IT facilities on campus
and from home or residence, use email for communication with the university
etc. This use of ICT is not uniform across higher education, with some universities
having made greater progress than others, and the introduction of services and
facilities is strongly infl uenced by local fi nances, culture and needs. Thus whilst
at one university students may never have used a portal or a web interface to
access their own record on the student system, select courses for the next se-
mester or access reading lists and lecture notes, at another all of this may be
done electronically and taken for granted. As a consequence, students transfer-
ring between universities may fi nd marked differences in expectations of them,
and for the universities it raises challenges for some to give visiting students fast
and automatic digital rights/routes/support. Handcrafted solutions will work
for small numbers of visitors but break down for larger numbers, and suffer from
some severe drawbacks if they are too slow. In the past a student could physical-
ly go to lectures and tutorials without having completed registration or gained
an ID, but she cannot do this in the digital realm due to authentication barriers.
If we do not (or cannot) automate and simplify our services to traditional visit-
ing students, virtual mobility on anything other than a very small scale will be
diffi cult to implement.
In the VICTORIOUS Project we explored the experiences of students and universi-
ties in their use of digital services and facilities before, during and after a physi-
cal exchange visit to see how well they both were prepared for the demands that
substantial virtual mobility would bring. We did this by interviews, surveys,
investigations via the internet and explorations of the provision and intentions
at our own universities.
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Preparation of students prior to visits was generally not well-developed, with
little information about study away from the university, and this despite the
emergence of distance education on many campuses. However, awareness of
the problem was clearly rising, many universities were beginning to experiment
with online support to students before they arrived and after they left, and
the issues of language support plus targeted information in more than one
language were being addressed.
The sample of universities we surveyed had mostly either started some explora-
tory work in the area of virtual mobility or were planning for this, and these were
also the universities with good online provision to students of all types already.
We have very limited knowledge of the intentions of those universities that still
had some way to go in making digital services routine and widespread.
The VICTORIOUS Project developed a set of rec-
ommendations for the major stakeholders in the
student exchange process. For universities these
included providing good, structured, up-to-date info which is quite straightfor-
ward to carry out; making easier enrolment and registration, ideally pre-arrival;
offering specifi c training and support for use of digital services and collaborat-
ing across internal bureaucratic ‘borders’ between services to ensure a joined-up
approach and sharing of knowledge.
For students and their associations we recommended more thinking about the
planning of visits or virtual participation, and collecting and sharing experiences
and solutions locally and internationally and making local student associations
more aware of the needs of visiting students.
For the European, national & regional agencies, it would be a great help to in-
tending exchange students if there were a single search option for course/pro-
gramme information; a single digital identity system for students (and staff) so
that they could be more easily registered at their host university, coupled with
Some recommenda-tions for action
and used the internet this is different to studying away and for a prolonged period.
The variation in level of ICT facilities and delays in getting access to them due to
slow processing of IDs was a common negative comment. Students in their home
university tend to have a network of peers for support, but may lose this when
on a visit to another university, and are therefore less well supported than local
students overall.
In general students showed great resourcefulness in overcoming barriers, using
internet cafes etc to gain access to the internet if the university provision was
poor or slow, and looking back to their home university online services (eg library)
if the local provision was signifi cantly less good than they were accustomed to.
They would resort to such methods as sharing passwords etc to ensure that they
could circumvent problems of unresponsiveness of university services.
It was clear that some universities provided very
well for visiting students, making contact at a very
early stage, giving them IDs, login/passwords, ac-
cess to services well in advance. Interestingly international offi ces appeared to be
rather unaware of the challenges of ICT for visiting students, leaving this area to
the IT services, library etc, rather than taking the lead. The other services tended
to have little awareness of visiting student issues, feeling that their provision of
information and services was adequate for all students. An example of this is in the
area of induction, which is often targeted at newly-arrived local students and may
not be offered or considered for those who arrive during a degree programme or
may run infrequently and be too late for short-term visitors. It would appear that
libraries not uncommonly have their own ID and authentication management, and
these are often based upon physical presence of students to register and may not
be very responsive to need.
Incoming students were generally better served than outgoing students – there
was a degree of ‘out of sight, out of mind’ in operation, particularly for the
support services of the university such as library, IT and student records.
The university perspective
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ing to share and disseminate experience and good practice from some of the
key players in the student mobility arena. With goodwill and well-focussed
efforts I believe that we can make substantial progress in the coming years.
2. EUROSTUDENT DATA,
www.eurostudent.eu/abt2/ab21/eurostudent/report2005/
2. SEUSISS REPORT (2001),
www.intermedia.uib.no/seusiss/index.html
3. OBSERVATORY ON BORDERLESS HIGHER EDUCATION,
www.obhe.ac.uk/resources/surveys.html
4. UCISA STATISTICS 2005,
www.ucisa.ac.uk/activities/stats/stats05.htm
5. DUCAUSE SURVEY OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS & ICT 2007,
www.connect.educause.edu/library/abstract/theecarstudyofunderg/45075
6. SPOTPLUS REPORT 2003,
www.spotplus.odl.org/
References
Acknowl-edgements
easier Internet access across Europe (eg expansion of EduROAM), and fi nally help
to the HE sector to remove current digital barriers.
We have been working to take forward some of
the recommendations of the VICTORIOUS Project
through another EC-funded project called VM-
BASE which is focussed on online support for students before and after a visit,
either physical or virtual. We are developing a set of materials and resources;
> Orientation guidelines for students;
> Codes of good practice in designing pre-selection tests for students;
> Blue print for preliminary courses for students pre-
paring for a physical Erasmus exchange;
> Guidelines on assessment and evaluation tools;
> A study on a Virtual Alumni Association for Erasmus students;
> A manual on ‘good-practices in e-coaching’;
> A manual with validated procedures and recommendations
for blended mobility activities at institutional, network and
European level.
These will be available towards the end of 2008.
As student physical and virtual mobility increases
across Europe it will be essential that all the
stakeholders in the process (students, student
associations, universities, education agencies and governments) solve the
outstanding and emerging problems that exist to a smooth and effective expe-
rience for all. During this SUMIT seminar we are exploring some of the context
of student mobility, with a particular emphasis on expanded Europe, and seek-
Taking the next steps - the VM-BASE Project
Conclusions
This chapter is based signifi cantly on the fi ndings and discussions that took place
within two EC-funded projects, VICTORIOUS (www.victorious-project.org) and VM-
BASE (www.europace.org/rdvmbase.php). I wish to acknowledge the contribution
of the members of these projects to my thinking in the area of student mobility and
digital/virtual mobility.
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Europe is just celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Erasmus programme
which was launched in 1987. In the period 1995-2006 it was a part of the SOCRATES
programme. Since 2007 it has been implemented under the Lifelong Learning
Programme. Poland joined the programme in 1998. In its fi rst year, 1426 students
from 40 higher education institutions went abroad for a study period. Nowadays
we have more than 200 HEIs holding an Erasmus University Charter and more
than 50,000 ex-Erasmus students. In the period 1998/99 – 2006/07 Poland spent
around 90 million euro for all decentralised activities (student grants included).
Generally Erasmus is perceived by students very positively. There is a great
degree of enthusiasm and high level of demand to have a study period abroad.
From the very beginning of Polish Erasmus the number of fl ows has been increas-
ing. With no doubts Erasmus has positive infl uence on development of individual
grant holders and institutions.
Certainly there is no (simple) recipe for an Erasmus success story at a university
or national level. Having the right persons for the job is not enough. To monitor
Role Of ICT Instruments In The Management Of The Decentralised Erasmus Activities
Dorota Rytwi´ska, Foundation for the Development
of the Education System – LLP Erasmus National Agency, Poland
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transferred to each National Agency database. Thus this brand new tool will lead
to reorganisation at institutional, national and European level. It may take all of
us some time to get used to the novelty.
Regardless of any centrally-developed IT tools, institutions participating in
Erasmus use their own systems. For example, our Erasmus agency has developed
an Access database for managing fi nancial agreements with HEIs. We also use
on-line tools prepared for collecting data from our HEIs on different activities
– applying for funds, interim and fi nal reporting. The on-line instruments are
also very practical for registration for events, and collecting information from
students on their foreign experience. Data from student questionnaires is trans-
ferred to GISE (exchange of information between Erasmus students). Any future
Erasmus student looking for fi rst-hand information can visit our web site and
browse the database by a key word such as country, city or host institution, etc.
Generally speaking on-line tools save much work and time because data once
inputted is transferred to a common database and there is no need to re-write
the data. However, in the case of GISE, mainly due to free text sections, each
questionnaire is individually accepted by NA staff, which is rather time consum-
ing but it does let us know student opinion on very many issues connected with
their Erasmus experience. On-line tools require advance planning and precision.
A computer programmer must know well in advance the fi nal shape of a given
document in order to meet our expectations.
Next year we are going to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the participation
of Poland in the Erasmus Programme. Thinking about the future we hope for
further development of the Programme, so that the distinct value of the Erasmus
study period remains an opportunity for students.
cash fl ows, observe trends, react properly and in good time, reliable tools are
essential. We also need to know how to use the capacity offered by the tools.
To understand the scale of Erasmus we should have a quick look at some statis-
tics. In the very fi rst days of Erasmus several thousand students went abroad for
a study period. Since that time the number has been growing, to over 150,000 per
year. Annually around 2,000 HEIs sign fi nancial agreements summing to a total
value of 200 million euro. Are the 3 million fl ows by 2012 feasible or not? As a mat-
ter of fact the main load is borne by HEIs. They need software suiting their needs
and databases gathering information on Erasmus students at all stages – before
going abroad, during the stay and after return. Usually the tools don’t have to be
highly innovative. However it happens that some of us do not make use of the
basic potentials offered by a popular software.
In Poland e.g. in the year 2005/06 a group of 30 HEIs implementing the biggest
number of outgoing fl ows encompassed 70% of all student outgoing fl ows and
spent 76% of the total budget. The remaining 30% fl ows was delivered by 163
HEIs. In the same year Polish HEIs spent nearly 20 million euro, which is 99.89%
of the total budget. There is no answer to the question to what extend the un-
spent money resulted from a “human factor” or maybe “lack of proper tools” was
decisive. The number of persons sent abroad by particular universities varied
considerably (from 1 to 793 persons). The major part of participating universities
sent abroad between 1 and 25 students (98 institutions), while only 24 universi-
ties sent abroad more than 100 students. All the statistical information should
be easily accessible in a well organized database.
As far as plans for the future are concerned so called “LLPLink” should be men-
tioned. It is a tool being developed for the needs of the Lifelong Learning Pro-
gramme. LLPLink will be a common information system to handle the needs of
submission, evaluation, selection, contractualisation, management, and report-
ing for projects under all decentralised actions of the Lifelong Learning Pro-
gramme. It will run on “local” databases (installed at all National Agencies) and
they will exchange data with a central database of the European Commission.
A specifi c part of this project is the availability of electronic forms (for applica-
tions and reporting) that can be submitted on-line and from which the data is
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The University of Zagreb is intensively working
on preparations to accept students coming from
foreign universities, in order to be ready for appli-
cation to the Erasmus programme. University of Zagreb International Co-operation
Offi ce has started negotiations about the building and adaptation of information
systems present at the University, to simplify the communication with potential
incoming students, to enable acceptance and integration of students into local
community and to foster communication with students after the completion
of their exchange visits. An analysis of the existing systems had been performed
and the necessary revisions and enhancements have been identifi ed. It has been
concluded that it was of utmost importance for an incoming student to be includ-
ed into information systems and services of the hosting university so that he or
she can prepare already at home for the future study and for the sojourn in a
new environment.
Enhancing Student Mobility In A Digital World: Sharing Experiences In An Enlarged Europe – Croatian Example
Mirta Baranovic, Faculty of Electrical Engineering
and Computing, University of Zagreb, Croatia.
Introduction
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tuition fees paid, their personal schedule, etc. Using this interface, students
can instantly obtain printed certifi cates for different purposes and students’
records in different languages. There is an ATM-like device called Studomat
aimed for interaction with students. Using the Studomat, a student can
also apply for examinations, consult the schedules and results of single
examination phases, select the topics or the mentors for their completion or
graduation theses. The system is integrated with the Information system of
students’ nourishment so that following the enrolment into an academic year, the
student’s data and level of rights to subsidised nourishment are transferred.
For communication with other systems in the country, offering corresponding
services like health insurance, subsidised public transportation, etc. certifi cates
are requested on Studomat and printed on the computerised kiosk within the
higher education institution. Certifi cates for scholarships and for applications to
study abroad can equally be obtained in English. After the study completion the
student receives diploma supplements in Croatian and in English.
3. e-Index
e-Index (a smart student card) completely substitutes for the paper booklet
containing all the important student’s academic data. e-Index can be used for
students’ identifi cation on lectures, to allow them enter the laboratories, librar-
ies, dormitories or other restricted-access academic premises. It provides the
authorised access to Internet and some data bases; it enables payment of some
services etc.
4. Information infrastructure
The Croatian Academic Research Network CARNet in co-operation with the Uni-
versity Computing Centre (SRCE) provides to all the members of the academic
community in Croatia access to network infrastructure as a base for a number
of advanced services. The broadband network offers fast data transfer, stability
and quality of service. CARNet is a support to the modern concept of lecturing.
The system of videoconferencing rooms enables distant learning and it signifi -
cantly helps to demanding research projects and international co-operation. All
the CARNet users can access the Mobile CARNet service featuring advanced tech-
nologies like HSDPA, UMTS, EDGE and GPRS. Though the project named StuDOM
The Ministry of science, education and sports of
the Republic of Croatia has initiated and fi nanced
the development of integral information systems
related to higher education [2]. They are the Information system of students’
nourishment and the Information system of higher education.
1. Information system of students’ nourishment (ISSP)
1997 saw the start of development of the Information system of students’ nour-
ishment with the aim to increase the students’ quality of life. Every student
obtains an identifi cation card, similar to a credit card, entitling him or her to
enjoy subsidised nourishment in any contract restaurant. The system contains
record of students and their level of rights to subsidised nourishment. A subsys-
tem aimed at restaurants supports menu defi nitions and it traces the students’
consumption. Restaurants in all the cities with higher education institutions are
included, so that a student even when out of the current home city can enjoy
subsidised meals.
2. Information system of higher education (ISVU)
In 2000 we started the development of the Information system of higher educa-
tion with the aim of integration and standardisation of all the data concerning
studies and students’ activities in Croatia [1]. The system’s backbone contains
the set of curricula of single higher education institutions. Multilingual descrip-
tion of curricula is supported [3], they are presented on the Web (www.isvu.hr),
they can be exported to standardised XML documents and used for various pur-
poses. The curricula are published on Internet in Croatian and in English. Student
matriculations, enrolments in academic year or semester and enrolments in sin-
gle courses are recorded in ISVU. The achieved student’s results are recorded for
each course and fi nally also the data about completion or graduation theses and
respective examinations.
Through the ISVU interface aimed at students, they can enrol on educational pro-
grams, to the courses, to review information about their activities and achieve-
ments which are stored in the database, like grades, status of the enrolled courses,
Information systems related to higher education in Croatia
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new pages with their own structure, own design and system of user authorisa-
tions. Detailed information on any course can be thus provided, course pages
can be organised containing, as a rule, information for students, a forum, and
repositories of fi les and links. All the announcements to students are sent by
email after subscription to single pages. All the information can be also ac-
cessed through standards like RSS, RDF, OPML and others. The feature of the
contents of majority of pages is that they are created by more than one person.
Any student, lecturer or employee becomes a potential editor or writer of his or
her part of the information and educational space.
the students in dormitories in Zagreb, Rijeka, Split, Osijek, Zadar and Varaždin
have free Internet access.
Authentication and Authorization Infrastructure (AAI) within the system of science
and higher education in Croatia (AAI@EduHr) provides electronic identities to control
the access to various services. The AAI@EduHr system, developed and maintained
by SRCE, encompasses all the Croatian institutions of science and higher education.
The University of Zagreb is still far from being in-
tegrated. It consists of 33 higher education institu-
tions, where each of them is a separate legal entity,
independent in its management of information infrastructure and corresponding-
ly, as an aftermath, on different institutions different levels of ICT infrastructure
and support are present. University of Zagreb provides for the incoming students
both: the ICT infrastructure developed on the country level, and the local institu-
tional infrastructure. As an example of this institutional infrastructure, the Fac-
ulty of Electrical Engineering and Computing can be mentioned here because its
solutions are transferred to other faculties and therefore it can be expected that in
near future all the University institutions would achieve approximately that level.
The backbone of the institutional infrastructure at the Faculty of Electrical En-
gineering and Computing is e-Campus as an integrative institutional point. Its
purpose is to unite the whole information and e-learning Faculty infrastructure
and to present different sources of information and knowledge as an integrat-
ed space. The central part of e-Campus is a contents management system Quilt
CMS. The system is integrated with a few Learning management systems (LMS)
like the Faculty-developed AHyCo, then Moodle, as the currently best Open
Source solution and WebCT as one of the best commercial systems. Through
the new authentication and authorisation infrastructure AAI@EduHr integra-
tion with the Library is achieved. The integration with ISVU is solved through
Web services and standardised XML documents. For each course one can cre-
ate a whole Web (sub)site, with the possibility to open an unlimited number of
Information systems in higher education on institutional level
Figure 1. Information fl ow
CARNet CARNet Students’Restaurants
CARNet CARNet
CMS- content- news- repositories- surveys- forums, chat, ...
- Learning materials
- e-Learning systems
Students’ dormitories
Incoming student
Institution
StandardisedXML documents electronically signed
SRCEISVU ISSP
Rooms & ICT - infrastructure Library
UNIVERSITY OF ZAGREB -
INTERNATIONAL
STUDENTS’ OFFICE
AAI@
EduHR
AHyCo
Moodle
WebCT
e-Campus
FACULTY
Communication
Forums, Chat
Information
Educational Programs
Links
Alumni
Contracts
Learning arning AgreeAgreements
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On the European level, special attention has to
be paid to interoperability among universities,
or standards to enable exchange of informa-
tion in the same manner, regardless of the universities in question. For that
purpose, electronic documents are to be defi ned, based on XML as a standard
language for data exchange among heterogeneous systems. Communication
among universities, and accordingly the students’ mobility, will be substan-
tially improved and facilitated due to exchange of electronically signed stand-
ardised documents (curriculum, student record, learning agreement, diploma
supplement, etc.), accepted on the European level. Last but not least, the price
for development of applications to support the students’ mobility through data
exchange will decrease signifi cantly because for each necessary function, a
single program or service will suffi ce; regardless of with how many universities
the exchange proceeds.
1. BARANOVIC, M., BORCIC, M., HUNJET, D., KALAFATIC, V., KRANJCEC, D., MESARIC, J., PEH, B. (2003),
Iinformation System of Higher Education in RH (in Croatian). Zagreb, www.isvu.hr
2. KALPIC, D., BARANOVIC, M., MORNAR, V., KRAJCAR, S. (2001), Development of an Integral
University management System. Proceedings of International Conference on System
Engineering, Communications and Information Technologies, ICSECIT 2001. Punta Arenas.
3. BARANOVIC, M., ZAKOSEK, S., BRKIC, L. (2001), The Model of Multilingual Student Administration
System. Proceedings of The International Workshop on Global Data Modeling in the New
Millennium. Yokohama, 2001. 24-34.
References
At the students enrolment in a higher education
institution in Croatia, ISVU is the fi rst place where
information on students is stored and after that,
it is sent to, or exchanged with all relevant information systems, like the stu-
dents’ subsidised nourishment information system, institutional portal, library,
e-learning system, ICT-resource management system, etc. Compendious infor-
mation from a student’s record is transferred from ISVU to the student’s smart
card (e-Index).
Figure 1 represents the basic information fl ows between foreign universities
and the University of Zagreb, based upon standard electronic documents and
the integration of information into the existing information systems.
A high quality ICT infrastructure can signifi cantly
improve the students exchange processes. The
communication proceeds through the Interna-
tional Co-operation Offi ce, whereby the main goal after signing of the learning
agreement is to integrate the incoming students. Integration of the system of the
International Co-operation Offi ce with the information systems within Croatia
shall enable a smooth integration of incoming students into the information space
of a certain faculty, equally as it proceeds nowadays with domestic students.
At present, some of the functionalities needed to support students’ mobility are
already implemented in ISVU and in other institutional information systems.
Development of additional functionalities, e.g. multilingual user interfaces for
Studomat, applications aimed for International Offi ce of University of Zagreb
and procedures for exchange of information between the universities are to
be realised.
System integration
ICT support to students’ mobility
Conclusions
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The Sofi a University “St. Kliment Ohridski” is the
fi rst school of higher education in Bulgaria. Its
history is an embodiment and a continuation of
centuries of cultural and educational tradition in our country.
Organized education activities in Bulgaria date back to the second half of the
9th century.
During the period of the National Revival a new idea for opening a School of
Higher Education was born. The authority of the School of Higher Education
grows with the cultural and educational mission it acquires after the Liberation
of 1878. Classes began on October 1, 1888 almost unnoticed by the public. This is
the birthdate of Bulgarian university education. Year by year the Sofi a University
turns into an academic and scientifi c center on the Balkans which is a fully de-
veloped academic institution with European prestige. Today the Sofi a University
Student Mobility At Sofi a University: Tendencies And Perpectives
Mr Tsvetan Bogdanov,
International Relations Department,
Sofi a St Kliment Ohridisk University, Bulgaria
[email protected] a.bg
A short History of Sofi a University St. Kliment Ohridski
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years from 202 904,00 Euro to 522 250,00 Euro during the current academic
year. Thanks to the successful collaboration with the Finance Department
of Sofi a University we succeeded to increase the assimilation of the fi nances
according to the fi nance agreement with the NA from 90,70% in 2002/03 to
116,01% in 2005/06 and 137,51% during the current academic year. That exceeded
vastly the planned fi nances of 379 781,00 Euro for 2006/07 academic year by
two additional transfers, given by the European Commission for education at
foreign partner universities for students from our university. As a result from
the successful work of the team that administers the Erasmus Programme at
Sofi a University is the extremely positive trend during the last two academic
years, by attaining of maximum monthly grant at the amount of 500 Euro for
all of the countries.
The sociologists like to say: “Where are we?”
Sofi a University is in the leading position regard-
ing the number of outgoing Erasmus students,
which is two times more than the other universities in Bulgaria. Only for the
last academic year the results of SU exceed those of some big universities in
Bulgaria for their whole period of participation in the Programme from 1999
to 2007, including students with severe disability or exceptional special needs
and zero grant student.
Today’s Life Long Learning Programme, with
is variety of instruments for supporting inter-
university cooperation, modernization and ex-
change, and is far more than just a machine for Student Mobility in a Digital
World. But students will always be in the heart of the Programme. And its suc-
cess is due in no small measure to the student association and Erasmus ad-
ministrative staff in European Universities, whose members strive tirelessly
Development of Student Mobilityfrom 1999 to 2007
“St. Kliment Ohridski” is the largest and most prestigious higher educational and
scientifi c center in the country.
In the new academic year on October 1, 2007 Sofi a University has re-established
the Medical Faculty in the University’s structure.
Sofi a University is turning into an active equal
partner of the European institutions for higher
education. The evolution of the European prac-
tice in this relation is really impressive. SU starts the Programme in 1999 with 15
outgoing students. The number of the applicants in the selection only for the last
academic year is 365, the approved are 216, and the realized student mobilities
are 186. The successfully leaded policy for attracting of foreign students includes
the development of Bachelor and Master Programmes for teaching students in
English and French in different fi elds if study.
I would like to note some typical trends for the
last academic years. The fi rst considerable trend
is the augmentation of the number of incoming
and outgoing Erasmus students. In 2002/2003 the outgoing students are 67 com-
pared to the current academic year 2006/2007 when the number is 186. During
the years their number grows from 67 to 109, 137 and 144 to 186.
The other trend is the increase of the number of the incoming Erasmus stu-
dents being 14 in 2002/03 to 70 in 2006/07 academic year. This is fi ve times more
foreign students than in the beginning. As a consequence of the increased number
of student mobilities we can note another trend of increase of the fi nanced
months of mobility of the National Agency being 493 in 2002/03 to 1044,5 in
2006/07 academic year, as the real amount of fi nancing increases during the
Beginning of Socrates/ Erasmus Program in Sofi a University
Tendencies – positive initiatives
Prospects of growth in the LLP 2007-2013
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Vidzeme University College is a regional higher edu-
cation institution offering professional study pro-
grammes at college, bachelor and master levels.
It was established in 1996 and has been a state accredited university since 2001.
As it was founded through the initiative of regional municipalities, it has strong
orientation towards regional development and ensuring all types of education for
local people. At the same time the vision is to develop as one of the most innovative
regional centres for academic education and research in the Baltic Sea area. At the
moment Vidzeme University College offers 7 undergraduate programs in the fi elds
of Tourism, Business Administration, Information Technologies, Political Science,
Communication and PR and Foreign Languages, 3 postgraduate programs - Tourism
Administration, Public Administration, and Sociotechnical System’s Engineering
as well as distance education in Tourism and Business administration. In year 2007
there are 1360 students, 58 full time lecturers and 75 general staff members. The
general information on the university can be found at its webpage: www.va.lv/en
Introduction to Vidzeme University College
Mobility And IT Support At Vidzeme University College
Iveta Putnina, International Relations,
Vidzeme University College, Latvia.
to help each new generation of Erasmus students prepare effectively for their
study abroad and to fi nd their way in the new educational and social environ-
ment and dimension.
I’m glad to inform you that in this moment in Sofi a is taking place a two-
day National Meeting dedicated to the new aspects of the LLP/Erasmus
Programme. This meeting is organized by the Bulgarian National Agency,
with the participation of all LLP Coordinators of the Bulgarian Universities.
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The main aim of using intranet is to inform students while they are in home uni-
versity on various opportunities, which are offered by Erasmus program, and
to support while they are studying abroad. In Vidzeme University College there
have been created two sections for information on international activities:
• News section - online platform for pacing the current announcements about in-
ternational internships, application procedure, database with companies
and their requirements; possibility to change and update information;
• Document section – guidebooks available online for students at different stages
of their mobility, starting from the fi rst step when students are just think-
ing about going abroad, preparing for leaving, while working in another
country, coming back and writing reports. In order to help students to in-
form about their country the presentations on the university and country
are available.
The aim of information on the webapge is to inform the university students about
international activities in general and what kind of programmes the university is
participating in, another very important role is to get the feedback from previous
Erasmus or Leonardo da Vinci students on their experience and suggestions. The
international offi ce has developed the online questionnaire to gather the infor-
mation from the students and to use it for mobility promotion for other students
who are just thinking for going abroad. The questionnaire consists of 37 ques-
tions and they represent topics as general information on the placement, prepa-
ration before going abroad, the level of internship comparing to internships in
Latvia, how this period changed student’s personality, life abroad, respondent’s
contacts. The answers are compiled in a database and published in the same
webpage. Everyone can see comments and read about different countries, uni-
versities and study programs. The possibility to see all the answers online is very
important for future Erasmus students because they can compare and analyze
different options and have personal references from other students. Thus even
reluctant students may get an insight into mobility and get their fi rst motivation
to proceed with “personal internationalisation”.
During 2006/2007 there were 38 students who went
to study abroad in the frame of Erasmus program
and 33 students did their internships in foreign
companies. In total 71 student went abroad for educational experience repre-
senting 5,3 % of all the university students. The increase in mobility fl ows has
been substantial during years 2000 – 2007. In 2000 fi rst students applied for
Erasmus scholarship and in total 22 students went abroad. During eight years
the increase has been more than triple. Although in some academic years a
lot depended on applications for Leonardo da Vinci internship projects and
the opportunity to write projects, which were approved, in general there has
been a tendency for interest in mobility to increase every year.
As international internships can be considered as the most challenging activity
of an international offi ce, in this publication the main attention is paid to issues
related with organisation of practical training abroad. For Vidzeme University
College this means preparation and coordination of 33 mobile students who
gained practical work experience abroad in 2006/2007. The largest part of stu-
dents went to Spain; the second popular country was Slovenia. Several students
went to Greece, Germany, UK, Bulgaria, and Austria. There were one student in
the Netherlands, Ireland, Estonia, and France.
Similar activities are applied also to organise
studies abroad therefore this information can be
generalised to other mobility activities. In order
to inform university students on mobility possibilities the following activities
are carried out: sending emails and placing advertisements in intranet, using
posters and fl yers, meetings with students, very important source of informa-
tion is faculty and students who have already been on Erasmus or Leonardo da
Vinci exchange.
Statistics on mobility fl ows
IT support for internships
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There could be two aspects which matter in
order to develop successful mobility support
system:
> Content;
> Technical solution.
As to content than the main idea is to give the answers to the questions be-
fore they arise, predict the situations, train the students and play simula-
tions, at the same time giving the possibility for students to give their contri-
bution in supporting mobility activities. For the technical part the main task
will be to decide on effective IT systems in order to avoid activities which can
be undone due to technology use for helping with coping with daily tasks,
e.g. document preparation, agreements, reports, updating contacts etc. To
make the decision it is important to evaluate the benefi t of each programme
and possibility to interact with other systems.
Another factor is human resources needed for implementing international
activities. The task of international offi ce managers is to keep their staff
permanent as much depends on personal contacts, previous arrange-
ments, experience and the way how international activities are organised.
Human resource policy is as important as modern technologies we want
to use. A regional, small university is much more fl exible, at the same time
it depends a lot on individuals who often perform a wide range of activi-
ties for mobility implementation.
To sum up, a small university can be an important player in the internation-
al mobility fi eld if the benefi t of fl exibility work out and speed of adapting
new approaches and technologies is higher even with sometimes limited
resources.
Future developments for mobility support
As the university has been participating in mobili-
ty programs since 1999 when they were introduced
in Latvia the mobility traditions are quite strong.
Integration of the international mobility in day-to-day activities of the university
should be mentioned as the positive factor which helps in promoting going abroad
for students and faculty. Outgoing mobility is the key strength concerning the in-
ternational activities. This way students are aware of the possibility to go abroad
and will be more likely to accept the challenge of exchange studies in partner uni-
versities abroad. Trustful partners play also important role to keep the tendency
of increasing the numbers of mobility participants. As the university has had coop-
eration with some of them for eight years then conclusion on common issues can
be reached very easily. Knowing partners and keeping active contacts determines
the success of mobility substantially.
The discussion of weaknesses in mobility should be started with incoming mobil-
ity which similarly to other new EU member states is much lower than outgoing
mobility. During next years the university should motivate the teachers to offer in-
creased number of courses in English in order to motivate other university students
to come for exchange experience. However the negative attitude from the state
and national legislation which protects the national language and requests that
all the study programmes in state universities are provided in Latvian is a needless
burden for universities initiatives to become more international. This fact could
also partly explain the reason of faculty reluctance in changing the proportion of
courses taught in Latvian and English and increasing the role of courses in foreign
languages in the study process. In order to improve the quality of outgoing mobil-
ity defi nitely there should be higher academic staff involvement in monitoring and
counselling international mobility. The international offi ce can provide the neces-
sary practical arrangements however the academic outcomes from exchanges can
be infl uenced only by academic staff. Taking into account the experience during
participation in Erasmus and Leonardo da Vinci programs the next step would be
to change the idea of providing information for the students, because the current
situation could be described as reaction on information lack, not providing it
ahead. For a modern international offi ce the last option should be a case.
Analysis of Vidzeme University College Mobility Strengths and Weaknesses
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The Nicolaus Copernicus University was founded
in 1945,but the scientifi c traditions in & date
back to the period of the Renaissance when an
Academic Gymnasium was set up in our town. In 1945, thanks to the efforts of
professors from the disestablished Polish universities in Vilnius and Lvov, the
Nicolaus Copernicus University was in a position to inaugurate its activities with
four faculties: the Faculty of Humanities, the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural
Sciences, the Faculty of Law and Economy, and the Faculty of Fine Arts.
Today Nicolaus Copernicus University is the biggest and most comprehensive uni-
versity in northern Poland. The academic community of the university comprises
over 46,000 people. There are about 37,000 students studying in 15 faculties, 50
departments and over 100 specialisations. Among over 4,000 employees there
are more than 2,000 academic teachers, of whom over 400 are professors. All the
faculties, except for the Faculty of Theology, are entitled to confer doctorate and
Digital Tools In Service Of Mobility – From Local Case To National Perspectives
Ewa Derkowska-Rybicka, International Relations,
Nicolaus Copernicus University, Torun, Poland.
Nicolaus Copernicus University – interna-tional dimension
1. ANGRESS, A, MATTHIESEN, G. (2007) University-Enterprise Cooperation: Building on
New Challenges From Past Experience, Project Report. www.eu.daad.de/imperia/
md/content/eu/lllp/veranstaltungen/university_enterprise_web.pdf
2. KEMENY, G.(2006) GENERATION, Dissemination of Results and Best Practices for Raising
the Profi le of Erasmus Mobility, Final Report. Budapest: Tempus Public Foundation, 15-18
References
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The number of in-coming students changed from 7 in 1998 to 83 in 2006/07. German,
French, Spanish and Turkish students are the most numerous. They are well taken
care of by a network of faculty and departmental co-ordinators and by the Inter-
national Programmes Offi ce assisted by Erasmus Student Network. The University
provides: university accommodation, courses of Polish, courses in foreign languag-
es, mentors, Orientation Weeks, social and a rich integration & cultural programme.
The following ICT facilities are available at central university level: web site in Eng-
lish, an electronic Survival Guide, on-line application form, on-line accommodation
form, contact via e-mail, excel databases, discussion list, on-line evaluation form.
As far as teacher mobility is concerned the interest from our faculties is slightly
lower than the opportunities but the tendency is growing. Last year 53 academic
teachers went to universities in 14 countries, the most popular of which were
French and Lithuanian partner institutions.
Leonardo da Vinci
10 pilot, thematic and staff mobility projects have been completed within LdV
Programme as well as 3 student mobility projects. These were centrally coordi-
nated by the International Programmes Offi ce. In total 74 students performed
placements abroad in most cases as optional internships with the exception of
monuments restoration programme where the placements were compulsory.
The benefi ciaries provided certifi cates from employers and Euro-Pass was not
applied. Two students were received in frames of foreign mobility projects and
NCU was acting as intermediary organisation.
Obstacles & diffi culties
Nicolaus Copernicus University belongs to the top 10 Polish Universities that
organise nearly 50% of mobility fl ows. A question may be asked why we consider
the situation unsatisfactory if the numbers and achievements are so spectacular?
Let us consider the number of in-coming students (ca. 80) vs. the number of out-
going students (ca. 350) and the number of student places (over 580) in 2007/08.
These numbers show two undesirable effects: not only a gap between the number
of in-coming and out-going students (which is a typical effect for Polish universi-
postdoctorate degrees. Every year ca. 8,000 students graduate from the University
with diplomas and master’s degrees. In total, this year the University has awarded
over 120 000 diplomas in higher education.
Units such as Alliance Francaise, British Council Library, Jean Monet Centre of Eu-
ropean Studies, European Documentation Centre, MBA course, Polar Research Sta-
tion at Spitsbergen and 10m diameter radio telescope in the Rep. Of South Africa
should also be mentioned when speaking about our international dimension.
In October 2004, a fusion of two universities: the Nicolaus Copernicus University
in and the Ludwik Rydygier Medical University in Bydgoszcz took place.
Due to such union, one university with two campuses located in respective towns
was founded.
The Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz has currently about 4,000 students who have
access to the well-equipped student laboratories, Main Library, reading rooms,
study rooms and a bookshop. This well-known centre for medical education
provides courses at 3 faculties, 7 departments and 6 specialisations.
Nicolaus Copernicus University has developed extensive international coopera-
tion within nearly 60 agreements of mutual cooperation with foreign institutions.
Our faculties have been involved in over 130 international cooperation schemes as
Tempus (over 40 projects), ESF, NATO, EU Framework Programmes and many other
research projects. We have participated in SOCRATES/ERASMUS since the very
beginning in Poland, i.e. 1998/99.
Socrates/Erasmus
In the years 1998-2006 nearly 1500 students went
out and the number was growing continuously
from 49 to 300 last academic year. As for destination countries, Germany, France,
Italy and Spain are the most popular from 24 partner countries. Studies in Finland,
Norway and Sweden were also quite popular.
Mobility – achievements and diffi culties
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iser, serial correspondence generator or deadline reminding system. Commercial
products are available and advertised e.g. at the occasion of big international
events as EAIE Information Market. This can be a solution rather for new institu-
tions or for those determined to change their hitherto software to new systems.
I would rather recommend continuous development of the existing solu-
tions, customising available software and adapting it to actual needs.
Also in my personal opinion except for ICT more staff and higher wages will also be
most welcome to improve the situation. This can improve the quality of our offi ce
work and student service but will have no major direct impact on the number of
exchange students.
Academic administration
In order to improve the quality of academic organisation an existing tool can be
recommended – the University Study-Oriented Support System – USOS.
This software has been developed since the TEMPUS project “NET” coordinated by
the University of Warsaw in 199-2001. Several Polish universities adopted the sys-
tem and nowadays ca. 40 % of international mobility is completed within the insti-
tutions participating The system is complex and bilingual – several documents can
be printed in English. It requires an ORACLE licence and institutional subscription
fee is charged.
Here are the services it offers:
> On-line registration of candidates
> Management of recruitment process
> Delivery of electronic student ID & library cards
> USOS-web that comprises directory of courses-study offer in Polish and
English, including ECTS information, subscription to classes, including
token system in case of foreign languages and gymnastics
> Support of teaching process – exams, proofs, marks, comments
> Provision of Transcript of Records and Diploma Supplement
> The system also enables:
> Control of teachers workload and payments
ties) but also a gap between opportunities available (number of exchange students
according to Bilateral Agreements) and the number of students interested and re-
cruited. This, again seems to be quite typical for universities all over Europe, which
means that certain “saturation” effect has been achieved and increasing mobility
will not be an easy task at all. As for out-going students, more information should
be needed and more support at the stage of decision making. Much more can and
should be done in the area of in-coming students. Solutions should be sought in
order to respond to the following questions: In the perspective of the position and
future development of the University – Is it a MUST or a NEED to enhance interna-
tional mobility. And if so –
> Can this be done and in which way?
> What are the most serious and urgent tasks?
> Where are the biggest reserves?
> What tools should be applied?
Three areas of activities can be distinguished in the
fi eld of mobility management: administration at
organisational level, administration at academic
level and academic teaching and learning.
Below I will present the three issues in the context of available ICT tools.
Administration & organization
The task comprise provision of information to home and foreign students, registra-
tion of candidates, maintaining contact before and after arrival/departure, match-
ing with Polish students (ESN), keeping records of visiting students, management
of Erasmus grant.
This is done by the International Programmes Offi ce (IRO or similar units at other
universities) and simple commonly available ICT tools are used as www, e-mail,
discussion lists, spread sheets, databases. What could be improved is e.g. e-organ-
Mobility – ICT for further development
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> Central university platform or faculty platforms
> Special platform can be set up, e.g. Erasmus
Extensive implementation of MOODLE (or a compatible platform) should be widely
and strongly recommended. It will increase the study offer and make it more attrac-
tive for foreign students. It will facilitate communication for academic purposes
and provide better, open and immediate supervision of the teaching process.
Enhancement of international mobility has become
an urgent task of major importance for universities
in the perspective of the new LLP. Except for the
well known and ever present problem of time (more staff) and money (translation,
extra courses, additional remuneration of teachers, equipment, motivation bonus,
more staff again), ICT tools are indispensable for increasing the number of exchange
students and improving the quality of service and teaching. However, ICT impact is
not equal in every aspect. To the best of my professional experience I dare suggest
that mobility factors can be increased by ca. 5% by new ICT in administration, by
10% due to complex digitalisation of student management and by as much as 80%
in the area of academic issues, including e-learning and ODL methods.
> Quality assessment
> Directory of European HEIs
> Electronic version of diploma works and directory
> Lecture hall reservation
> Location and orientation within campus (when linked to Google-up)
The Computer Centre of the University of Warsaw is now working on the devel-
opment of a specialised package “Erasmus recruitment” and it is our hope it
will also be available for other user universities.
As results from the above a very good ICT tool already exists, is available at leading
Polish universities and it is only a matter of how effi ciently it can be applied for the
purpose of mobility. Full and correct implementation will improve visibility of the
study offer, will stimulate the faculties to revise their potential, present it in a com-
patible way and submit on time (which means well before the students arrive). This
will help incoming students prepare their learning agreement. Moreover the neces-
sary documents can be generated automatically (e.g. transcript of records).
Teaching and learning
In this chapter MOODLE will be presented as an example of a teaching&learning
platform. It is a cost-free and easy to learn tool which enables application of mod-
ern teaching methods so highly appreciated by nowadays students. This makes it
of great value for mobility purpose. At Nicolaus Copernicus University MOODLE is
maintained by the University Centre for Modern Teaching Methods where every
staff member and every student can complete his own project. Software, qualifi ed
staff assistance and technical equipment is made available at no charge. MOODLE
can be used for:
> ODL courses or to support classical class work
> Publication of all kind of educational materials
(sound, video, interactive, transmission)
> Communication (message board, individual students or groups, admission
and subscription, discussion for a, chat in real time, video conferences)
> Assessment (questionnaires, quiz, multiple choice, open questions, time limit,
statistics and full control by the teacher)
Conclusions
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My name is Anna Laudy, I am a fourth year student
of Polish Philology at the University of Warsaw.
I have been an active ESN member for three years
and since June 2007 I have been the president of my section.
In my presentation I would like to show you how ICT is used in ESN UW section,
problems we face everyday, ideas and some solutions.
I would like to tell you briefl y how my adventure with ESN started.
One day when I was surfi ng the Internet I came across the main website of the
University of Warsaw and I read an advertisement searching for Mentors. I had
no idea what the Mentor Programme was. I got curious and that is how I found
the ESN page.
Introduction
How ICT Is Used By Erasmus Student Network At The University Of Warsaw
Anna Laudy, student of Polish Philology
at the University of Warsaw,
President of Erasmus Student Network University of Warsaw
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It would be great if we could create and introduce a system which would simplify
the process and save the coordinator’s precious time. Using such sophisticated
technology would enable the coordinator to scan the number of applications
and automatically cross-match the requirements, interests and so on against
the data base. It would produce accurate matches within seconds.
Unfortunately we are short of IT students or fans in our section. Most people who
are involved in ESN projects are language, culture, history, law students who
are not very familiar with IT. Apart from that there is a huge personnel turnover
among Mentors. People responsible for different activities usually stay in ESN no
longer then a year, so new-comers must learn everything from the beginning. If
they are enthusiastic enough we can develop if they are not there is no progress.
The goal should be to store the knowledge about ESN performance inside
ESN repository and pass it on from generation to generation to make our work
easier. Lessons learned from experience need to stay in the network in order not
to make the same mistake again, we should work more effectively and manage
the knowledge we have to our benefi ts.
I have just tried to present the methods of recruiting Polish students to our
organization. Now I would like to explain how it works with Erasmus.
The Mentor coordinator is given by International Relation Offi ce a list of for-
eign students. Our coordinator sends each Erasmus information about Mentor
Programme and invites them to join and take advantage of it. All Erasmus who
express their interest and willingness to participate in ESN by sending an email
to us are accepted.
Now a little bit about communication in my sec-
tion. We use yahoo groups to communicate with
each other.
To provide the information fl ow we have set up different discussion groups and
Mailing List - Communication In The Section
I learnt that the Mentor Programme means helping and assisting foreign
students.
To become a Mentor you are requested to fi ll in a
special application form and send it to the Mentor
coordinator. Moreover, you have to write a brief
motivational letter explaining why you want to join the project.
At fi rst I was taken aback by so many formalities. Later did I realize how impor-
tant it was. ESN is not a big company so we cannot interview all candidates in
person, talk to them face to face to assess if they are eligible for the position.
Therefore the Internet is so irreplaceable and the most convenient, fastest way
of recruiting new candidates, so it cannot be denied that such an application
is the only means to check the student’s suitability and determination to take
direct responsibility for the foreign guests and international students commu-
nity as a whole. Moreover, these are students who know best how the university
functions and can give exchanged students the most exact information, also
about unsaid rules.
The online registration form for Mentors is on our website www.esn.uw.edu.pl, in
the bookmark Mentor. The prospect candidate has to give such information as:
name, email, the faculty, the country of origin of the future Erasmus buddy.
And, of course, short motivational letter is required. All things considered, one
has to conclude that it is the most effi cient way of gathering data.
Unfortunately, there is another side to the issue. We don’t have a special system
which would match suitable Erasmus-Mentor partners.
Nowadays, the coordinator must deal with hundreds of application alone. She
has to go carefully through each application and check the preferences before
choosing the right candidate. This task is time-consuming and tiring.
Mentor
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They could help us create the ESN sections’ bulletin, a broad monthly bulletin
with all kind of information. It could also collect trips and future events indi-
rectly dealing with ESN matters. Another publication could be the ESN news-
letter. This would contain very compact and easy-to-read information on ESN
matters as well as messages from our sponsors, external events that concern
our subscribers, ESNers as well as people interested in receiving news from
our network.
All those initiatives, which I have just mentioned, have already been imple-
mented on the international level by the International ESN Board in Brussels.
In my section we could encourage Erasmus to take part in such projects by giving
diplomas or certificates in recognition for their involvement, which can be
an additional asset in their CV.
For example, last year we undertook an interesting initiative and invited
Erasmus to make a fi lm promoting ESN organization among Polish students.
As we all know, movies are very attractive and eye-catching so such fi lm could
tempt students to record their own experience in a host country and broad-
cast it on the Internet. As a consequence, it would increase the use of Inter-
net by ESNers and strengthen the relations. Our ESN advertisement starring
Australian-Polish and Italian Erasmus is on our site and you can also watch it
on YouTube.
Talking about ICT usage we cannot forget about
Tandem - an innovative method of learning and
teaching languages.
Its dual aim is to enable foreign language learning and promote transferable
skills. Tandem learning involves a partnership of two native speakers and both
should benefi t equally from the exchange.
TANDEM
mailing lists, dedicated both to Erasmus and Polish students. We offer mailing
list for: Mentors, ESN members, Erasmus to take advantage of sharing their
expectations, problems and exchanging different solutions. So both ESN mem-
bers and Erasmus can choose either to join the group and check the posts while
logging on yahoo site or subscribe on our mailing list and get the posts as email
messages directly to their mailbox.
For example, this year one of the most vital problem is accommodation. More
than 300 Erasmus students have arrived to study at the University of Warsaw.
The cooperation in fi nding accommodation and fl atmates helps to create and
strengthen Polish-Erasmus society.
There is also a special mailing list called esn.news dedicated to Polish ex-Erasmus
and other Polish students who are interested in our projects.
The mailing list is also one of the means to inform the students about our upcom-
ing events and future projects. Unfortunately, I have noticed that the mailing list
is most popular with the users at the beginning of each term. In midterm there
is a rapid decrease in being interested in the information we send. Erasmus stop
reading our emails, treat them like a spam. Conducting a survey on such behavior
is recommended because it might help to fi nd the reasons of lack of interest.
Information and invitations to students are mainly sent by mass distribution.
For those who are not responsive to general information, the logical step is ex-
tend special invitations in order to overcome the barriers and get students more
involved.
Maybe we should invite incoming students with computer skills to get directly
involved in our projects. Such students would enrich our website with issues
vital for Erasmus. As they know better their society from within. They would
not be just member protagonists of stories they can share and comment on,
but also contribute to a colourful and extremely useful database of Erasmus
experience. For all the reasons they would demonstrate how by merging differ-
ent cultures we can create stronger community.
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It would be benefi cial for both University of Warsaw students – incoming and
outgoing. Polish as well as Erasmus students would have a perfect possibility
to learn the basis or to improve the language of the host country before arriving
at the university.
At the University of Warsaw there is such a pro-
cedure that each Polish ex-Erasmus student is
asked to fi ll in a survey assessing and estimating
their stay abroad. The main aim of it is to collect information about the host
university and what problems can be encountered (language barrier, accom-
modation, culture clash, ECTS points recognition). All the surveys are in paper
form and they are kept in the International Relation Offi ce. This is the only
source of information for prospective Polish exchange students besides
official publications.
In my opinion this method of collecting data is out of date, ineffi cient and
for most inconvenient. I have been told that there have been some attempts
to implement online survey for coming back students but due to their lack of
involvement and willingness the idea failed.
But now it is high time to change the existing situation and take advantage of IT
tools. I have noticed that there is a great need for such information fl ow. It would
be benefi cial if my section possessed such data to share it with future Polish
exchange students.
All Erasmus students at different universities
claim that they have encountered problems with
registration for chosen courses.
Collecting Data From Ex-Erasmus Polish Students
Problems With Registration For Courses
Last year I was the Tandem coordinator so I know this issue personally. Once
again the Internet is the only tool to recruit the candidates. The future Tandem
partner fi lls in the online application form.
We faced a common mistake – students forgot to give us their email address and
consequently we couldn’t contact them. Therefore recently we have improved
our form so that the fi eld with the email address is obligatory and the applica-
tion cannot be sent without this data.
Another obstacle, we often have to deal with, is lack of other required informa-
tion. For example: preferred language, mother tongue. Our coordinator has to
do everything on her own checking each application. On average, there are more
then 500 applications. You can imagine how time-consuming it is. So once again,
as I have mentioned before talking about the Mentor Programme, we don’t have
any special tool which would match two partners automatically.
Another problem worth mentioning concerns lack of willingness of incoming stu-
dents to participate in the project. The vast majority of the candidates are Polish
students. I found there are 3 main reasons of such situation.
Firstly, even though the amount of foreign students is increasing every year, it
is not suffi cient to provide each Polish candidate with a Tandem partner. Sec-
ondly, the information about Tandem project hasn’t been popularized enough.
We need more publicity. Finally, I have been asked by a few Erasmus students
whether participation in Tandem is rewarded with ECTS points because at some
universities Tandem is recognized as a normal lecture. It is not like this in Poland
so the fact has discouraged some students.
For all the reasons, we still need to improve the application to make all the pro-
cedure more effi cient and less time-consuming. Moreover, we should publicize
Tandem especially among incoming students.
We could also try to implement e-Tandem project, it means Tandem at a distance
using electronic media such as email, Skype, telephone, video conferencing. It’s
very convenient method of learning – you don’t even need to leave your home.
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In order to have real and useful information about Erasmus home and destination,
the entire system could be empowered with geo-location technology giving the
possibility to enter in great detail the home and destination places. It will give
the students the chance to build a community of ex-Erasmus students sharing
their experience on a common platform. Former Erasmus could be called Erasmus
ambassadors to target potential Erasmus students.
The community members will be granted access to the ESN website as a tool for
promoting the ESN image.
ESN sections should improve their websites. As I have observed lately there is
lack of strong links between the different levels of ESN. Therefore we should:
> keep current structures but improve online participation
> adapt the current structure to the new needs.
> foster the creation of similar network in other areas
Therefore ESN International has already begun to implement a new system called
“Satelite” which will harmonize resources and distribute information.
We should identify emerging trends of ICT sys-
tems that will shape the future of university and
ESN websites.
The development of ever more sophisticated techniques for communication
and surveillance would increase the likelihood of better and more effi cient
performance of our ESN section which could result in much better manag-
ing ESN sites on the Internet, more transparency and collaboration among
universities, teachers and students.
Previously, it usually began in the fi rst week of October for both Erasmus and
Polish students. Erasmus coordinators helped and supported the incoming stu-
dents with choosing the suitable course.
Starting from this academic year 2007/2008 the registration at each faculty is
online and have already begun in June. So Erasmus students had no opportu-
nity to subscribe for preferable courses at that time.
Of course, the incomers are guaranteed places at each faculty but they can
register on preferable classes only after arriving at the University of Warsaw.
And there is a problem with PE and foreign languages courses. Since Polish
students have already subscribed for them in June there are few places left
for Erasmus.
In my opinion such situation puts foreign students in disadvantageous position.
As I have mentioned before this is the fi rst year when the online subject registra-
tion has been introduced. I strongly believe that the system will be adjusted also
to Erasmus students’ needs.
I wonder what more we can do as ESN for the
incoming students.
I think that experience, impressions, problems and diffi culties which have been
faced by Erasmus in previous years can be valuable and informative for future
incoming students. ESN UW is considering setting up a special data base which
would store information concerning accommodation – rental, dormitories; tips
on lectures and lecturers; exams, personal comments and advice in order to col-
lect the Erasmus experiences sent by old and new Erasmus people from all over
Europe. Every account should not only be a simply textual report but designed
as a multimedia presentation giving writers the possibility to attach pictures,
audio and video, run a blog, upload media fi les.
ESN UW Future Plans For Improving Information Flow In The Section.
Conclusions
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This paper describes the development of a high
quality information platform by the use of Web
2.0 technologies to support and enhance student
mobility in higher education. It discusses the success of social networks and the
role of universities. It describes the current developed projects by the Erasmus
Student Network and how they can be considered as the key-elements in the
creation of this platform. The paper ends with an example-project applied to the
20th anniversary of the Erasmus Program.
The introduction of this paper is fully based on the
outcomes from the Victorious project. The Victo-
rious project, Student Mobility in a digital world,
Enhancing Student Mobility By A Web 2.0 Platform: The Erasmus Student Network Experience
Abstract
Introduction
Christof Devriendt, Erasmus Student Network (ESN), Project Manager, Belgium; [email protected]
Peter Vanhee, Erasmus Student Network (ESN), Project Leader, Belgium;
Antonio De Marco, Erasmus Student Network (ESN), Project Leader, Italy;
Andrea Pescetti, Erasmus Student Network (ESN), Project Leader, Italy.
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In this framework and with this purpose, ESN strives for a world in which increas-
ingly more young people will be in the condition to access, either by moving or
by staying at home, the opportunities of personal growth offered by an interna-
tional experience in Higher Education.
This means that prospective and current exchange students have to be provided
with all the necessary information and tools for
> choosing the destination that fi ts the most with their interests and
personal development;
> applying properly and in the due time for scholarships and for any
other possible fi nancial support;
> being integrated in the society and the culture of the hosting city,
also by terms of linguistic tools and social opportunities;
> succeeding in the academic aims of their stay
> evaluating their exchange experience and having their evaluation
considered and appreciated by the competent institutions, in order
to foster and infl uence the evolution of the exchange programs
and policies;
> helping, in turn, other students to succeed in their exchange study
and in overcoming the same diffi culties and challenges they
experienced.
Therefore ESN considers it as a common goal together with universities to create
a high quality information platform, where all the Higher Education Institutions
support the principle of students helping students. It will allow students to fi nd
their way to mobility and to internationalization, and all existing and possible
threats and obstacles to mobility are annihilated.
Facebook is this year’s big net phenomenon, it
has 30 million users worldwide, but Myspace is
even bigger with 100 million users. The reason of
The Role of Universities
was an inter-university co-operation project partly funded by the European Com-
mission under the eLearning Program. From January 2005 to February 2007, nine
universities of the Coimbra Group shared their experience and expertise, worked
together to better understand the issues of virtual student mobility in Europe.
Students are now moving physically more than ever to take courses in universi-
ties in other countries, supported in part by schemes such as Erasmus, which
has ambitious targets for expansion. Students are also studying in a more
place-independent mode, using the web, email, internet phones etc to get
access to learning materials, staff and peers, and doing this from a widening
range of locations.
In general, information provision by universities towards visiting students is
weak. It is hard to fi nd, often in the local language and there is insuffi cient focus
on the needs of the visiting students.
Most university International Relations Offi ces consider that they have good
websites, although this is not the view born out by the student data.
Several sources of information about student mobility exist, although no single
source has comprehensive coverage for every student. As a consequence, there
is a clear sign that universities need to signifi cantly reconsider their informa-
tion provision strategies. For some universities there needs to be greater clarity
about what the university provides and what it expects students to provide. The
student organizations can help them in this by providing websites creating a so-
cial network that offers peer-advice, enabling students to share experiences and
providing solutions.
Erasmus Student Network (ESN) is a non-for-profi t international student organi-
zation. Our mission is to foster student mobility in Higher Education under the
principle of Students Helping Students.
We are 12.000 members from 251 local sections in 34 countries working on a
volunteer base in Higher Education Institutions.
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In what follows we will briefl y discuss the current
projects that are developed by ESN and in the
next paragraph we will elaborate on how these
projects can become the basic ingredients in developing new information
provision strategies for universities.
The ESN projects are meant to provide a possible solution to the current ESN
on-line situation. Most of the section websites are not well built and they do not
offer enough services for the visiting students and do not fulfi ll the basic needs
of the section. Another important point is that the ESN on-line community, in
spite of the ESN spirit, is an isolated community: within it no knowledge and/or
practice is shared and this in turn produces two main disadvantages:
> sections spend resources to implement the same
range of services for Erasmus students;
> information collected at the local level, useful to the whole
network, is not shared and it is diffi cult to reach.
All ESN sections have, on a different scale, the
same basic needs: all of them need to advertise
their events, to spread information to students,
to let Erasmus students sign up for activities, to give a professional image to
potential partners; and almost all of them would like to have a nicer website,
easier to update and maintain.
Since the needs of every ESN section are similar, re-implementing the same tools in
every website is a loss of time; the fi nal aim, thus, was to build a website template
with a set of instruments and content management tools that is ready to use and
that the sections can download and install in their web spaces in few minutes.
ESN Projects
ESN Satellite Project
this success is easy to understand. It is a simple extension of what people have
always loved to do: talking with each other, advising each other and sharing their
experiences.
Nowadays students have been empowered by these Web 2.0 technologies. They
can blog, produce and publish videos, share photos and experiences. It enables
them to make their own commentary, share information and advise their peers.
The time has come to empower the students with the tools to contribute. Univer-
sities need to implement online student networks to improve both their internal
and external communication and to deepen their relation with the student. The
student is eager to participate, willing to contribute as well as to receive.
Online student networks allow students to communicate with each other, give
each other advice and support, and produce meaningful content that is impor-
tant to them. These networks can provide the tools for the students to become
content producers and close the gaps to fulfi ll the real needs of the students.
The content does not come from the universities alone, it also comes from the
students themselves, and their peer-to-peer interaction is a major portion of
the content. This information provision by peers is vital, as many students leave
their normal support network behind when they go study abroad. Most students
rely on their peers to help them make decisions regarding their studies. The col-
lection of data from both universities and students would allow offering both
formal and informal information to intending visitors. If this is the way that stu-
dents today are choosing to access their information, then this is a reason why
universities have to give it to them.
ESN strongly believes that the current developed projects by ESN: ESN Satellite,
ESN Galaxy and ESN Identity can be considered as the key-elements in the
creation of this high quality information platform.
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Figure 1 - Example of ESN Satellite
Now, one year after the development started, ESN Satellite has been an astonish-
ing success: more than 60 sections are adopting it as their default website and
the number of installations is steadily increasing. Moreover, ESN Satellite
is becoming the standard platform for ESN event websites, regional plat-
forms or other international meetings. ESN has a big community of ESN
Satellite administrators who share solutions to common problems and the
ESN Satellite documentation is growing with instructions and tips.
Every ESN Satellite website mainly contains two
kind of information:
Community Information: every kind of content that makes the community
stronger (forums, guestbook, photos, etc…);
Helpful Information: useful information with helping purpose (housing system,
job offer, info about the host city, etc… ).
ESN Galaxy Project
This is the reason why ESN Satellite (Fig. 1) was born, in March 2006: to give
every section the opportunity to use a free, nice website template that or-
dinary, non-technical section members can update in an extremely intuitive
way. ESN Satellite is packed with features (news with comments, events cal-
endar, partners list, customizable photo gallery, private areas for registered
users, automatically updated news from ESN International) and you have full
control on what you decide to activate for your section. It is also designed to
be completely interoperable with the very popular Drupal content manage-
ment system: this allows anybody to extend ESN Satellite with new features
by installing one of the hundreds of freely available Drupal modules.
The template is also useful for all the community living inside the ESN network
like Working Groups, Organizational Committees of International Events or
National Platforms, Fun(d)raisers Coordination, Alumni Community, etc…
Having a look around the current ESN websites we can have an idea about what
kinds of tools an ESN web site can contain. Just to point out some of them an ESN
web site can provide:
> Content Managing System to easily publish and maintain content;
> Events System to publish events and easily manage online
subscription;
> Members/Card Owners Registration;
> Local Infocentre to upload and share useful documents;
> Housing and Hospitality System to help Erasmus students to fi nd
a place or simply hospitality in other ESN members’ house;
> Job Offers System to help Erasmus to fi nd a job in the host country;
> Buddy System to implement the Students Helping Students ESN
principle;
> Mailing Lists to reach ESN members;
> Forums, Photo Gallery, Chat, etc… to empower the sense
of community through ESN website members.
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The ESN Galaxy (Fig.2) was born out of the following vision: creating a real net-
work, with a fast and automated information fl ow between sections using a
graphical, intuitive representation of the entire Erasmus Student Network.
The ESN Galaxy (www.galaxy.esn.org) website displays a map of Europe (using
Google maps) with balloons for every section in the Galaxy (potentially every
ESN section): by clicking on a balloon you browse through the upcoming events
of that section, links to “more information” pages, local news, local partners and
contact details.
Moreover, it is absolutely effortless for a section to join the ESN Galaxy: all ESN
Satellite installations can be enabled to automatically transmit news, events
and partners to the ESN Galaxy, so everything will appear there with absolutely
no need of work but the initial registration. Even non- Satellite websites can be
confi gured to appear in the ESN Galaxy as long as you make specifi c RSS/iCal
feeds available.
The ESN Galaxy enables also better and more effective communication from
the international to the local level: ESN Satellite can optionally be enabled to
automatically display a box with the latest news from ESN International, so
that information about important ESN projects like the ESN Survey can appear
on a dedicated box on the section homepage without any intervention from
the section.
The third project, ESN Identity, is to empower
the sense of community by making the network
stronger. Now, in fact, the different ESN online
communities are like islands in the ocean. If it is important to share useful help-
ing information it is, maybe, even more crucial to foster the contact among the
members of the network.
ESN Identity Project
A signifi cant part of the helpful information could be really useful also outside
the local context: just think about an ESN member looking for a house in a new
city or a group of ESNrs that wants to have some information about ESN events
of a city they are planning to go to.
A way to achieve this is to share this kind of information by collecting it at the
local level. In this way the local sections become a source of helpful and use-
ful information for the whole network in sharing events, house and job offers,
mentors and so forth.
All the collected information will be kept, in a centralized way, in the ESN Galaxy
databases with several strong benefi ts for the entire network, such as:
> local websites become a source of knowledge and information
for the whole network;
> it will be possible to have an European wide search through
the ESN resources;
> information collected could be used for statistic purposes;
> having a huge amount of useful information could help in searching
for sponsorship/partnership.
Figure 2 - The ESN Galaxy
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Figure 3 – Personal Profi le Figure 4 – Where are you
According to the role within ESN Identity ESN members also get access to the ESN
Supernova (Fig. 5) website. This is a pan-European website which aim is to make
the work of ESN International transparent, presenting the international board, the
national representatives, the working groups and the webteam. Members of those
bodies receive the possibility to blog on their work within the network, to share
fi les and to manage working groups.
Figure 5 – ESN Supernova
To allow this, an ESN member needs to be able to access all the websites of
the network with the same username and password, if the local administrator
allows it, with an improvement of the sense of community.
Having access to all the network websites with the same authentication codes
means to move the fi rst steps into the creation of a unique personal identity
within the network (Fig. 3).
Extremely fi ne-grained access control policies will allow every entity within the
ESN Identity to access exactly what is needed by its role: a section president, for
instance, will be able to change contact details of his own section but not to see
details or members of other sections.
The main idea behind ESN Identity is that everyone in ESN can access the differ-
ent online Satellites with his username and password; his role will automatically
be recognized by the system and he will be given privileges to perform actions on
this Satellite as his role permits (most actions will be directly implemented, some
actions will need approval by the relevant responsible persons in ESN).
This project will make ESN stronger by using the potential that can be found
inside the network: the sections and their members. It will allow members within
the network to actively contribute to the knowledge and information within
the Network.
What is ESN? Such a short a question, yet up to now it was so diffi cult to answer.
You could answer; it is a huge network: dozens of countries, hundreds of sections,
thousands of members; but honestly numbers are far insuffi cient to describe it.
Words can already enjoy a much greater success: volunteers, students helping
students, national representatives, fostering mobility; but still not enough to
convey the meaning. Today, thanks to the ESN identity project, it is possible to
tell the external world what ESN is in concrete, beyond numbers and words, be-
cause all sections and all members belong to the ESN Galaxy. Every single individ-
ual receives his unique balloon within the ESN Galaxy (Fig. 4). It shows the world
that ESN is about sections and about members, not represented by a number but
by Satellites and Unique Individual profi les.
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Figure 6 – Example of Experiences on Website and ESN Galaxy
According to the words of Ján Figel’, European Commissioner in charge of Educa-
tion, our goal should be to have this kind of platform where you would be able to
consult over 3 million experiences by 2011.
A high quality information platform: dream or
reality? We strongly believe that with the rise
of the new technologies and the developed
projects by ESN we are getting very close to reality. It should be a common
goal of a strong group of universities and a strong student organization,
such as ESN, to make it reality. The described tools allow universities to cre-
ate their own information platform, fulfi lling all needs of incoming students
(using Satellite technology) and offering both formal and informal informa-
tion. These technologies also allow the creation of a more effi cient way of
information and knowledge sharing and a systematic development of e.g. a
central database of courses (using Galaxy technology). Moreover these tech-
nologies also enable the students to share their experiences and advice their
peers (see 20th anniversary project).
The main lesson for universities is: students are eager to participate and willing
to contribute. A modern University should not only be the creator of information
but also the facilitator and mediator of information. Universities need to create
the environment where students are stimulated to contribute with their own
information and knowledge. Students must be treated as co-information provid-
ers. If we build them a platform from which they will benefi t, they will use it.
The Vision
In the year 2007 Erasmus Program celebrates its
20th Anniversary. By this celebration ESN wanted
to show the importance of the academic mobility
to all the European citizens and demonstrate that by the meeting of other cultures
we can create a better Europe for the future.
The main activities of the event were:
> Erasmus conferences everywhere
> mobility bus visiting the organized conferences
> website project to share Erasmus and exchange experiences
The main aims of the project were:
I. To promote Erasmus and exchange to local students and to encourage more
students to go abroad
II. To make the European citizens understand the importance of mobility and of
Erasmus scheme
III. To create a cultural exchange of stories and experiences between students
from different backgrounds (different countries, cultures, socio-economic
background, physical ability, gender etc) by publishing some of their stories
on a online platform.
To support these aims of the project ESN made a website, where former Erasmus
students could upload their personal living story (Fig. 6). They could share their
experience with others, by writing their Erasmus story, uploading videos and pic-
tures. In a second phase these experiences where used to promote Erasmus by
creating a platform where everybody could read these stories by going to the
ESN Galaxy. Every experience was given a unique identity and balloon inside the
ESN Galaxy.
Example: 20th Erasmus Project
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The University Library is one of the three largest
collections of scholarly books in Poland. Not only
does it function as the University’s main library,
but also as a public library. It contains domestic and foreign works from each of
the disciplines of the arts and sciences studied and taught at the University, with
collections in the humanities and social sciences most thoroughly represented.
The Library numbers approximately 2,400,000 volumes, including more than
1,500,000 books, 600,000 volumes of periodicals, early imprints, manuscripts,
graphics, musical scores, maps, and microfi lms. As a whole the Library regularly
serves more than 100,000 readers, with more than 1,100,000 items accessed and
lent annually.
The Library was established at the founding of the University of Warsaw in 1817,
acquiring such collections as those of the Warsaw Lyceum, the private libraries
University of Warsaw Library: Basic Information
University Of Warsaw Library E-resources And Information Services For The Academic Community
Ewa Kobierska-Maciuszko’s presentation,
University of Warsaw, Poland
Noelia Cantero Gonzálvez,
Brussels Education Services, Belgium
We need to offer them the technologies to fulfi l their needs and to provide
solutions to their not yet known problems.
Universities that will have a high quality information platform and universities
that will be supported by a strong community of actively contributing students
will be the ones being most successful in attracting new students in the future.
After all the “word of mouth” is still the most trusted and powerful source of
information!
1. www.esn.org ESN institutional website
2. www.galaxy.esn.org ESN Galaxy website
3. www.supernova.esn.org ESN Supernova website
4. www.drupal.org Drupal website
5. Final Report of the VICTORIOUS Project: STUDENT MOBILITY IN A DIGITAL WORLD;
www.coimbra-group.eu/victorious/
6. White paper; Enabling the Social Company by Steve Outing; ENTHUSIASTGROUP,
www.enthusiastgroup.com/
7. Tim O’Reilly: “What Is Web 2.0 - Design Patterns and Business
Models for the Next Generation of Software”, available at
www.oreilly.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html
8. The Enterprise 2.0 Conference: Web 2.0 Continues Its Move to The Workplace;
Dion Hinchcliffe’s Web 2.0 Blog; www.web2.socialcomputingmagazine.com/
References
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a bibliographic utility serving ca. 60 research libraries. The University online
catalogue is a WWW-searchable pool of one million records from the main
library and selected departmental libraries. Their number is supposed to increase.
The University Library ensures network access to approximately 50 CD-ROM
databases. Extensive access to full-text journals by leading publishers is being
organized in various consortial settings to become operational in 2000. The
Library’s Reference Center is responsible also for several other networked or
local sources of information for and about the University.
- Total area: 61.000 sq meters
- Library area: 41.510 sq meters
- Overground levels: 4
- Underground levels: 2
- Storage capacity: 4.000.000 vol.
- Seats for readers: 1.000
- Library staff: 270
- Computer network: Windows 2003/XP/NT, Linux
- Library system: VTLS/Virtua
- Library system server: SUN Fire v490 Solaris 10
Computer Room
In the Computer Room patrons may use comput-
ers with text editors, our online catalogue and
Ultranet databases.
Works may be printed, saved on diskette, or sent by e-mail.
Connection to the Internet with portable computers
University of Warsaw Library’s new building- basic information:
Information Technologies in the Library:
of King Stanisław Poniatowski and Stanisław Kostka Potocki, as well as libraries
from suppressed monasteries.
The collection of rossica is extremely valuable and is one of the largest in the
world. The Library likewise possesses a large collection of Polish and foreign
periodicals, newspapers, and administrative documents, with an especially im-
pressive collection of the Warsaw press and underground periodicals from years
1939-1945.
Since the late fall of 1999, the Library occupies a state-of-the art building at the
distance of two blocks from the main campus, at the Powisle district where it
is supposed to play the role of the anchor of the emerging new campus. Con-
struction of a new library was begun in 1995, fi nanced by the Foundation of
the University of Warsaw. Its over 40,000 square meters are able to house over
4,000,000 items, of which approximately 200,000 are now on open stacks. There
is room for over 2,000,000 items on open stacks, and the shelf arrangement sys-
tem is Library of Congress Call Numbers.
The Library currently occupies four overground levels of the building: level 0,
inaccessible to users, contains closed stack, acquisition, and a conservation
lab; level 1 - Reference Department and Circulation Desk; level 2 - main Reading
Room and Current Periodicals and Microforms Reading Room; and level 3 - spe-
cial collections. Most of the levels’ 1 and 2 surface is open stacks; individual
study cells, seminar and exhibition rooms are at various locations. The Library
is equipped to provide working place for 1,000 simultaneous users, and the
computer system allows 256 simultaneous sessions.
The Library’s façade, inviting scholars with giant copper plates with fragments
of great writings in various alphabets, has already become one of the city’s
landmarks.
In 1992, thanks to a grant from the Mellon Foudation, the Library purchased,
together with several other Polish academic libraries, an automated inte-
grated library system (VTLS). Since then, the Library has coordinated shared
cataloguing in Poland, and its Center for National Union Catalogue acted as
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ers. It is available to those with a valid library card and a telephone connection
with Internet.
Upon registering, RAS users will receive an individual login and password. Patrons
are temporarily connected to the University of Warsaw Library Net; they can use
electronic resources to which the Library subscribes.
Information literacy at the University of Warsaw Library:
> www.buw.uw.edu.pl
The following online training courses are offered and can be consulted online:
> How to use library and Information Technologies facilities (training for beginners):
www.moodle.come.uw.edu.pl/course/category.php?id=14
> How to use e-journals (training for graduate students):
www.buw.uw.edu.pl/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=
view&id=117&Itemid=85
The Library’s policy regarding information technologies follows the guidelines
adopted at European and international levels:
> Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities:
www.oa.mpg.de/openaccess-berlin/berlindeclaration.html
> IFLA’s three pillars and World Summit on the Information Society Declaration
of Principles: www.ifl a.org/III/ThreePillars-compact.pdf
> LIBER: www.libereurope.eu/what
References
As of October 14, 2002, the Library offer its patrons the possibility of connections
with the Internet via portable computers. Computers may be used on designated
stands in the area Philosophy. Psychology. Religion. Education. With these con-
nections patrons may use, for example, full-text journal databases (with access
to about 20,000 journals), to which the Library subscribes.
Electronic Resources:
Available only from the University of Warsaw net computers (identifi cation
through computer’s IP), the Library offers periodicals from different fi elds: both
natural and applied sciences; mathematics; economics, sociology, psychology,
and other social sciences; medicine; culture; and others. Different Internet data-
bases are also available. A-to-Z service gives library patrons one comprehensive
online list of titles they can access at UWL. Users can quickly fi nd and link to jour-
nals, searching by keyword or browsing an alphabetical list by title or subject.
Digital Resources:
This historical part of the University of Warsaw Library collection contains ap-
proximately 300,000 items of different origins, publication forms, and of great
artistic value. Within this collection are true treasures of Polish and European
cultural heritage. These constitute our Library’s initial holdings, when it was
founded in 1817, as the Royal University of Warsaw Library. Naturally, the trau-
matic history of our country, city, and University has left a profound mark on our
Library collection. Today our collections of early imprints, prints, manuscripts,
maps, music, and ephemera comprise the unique source of knowledge used by
researches from every branch of science and humanistics.
Selected items from the Library collection, scanned and recorded on CD-ROMs,
are available in the Current Periodicals and Microforms Reading Room. Some of
them are also available online, in the ULTRANET or in the Internet. All CD-ROMs
are available in our online shop.
Remote Access Service
As of February 1, 2002, the Library offers Remote Access Service (RAS) to em-
ployees and students of The University of Warsaw. This service provides access
to the University of Warsaw Library’s electronic resources from home comput-
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Good orientation to the host country, its culture
and host Higher Education Institution (HEI) en-
sures a successful exchange period for the visit-
ing student. This article introduces the virtual orientation and guidance Laurea
provides together with the students’ union LAUREAMKO for incoming exchange
students. The development from only orientation to online peer support and
guidance is described together with fi rst experiences and fi ndings for challenges
and further development. It all aims towards a well orientated exchange student
and successful student exchanges at Laurea.
The orientation and guidance provided for incom-
ing students concentrated previously on informa-
Virtual Orientation And Online Peer Support For Incoming Exchange Students At Laurea
Raisa Saviaho, International Relations,
Laurea University of Applied Sciences, Finland
Introduction
Previous orientation
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The development started with renewing Laurea’s
external web pages with new information
for incoming exchange students. The existing
e-learning study unit on Finnish language, culture and society, which was
located at an online e-learning platform called Optima, was chosen to host
discussion forums and internal information. Using an existing e-learning tool not
only made the development easier, but also helps exchange students to learn
how to use Optima, which they will need in their studies at Laurea.
The orientation and guidance workspace for incoming exchange students is
called Welcome to Finland. It is a password protected workspace that students
are given access to with a visitor login and password. Exchange students receive
1/ Thematic interviews with current exchange students at Laurea, Saviaho, September 2007 and Maiworm & Teichler, 2002.
2/ Feedback from visiting students to Laurea from academic year 2006-200, Garam, 2003 and Krupnik and Krzaklewksa, 2006.
Welcome to Finland
tion at the web pages and in welcoming letters, personal advice given usually
by e-mail, and the tutoring and orientation that took place once the exchange
student had arrived to Finland. A supportive e-learning study unit on Finnish lan-
guage, culture and society was also available. Despite of the study unit’s avail-
ability to exchange student online prior to their arrival, it was not used much.
Reason for this might have been its study orientated outlook and diffi culties
with recognition of study points at home HEI.
The orientation did not include interaction apart from the personal advice,
which was mostly between a single exchange student and a student tutor, or
an exchange student and one of Laurea’s international coordinators. Same
questions were asked by different exchange students from student tutors and
international coordinators at the same time, creating excess workload. More
importantly, the advice shared was only known by the two communicators and
exchange students could not learn from each other.
Although no major problems were experienced
with the previous orientation, Laurea wanted to
provide better service for incoming exchange stu-
dents and try to reform students’ expectations to better match the reality they
are facing upon arriving to Finland. The overall target of the development is well
orientated incoming exchange students and a successful learning experience
for both the student and Laurea. This translates to shorter adjustment time for
the students, especially with practicalities that consume much of the student’s
concentration and energy, and is therefore anticipated to result better academic
performance /1.
Other important objectives for the improved orientation are minimising the
overlapping work of personal advice, ensuring good quality information also
during holidays, and introducing the incoming exchange students among each
other and with local student tutors. The last of these is very much sought after
by exchange students themselves /2.
Aiming for better
Picture 1. The front page of Welcome to Finland workspace at Optima
e-learning platform.
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made the availability for personal advice challenging. A shared platform allows
wider participation and is cost affective as it balances and decreases workload
thus releasing resources. The online orientation and guidance is also more varied
when more people are contributing to the discussion. Below Figure 1 presents
the different orientation and guidance phases for exchange students coming
to study at Laurea. The virtual orientation and guidance is most important prior
to the physical exchange, but use of the workspace is encouraged throughout
the exchange.
Figure 1: Example of incoming student mobility process to Laurea
when the exchange period is autumn term.
3/ Tempus Public Foundation, 2006. 4/ Thematic interviews with current exchange students at Laurea,
Saviaho, September 2007.
their personal logins and passwords upon their arrival to Finland. The picture
below features the opening page of Welcome to Finland.
Welcome to Finland workspace has been divided into sections according to the
main practical issues of interest to incoming exchange students:
> Accommodation; information on rental options, times, rent,
handling keys, housing rules etc.
> Tutoring, orientation and student benefi ts; information on tutoring
and tutor students, arrival days, orientation
week, student benefi ts in Finland etc.
> Experiences of former exchange students; advice and experiences
of previous years’ exchange students, discussion among the
arriving students
These sections include information on the issue and a discussion forum that
everyone can use to ask and answer questions. The discussion forums enable
students to view messages posted by others and receive much more varied and
detailed information this way. Linguistic and intercultural preparation is also
important /3, and the workspace includes a broad section on Finland with infor-
mation on Finnish culture, society and language, quizzes, links to internet pages
and a service guide for international students in Finland.
By providing an online platform for sharing information and getting to know one
another, a virtual community can be created prior to the physical mobility. This
is a completely new interactive element in the orientation at Laurea. The com-
munity offers peer support among the ’exchange students to be’ and the Finnish
tutors, and creates a feeling of being welcomed. Feeling welcomed and receiving
support prior to the exchange can infl uence the incoming exchange students’
motivation and approach towards the experience positively and relief the anxi-
ety of facing the unknown /4.
Welcome to Finland acts also as an archive, fulfi lling the object of ensuring
correct and good quality information for all incoming exchange students at all
times. Previously the differing times of summer holidays within Europe have
SPRING
Orientation week and camp
AUTUMN
Using ’Welcome to Finland’ to orientate for the exchange, receive guidance and get to know tutors and other incoming students
-> Access to ’Welcome to Finland’
Application and acceptance
Thinking of going on an exchange; Information available at home institution and at www.laurea.fi
Joining Laurea’s Erasmus Alumni Giving
feedback
Continuing using ’Welcome to Finland’; sharing it with spring terms’ incoming students
Face-to-face tutoring (by student tutors and god families)
Arrival days
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Welcome to Finland -virtual orientation and guid-
ance is being developed based on the experienc-
es and feedback so far. Changes are made to the
workspace layout to make it more user-friendly, and information on studies and
study methods at Laurea will be added. Increasing the involvement of student
tutors and international coordinators is encouraged, for example student tutors
are asked to write introductions of them selves and to participate in giving guid-
ance to incoming students.
Guidance from previous year’s students to next year’s students is an important
development area as exchange students tend to seek for advice from their coun-
trymen and other exchange students /7. Current exchange students have been
requested to write about their experiences and give recommendations for the new
exchange students from the point of view of their own culture, and also in their
native language. Continuance is formed by using the same workspace, thus allow-
ing the new incoming students to view previous discussion and to learn from it.
The development in Laurea’s virtual orientation
and online peer support ‘Welcome to Finland’ has
proven to have been successful in reaching its
goals so far. Despite of this, there is still room for improvement and challenges
to face, thus the development work will continue. The virtual orientation and
peer support are however here to stay, and will most likely become more popu-
lar and an area for further cooperation between Laurea and its international
partner institutions.
5/ Thematic interviews with current exchange students at Laurea,Saviaho, September 2007.
6/ Thematic interviews with current exchange students at Laurea,Saviaho, September 2007.
7/ Garam, 2003, Krupnik and Krzaklewksa, 2006 and Amillo et.al. 2005.
Future development
Summary
The new virtual orientation and guidance has
been in use since spring 2007, and has been suc-
cessful so far. Exchange students have given posi-
tive feedback on the Welcome to Finland workspace. Especially the vast infor-
mation, open communication and discussion forums have received recognition.
“A LOT of information” and “discussion is good, especially getting in touch with
others coming to Finland and with fl atmates” are some of the comments from
interviewed exchange students. In the discussion forums students have noticed
that they are not alone with their questions. Receiving answers and support has
given them a welcomed feeling /5.
The challenges of virtual orientation and guidance are connected to students’
ICT and language skills, previous experience of different e-learning tools and in-
ternet, and view on chatting culture. The interactivity of virtual orientation de-
pends on the activity and interest of the students themselves. A portion of all
incoming exchange students have been active users, similarly to the way only a
percentage of all students are active students. Inactivity can also be explained
by so called ‘digital culture shock’, which refers to the difference between home
and host HEI in using digital tools such as e-learning platforms, electronic en-
rolment and other online applications. Some interviewed students, who had vis-
ited Welcome to Finland but had not used it much, explained their inactivity: “we
have nothing like this [at home HEI]”. Cultural differences exist also in credibility
of guidance. To some students ‘spoken’ information or individual advice is more
reliable than written general information, and they look for confi rmation with
questions “Do these instructions / rules apply to me as well?” /6.
Challenges lay also on the other side of orientation and guidance, as the ICT skills
and previous experience in using online tools of the people giving guidance
infl uence the quality of virtual orientation. A feeling of ‘owning the work-
space’ is crucial to user activity, because if you do not feel a workspace (that has
been created by someone else) is for you to use, you do not tend to use it. Chal-
lenges with the technical application of Optima system, its layout and usability,
and with the use of visitor login also create room for improvement.
Preliminary results
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The SUMIT conference’s /8 title ‘Enhancing Student Mobility in a Digital World
– Sharing Experiences in an Enlarged Europe’ contains words that are in the
cornerstone of the Bologna Process and that should make us refl ect upon:
> Student mobility; ICT; Enlarged Europe; Experience; Sharing; Enhancement.
The Bologna Process promotes the preparation of graduates for the European
and International labour markets. It enhances academic and professional mobil-
ity, the recognition of qualifi cations, skills and competences and personal devel-
opment. It also educates for and promotes a clear European citizenship, which
involves a European identity and the participation in democratic processes.
Student mobility is at the heart of the European policies in the fi eld of Education
and it has opened the door to the development of new concepts and provisions.
It implies internationalisation strategies, innovation and modernisation in insti-
The Sumit Project And The Bologna Process
Jolanta Urbanikowa’s presentation,
University of Warsaw, Poland
Noelia Cantero Gonzálvez,
Brussels Education Services, Belgium
8/ The SUMIT conference was held at the University of Warsaw in Warsaw (Poland) on October 11-12, 2007.
1. MAIWORM, W. AND TEICHLER, U. (2002) The Students’ Experience, Erasmus in the Socrates
Programme, Findings of an Evaluation Study, ACA Papers on International Coopertation
in Education.
2. GARAM, I. (2003) Advanced and unusual. Finland as seen by international students and
trainees. Occasional Paper, 1/2003, Centre for international Mobility CIMO www.cimo.fi
3. KRUPNIK, S. AND KRZAKLEWKSA, E. (2006) Exchange students’ rights. Results of Erasmus
Student Network Survey 2006, Erasmus Student Network www.esn.org
4. TEMPUS PUBLIC FOUNDATION (2006) Generation – Dissemination of results and best
practices for raising the profi le of Erasmus Mobility, Final report,
www.english.tpf.hu/pages/books/index.php?page_id=15&books_id=1.
5. AMILLO, JUNE, FULLER, URSULA, LAXER, CARY, MCCRACKEN, W. MICHAEL & MERTZ, JOSEPH (2005)
Facilitating student learning through study abroad and international projects – ITiCSE 2005
working group reports, www.delivery.acm.org/10.1145/1120000/1113892/p139-fuller.pdf?key1=
1113892&key2=6715667711&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=15151515&CFTOKEN=6184618
References
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> Promote Erasmus as a vehicle for quality mobility in different
aspects: recognition (wider use of ECTS), mobility arrangements,
proper documentation, linguistic support, social and cultural
support, information and communication
> Digital world: it is not a remedy but an essential support instrument
as it supports:
> Identifi cation and mapping of what is already available at Higher
Education level.
> Stocktaking of grass roots initiatives.
> Incorporation into the system.
> Quality enhancement and assurance.
> Empowerment of all students and staff.
> Dissemination of good practices: as for example in the University of
Warsaw and regarding ICT provisions /10:
> University Study-Oriented Support System (USOS)
> Centre for Open and Multimedia Education (COME)
> University System of Language Provision (USNJO)
> University Library
> Internationalisation at home and virtual mobility.
The SUMIT project provides, in an enlarged Europe, the right forum for discus-
sion of relevant issues as the access to information, pre-exchange of ICT services,
linguistic support, post-exchange ICT supported services, mobility as an element
of internationalisation strategy, social networking software to serve academic
community, the role of the university library, etc.
9/ Communication from the Commission on the Work Programme for the follow-up of the Report on the Concrete Objectives of Education and Training Systems COM (2001) 501 fi nal and Commission Staff working paper: ‘Progress towards the Lisbon objectives in Education and Training’ (2005).
10/ Further information about the University of Warsaw and its ICT support services can be found in another chapter on this same publication.
tutions and in processes; it also encompasses curricular reform and quality of
provision. Trust and recognition are highly encouraged. Quality is another key
element when discussing about mobility. It ensures that mobility fi ts a purpose
and it also promotes mobility as a driver of change and not as a mere fact.
It is important to underline that student mobility doesn’t affect the educa-
tion sector in exclusivity. It promotes European ideals, it responds clearly
to Euro-scepticism. It can also pave the way for institutional reforms. It sees
Europe as a place to work and develop careers and creates an open, fl exible,
mobile, multilingual and multicultural workforce.
In order to become ‘the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based econ-
omy in the world’ (Lisbon European Council 23-24 March 2000) the Commission
promotes, among the concrete objectives of education and training systems
‘Increasing mobility and exchanges’ with a view to opening up education and
training systems to the world /9. As mentioned in the last Erasmus Student and
Teacher Mobility Reports (data from the Socrates National Agencies), to achieve
the objective of 3 million Erasmus students by 2012 mobility will have to increase
an average of 8 % annually. It is an objective that can certainly be attained, how-
ever experience shows that mobility, as an instrument, hasn’t reached its full
potential in supporting the Lisbon and Bologna objectives and a few challenges
remain to be solved:
Funding (average Erasmus grant is 200 EUR).
> Imbalance between incoming and outgoing students: while
UK, Ireland and Spain register a higher number of incoming
than outgoing students (for various reasons), countries in
Central and Eastern Europe experience the opposite trend.
> Despite the growing number of mobile students, it represents
only a minority of the total student population in Europe.
Some actions that could be implemented include:
> Increase the funding support not only at European level but also
as regards the contributions from the national authorities.
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The Group discussed these topics: If a student
is still deciding at which university and country
to visit, what are the most effective ways to en-
able them to gain access to such information? Can the 12 new EU countries
use ICT-based methods to make themselves more attractive to intending vis-
it students? How might IRO websites and online services help in this process?
What sorts of information should be provided and how (eg websites, through
online communities, via past visitors) and in what language(s)?
----> Contributed by Denise Haywood, University of Edinburgh, UK
The group fi rst identifi ed the problems in student mobility facing the new
member states of Europe. These included particularly lack of reputation of
their countries and/or cities as suitable locations to visit, fi nding partners in
an already mature Erasmus ‘market’, and language issues.
Working Group 1:
Working Group Reports
During the SUMIT Conference, four Working Groups discussed
topics relevant to the subject of ICT in student mobility.
This chapter contains short reports from those discussions.
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them can act as ‘ambassadors’ for your university. To encourage this one has
to ‘reward’ them in some way, and methods suggested included giving small
amounts of credits towards their studies, contributing to travel costs etc.
Language: It was suggested that students who spend one year on a visit often
spend the fi rst semester learning the language (having had little or no knowledge
of it before arrival) and the second semester being able to study in it. Thus they
may be tactical and take more technical subjects which they can understand
more easily in the local language than courses with discourse, or take courses
in English. Helping students make these choices, offering ‘crash’ courses in the
local language in the summer, or using ICT with ‘strong’ partner universities to
establish an electronic buddy or mentoring programme and/or access to self-
tutoring language courses online were all possible methods of increasing the
number of students who might choose to study in the local language.
Finding partners: In the 20 years of the Erasmus programme a rich network of
university partnerships has been established, and many universities are not
seeking new partners. This is especially true in those countries and cities that are
very attractive to students. Thus for new entrants to the Programme, it is hard to
make enough good partnerships, even though their universities may be well-es-
tablished and of excellent quality. Ways of fi nding partners were discussed, and
included using face-to-face contacts and working through the contacts of the
academic staff of the university to make openings that could be expanded later.
It was felt that in this area ICT had little to offer, as personal infl uence was more
powerful. Joining university networks could also be helpful.
This Working Group focussed on the student
experience immediately before the visit. Once
a student has selected a university to visit: What
(IT) services should the university provide before the actual visit begins? Can the
university help the student prepare for the visit? Are there any services accessible
by the network that would make student’s participation in new activities easier?
Working Group 2:
Creating a reputation: The view of all the participants from the new or acces-
sion states of the EU were that developing a reputation as a good university to
visit was diffi cult. It was felt that students tended to choose the country, then
the city, then the university and lastly the course and so for small universities
outside their capital cities in these countries it was diffi cult to be attractive to
students. They had to seek students from wherever they could, and try to offer
something different, such as courses that were interdisciplinary and not likely to
be available in other universities.
An effective method of encouraging students to visit is to offer courses in Eng-
lish, and teachers of English are usually eager to help to do this. However, it has
negative as well as positive aspects, as it adds to the problem of the disappear-
ance of diversity in European languages, and especially those spoken only by
relatively small numbers of people (eg Croatian, Latvian). It also may impact on
cultural diversity as a consequence.
One risk that all the universities worried about was creating enclaves of Eras-
mus and other visiting students, isolated from the mainstream of the university
and its local students. They felt that this was against the spirit of Erasmus, and
also would not lead to good stories and experiences being taken back to the
students’ home universities.
All participants felt that students returning with good experiences to talk about
was essential to a steady fl ow of visiting students each year. Newer methods to
increase this fl ow could be developed on the internet, for example by asking vis-
iting students to write short stories or descriptions of their experiences in their
own language and posting these on the university website. High ‘Googlability’
was essential as most students use search engines to fi nd information about
potential visit locations. Student stories are more ‘believable’ than International
Offi ce publicity.
The development of online communities such as the developing ESN Satellite
website meant that one had to be aware of where these internet communities
were and made sure one had the right sorts of materials represented there. Cul-
tivating good relationships with these associations means that the students in
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buildings, main works of art, top ten pop music hits, etc.;
> actual political information, describing the system of the
state, the ruling party, and the head of state, at least.
4. A photo gallery of “VIPs” of the hosting university
This photo gallery may include photos of the Rector, Deans, Professors, Lecturers,
Miss and/or Mister of the University (if any), people (offi cials, students) that will
take care of visiting students, etc.
The universities’ offer
The majority of the universities keep pages in a foreign language in its web por-
tals - above all, in English (though there are universities having part of the serv-
ice in Chinese, too). However, only few of them have special pages for foreign
students. Web pages are of “general” purposes mainly. The scope of the portal
assigned to student exchange depends on the number of students visiting the
institution: the bigger this number, the greater the interest in such students, of
course. In each case a web portal is only a place where the student can fi nd the
information – but to do so, he must become acquainted with it. And so a new
problem arises: how to make students interested in the information about the
university, the town and the country before the visit?
Some universities offer on-line registration. These are mainly large universities
that have an electronic system for the registration of their own students. Usu-
ally they offer a version of the registration adapted to foreign students (usually
in English). However, many universities do not have a separate English version
well adapted to foreign student’s needs. The registration of exchange students
is being made by hand on the base of applications on paper forms, then. An IRO
worker enters data into the electronic system. Registration is being made in
many universities only after the student arrives at the given place.
Additional electronic services (outside on-line registration and basic informa-
tion contained in the website) for foreign students, such as language courses
or virtual tours on the campus were introduced in few colleges only. The uni-
versity is also offering access to its electronic resources mostly only after the
student physically appears at the university.
----> Contributed by Dr Leszek Rudak,University of Warsaw, Poland
On-line services
Let us consider a few proposals of services that the hosting university can offer
to foreign students before they knock at its door. It is neither a full nor a closed
list of possibilities. It is just a couple of examples of on-line services.
1. On-line registration, on-line library registration, university computer
network access, e-learning environment access
On-line registration is most important here. However, this service gives rise to a
serious problem – apart from the internal infrastructure of the university (if the
university does not have a system of electronic registration for its own students
it will obviously not offer it to foreign students either) – which is identifi cation.
2. Virtual tours
A virtual tour of the university campus available to students before their visit
is one of the most attractive proposals the university can offer to its guests.
Certainly, it will be easier to move around the campus if one can see it earlier in
the “virtual world”.
3. General, language and culture „survival kits”, political information
“Survival kits” is a name for short e-courses, presentations, sets of texts and
illustrations containing useful information.
These include:
> general survival kit, containing: bank holiday days, typical shop
opening hours, police uniforms, important phone numbers, tickets
for public transportation - kinds and prices, measurements, etc.;
> language survival kit with: main words and phrases (thank
you, good morning, where am I?, show me the way to the
university, please, etc.), names of foods (bread, apple, salt,
etc.), units of measurement (metre, pound, pint, etc.);
> culture survival kit, including: history of the country, historical
heroes, artists (actors, painters, writers, etc.), historical
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----> Contributed by Noelia Cantero Gonzálvez, Brussels Education Services, Belgium
The discussion started with a presentation by Chantal Serman from Paris 3 Uni-
versity in France about a blog supported by the University Department of Com-
munication. Through this tool, students who are or have been abroad can post
and comments their experiences. She explained that on September 2006 there
were 17.000 students enrolled at Paris 3, out of which 5.000 were international
students. The University has over 220 partners being 130 from Europe. Accord-
ing to a survey carried out by the Erasmus Student Network, the three main con-
cerns when dealing with mobility are recognition of study periods, provision of
information and fi nancial restrictions. Mobility recognition and fi nancing are
to be tackled at national and international levels, however universities should
improve the quality of the information provided, both for outgoing and incom-
ing students before, during and after the period abroad and promote initiatives
which are design by and for students. The interactive blog presented is meant
to provide authentic student’s experience at the host institution. Students ap-
preciate the honesty in personal perspectives, practical advices and helpful
fi nancial, academic and cultural information. The blog is easy and free to use:
www.erasmusblog.com.
For the time being the blog is monitored by a Paris 3 or foreign student with the
support of a Department of communication’s staff member.
In Finland, there is no such centralised support service. It is up to each individual
student to create his or her own blog. However there are some initiatives trying
to promote more lively forms that students will fi ll out when they are back from
their period abroad. Student organisations as the Erasmus Student Network are
the ones in charge of supporting initiatives as blogs in Poland.
The contact with the Erasmus visiting students once they are back at home var-
ies from one place to another and it very much depends on the organization and
structure of the institution. At Krakow university international students are inte-
grated in the overall system and they don’t depend on the international relations
offi ce but on the Vice-Rector for student affairs. It has been proven a better way
to integrate foreign students. A similar situation is true in the case of Laurea’s
The problems
Most often the reason given for a small number of on-line services offered to ex-
change students before their visit is the lack of IRO staff. Probably the problems
with fi nancing the preparation and maintenance of such services are hidden here.
Second, no less important reason, is the language barrier, e.g. registration
on-line, library training course, campus maps are all prepared in the national
language only, so a student from the different country cannot use it (some-
times it is the consequence of law regulations in the country). The language
barrier is a most serious problem in student exchange at every stage, not only
just before the visit.
The next reason is the organisation of the university. Large universities are of-
ten decentralised. This results in spreading duties related to foreign students
among different units and then proper co-ordination is missing.
The problem of time is the last essential reason for incomplete electronic serv-
ices provided to students visiting the university, which I want to mention. This
problem concerns the universities from countries, which are new members of the
European Union. Student exchange involving these colleges only started about
3-4 years ago and only recently concerns a large number of students. Hence the
need of offering online services for foreign students appeared relatively recent-
ly. Time for carrying all the ideas out was very short. Many services are still in the
phase of testing or designing and they will certainly come into existence soon.
This Working Group considered the following
questions: After the visit to another university,
what might students reasonably expect to be
provided by means of ICT? Continuing information such as that offered to
alumni, electronic transcripts supplied automatically, electronic transfer of
credits, continuing access to some university services to enable them to look
back academically at their period of study visit etc?
Working Group 3:
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This Working Group discussed: How might a uni-
versity fi t the ERASMUS mobility programme
into its global international approach and policy?
What is the interaction between student mobility and global international
policy? Do the institutions of higher education have several strategies for mobil-
ity/ How do the Universities fi t the Erasmus programme into the larger mobility
scheme? What is the relation between student mobility and mobility in general?
----> Contributed by Alina Grzhibovska, University of Latvia, Latvia
Different examples of international approach in higher education were presented
by representatives from Bulgaria, Denmark, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Slovenia
and Croatia. Some universities had an internationalization strategy even before
joining the Socrates program, but some consider that to have an action plan is
even more important than a strategy. In Latvia, for example, the number
of both incoming and outgoing students increases by 30 % yearly. PhD students
are encouraged to be more active than BA students as the benefi ts of doctoral
students’ mobility are greater for the university.
Socrates/Erasmus is not the only way to increase student mobility. Bilateral
agreements play still an important role and this type of cooperation between
universities is very benefi cial. An example of this is UNICA. Exchanges between
network members can also contribute to the internationalization of the insti-
tutions of higher education. National and international exchange programs
play an important role.
An interesting case was discussed by the University of Zagreb. As Croatia is
not yet part of the Erasmus mobility scheme the University of Zagreb has to
use other programs and ventures to increase student mobility and interna-
tionalization. It has signed many bilateral agreements with foreign institu-
tions of higher education which allows its students to study abroad. It also
allocates some funds to support students going on exchange. The Univer-
sity of Zagreb actively participates in the CEPUS program and also makes
Working Group 4:
University of Applied Sciences where there are international representatives in
all the faculties and the central administration is staffed with 20 people only.
As for the kind of contact that is provided, some universities send newsletters,
include them in mailing lists and/or invite them to different events that can
be organised.
Despite problems like lack of motivation, participants agreed that it is very
important to keep in contact with the foreign students once they are back at
their home institutions:
A/ For the Hosting institution: The student who goes back home becomes a
natural Ambassador of the institution abroad, he/she promotes its brand and
is a key element for its marketing and internationalisation strategies.
B/ For the foreign student: for personal (contact with friends) and professional
(further research, undertaking other studies) reasons.
It is mentioned that in order to keep the contact, an offer with different services
should be presented to the students before they leave. However, what could this
offer mean? What should universities include in this ‘after mobility’ package?
Participants agreed to put together in the next coming months a small research
project to identify what student expectations towards the hosting institutions
are once they have gone. A survey consisting of 5 to 10 simple questions could be
drafted and passed it on to foreign students before they leave. This survey would
reveal real student needs. The research project should involve not only universi-
ties but also student organisations as Erasmus Student Network. It should take
into account examples of mobility within the countries signatories of the Bolo-
gna process and not only those participating in the Erasmus programme.
Participants will study the possibility of submitting such a proposal under the
Lifelong Learning Programme and present its preliminary results at the follow-
ing EAIE conference.
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student to come and study at his/her home institution.
> offering more programs in foreign languages
> focusing on the incoming students as they will go back
home and share their experiences with other students
> individual approach to incoming students (easily accessible
information, orientation program, mentor/buddy system)
Another important issue is how does the Erasmus (or other mobility) experience
help in the search for a job?
Erasmus students seen as more open minded, independent and willing to learn
Switzerland as an example of student mobility within one country. Students
are encouraged to study (for part of their degree program) at an institution of
higher education in the canton which has a different main offi cial language. This
allows the students to expand their horizons and gain a better understating
of the structure and functioning of the country. There are some problems with
the recognition of study programs in different cantons and offered in different
languages.
What factors affect student’s decision in whether to choose the capital city or
a smaller town to study in?
> In smaller towns students expect personal approach, smaller
living expenses and less accommodation problems.
> In capital cities students expect better access to facilities,
wider choice of entertainment and study opportunities.
How to motivate lecturers to teach in a foreign language?
> larger payment
> going abroad opportunities
> teaching in a foreign language taken into consideration when
deciding on promotions.
> combination of local staff and foreign guest lecturers
use of cooperation within networks such as UNICA or University Rectors’
Conference.
Student mobility is often seen as the best measure of internationalization.
Universities are trying to increase the numbers of foreign lecturers.
Sending PhD students on Erasmus or other exchange programs can be more
benefi cial to the University than sending BA students. PhD students already
know what they are interested in and have different reasons to go to another
University (ex. to conduct research)
PhD students’ mobility is lower than that of BA and MA students due to several
factors. Firstly PhD students have to publish a certain number of articles and
professional works which makes it diffi cult to move to another country. Secondly,
most PhD students have certain teaching obligations.
Student mobility cannot be discussed only in terms of students going abroad
for part time studies but also for full degree programs. A market approach
to full degree programs in foreign languages is clearly visible as most of these
programs generate income for the University.
Foreign students studying at a University which participates in the Erasmus
program can take part in this program. The conditions for their participation
vary from country to country. In Poland and in Latvia there are special programs
and funds for students form Belarus. In Estonia the government allocates funds
for the education of Estonians living abroad.
Ways to encourage foreign students to come:
> students going abroad are the ambassadors of their university, city
and country so they are encouraged to promote their university
and convince foreign students to come. An interesting idea from
one of the Polish institutions of higher education is that each
outgoing student should encourage at least one foreign
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In the conference we heard about many excellent examples of ways to use
technology to support student visits to universities in other countries. Student
mobility is an important element of European higher education, and it is excel-
lent that so many European universities are using ICT to enhance the quality of
experience of their visiting students. There are three major areas for action:
Raising awareness: We need to do as much as possible to raise awareness in all
the ‘actors’ of the possibilities that ICT is opening up. There are various ways
in which we can do this, for example through conferences, seminars and news-
letters of university networks (such as UNICA, Coimbra Group, and Santander),
professional associations (eg the European Association for International Educa-
tion for Internal Relations Offi ces), local, and national student associations
(such as ESN, ESIB) and government education agencies, especially those closely
concerned with mobility (eg national Erasmus and Leonardo da Vinci Agencies).
As so much development and innovation in universities is dependent upon the
actions of the teachers and their Faculties, it is vital that we raise their aware-
ness of the opportunities and the examples of good practice that exist.
Conclusions and summary
Jeff Haywood, Information Services,
University of Edinburgh, UK
> video conferencing
> checking lecturers’ language abilities
Lecturers age might be a problem with the foreign language teaching as some
older professors might not be interested in teaching in a foreign language. PhD
students should be given the possibility to teach classes in foreign languages.
In some countries lecturers have a high profi ciency of English but sometimes
they don’t feel secure enough to teach in that language.
Classes offered in foreign languages are seen as more dynamic by the local stu-
dents. The presence of foreign students makes the classes more appealing for
local students. Taking part in classes with foreign students can encourage local
students to travel and take part in exchange programs.
Major obstacles for student mobility:
> students work so they do not want or can not move abroad for a
semester or a year
> in some countries as many as 75% of all students are paying
students so during their studies many of them work.
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Quality of services: We need to critically examine our universities and their serv-
ices through the eyes of both our incoming and our outgoing visiting students.
For our incoming students we need to be sure that the information we offer them
online is good and fi t for purpose, enabling them to see information about sev-
eral aspects of university life – the courses and modules they are permitted to
take, if they can matriculate and choose courses online in advance of their arriv-
al, the means of access to libraries and IT facilities, what software and hardware
is available and what they will need to provide for themselves etc. The University
website is where most students begin their search for a university to visit, mov-
ing from it to the various services websites. These sites need to be in harmony
and relevant – they may also need to present some information in more than
just the local language. Some of this information fl ow can be well supported by
means of electronic buddy systems etc that make use of ICT for communications
between students and/or teaching and administrative staff.
Just as incoming students need to be supported, so do outgoing students. They
have to be ready to study for a long period away from their home university sup-
ports, possibly in settings that offer much more or much less use of technology.
Attention to this area can reduce the stress of the early weeks of the visit.
Language support: Language remains a problem area for exchange and visit-
ing students. Some excellent progress is being made in the use of ICT to enable
students to acquire or practice elementary skills in the local language of their
host university. Universities could help their incoming students by making use
of these, or pointing them towards external websites that contain teaching and
self-assessment materials. The less widely-spoken European languages may re-
quire most attention of universities in these countries are to attract substantial
numbers of visiting students. The buddy system may be one method of helping
students through a friendly peer tutor.
European & national actions: Being creative within individual universities is not
diffi cult – there are many examples of innovation to copy or adapt. However,
some activities can only be facilitated through national or European level ac-
tions. Examples of these are: methods to transfer credits for study automatically
between universities, which requires standards to operate to; a single identity
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to enable students to access facilities (including the internet) at other Europe-
an universities without the need to register physically at them; and simpler
methods to fi nd suitable courses in other European universities. Some progress is
being made with these at high levels, but national governments need to strongly
encourage their universities to participate in them as soon as they are workable.
Eduroam, which can provide an easy-to-use wireless network across European
HE, is an excellent example of this sort of development. It works well in many
universities but has not been implemented yet at the majority.
I am sure that the quality of discussion and presentations at the SUMIT confer-
ence, hosted by the University of Warsaw, reinforced our commitment to work
together to enhance the quality of experience of all those students who wish
travel between our universities to gain wider experience of European academic
and social life.
---> e-version of this book on www.unica-network.eu
AN INITITATIVE OF : OUR PARTNERS :IS
BN
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N :
978
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22
635
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“This project has been funded with support
from the European Commission. This publica-
tion communication refl ects the views only
of the author, and the Commission cannot
be held responsible for any use which may be
made of the information contained therein.”
Mobility allows students to improve their personal skills and employ-ability. By creating opportunities and improving the quality of mobility universities offer a unique platform where students gain experience and contribute to the making of Europe. The SUMIT project (Support-ing Mobility through Information and communication Technologies) aims to support the objective of 3.000.000 Erasmus students by 2011 in an enlarged Europe. It also envisages showing universities in the targeted countries how ICT can be used to enhance the quality of the student and university experience of exchange, which, eventually, will lead to increased numbers of mobile students. In the following pages, the reader will learn about many excellent examples of ways to use technology to support student visits to universities in other countries. The present publication also contains conclusions and recommendations for future practice.
AUTHORS: Mirta Baranovic, Tsvetan Bogdanov, Noelia Cantero Gonzálvez, Antonio De Marco, Ewa Derkowska-Rybicka, Christof Devriendt, Denise Haywood, Jeff Haywood, Anna Laudy, Ewa Kobierska-Maciuszko, Andrea Pescetti, Iveta Putnina, Dorota Rytwi ́ ska, Peter Vanhee, Raisa Saviaho, Wojciech Tygielski
Enhancing Student Mobility In A Digital WorldSharing Experiences In An Enlarged Europe
Réseau des Universitésdes Capitales de l’Europe
Network of Universitiesfrom the Capitals of Europe