Summary
Mobility is at the heart of the Bologna Process. New numerical targets for Erasmus student mobility and new partnerships at local level are more and more felt as essential for individual personal growth, for shaping European identity and citizenship and for internationalization of HEIs.

The relevance of student mobility in the Coimbra Group universities is witnessed by the fact that those universities “see” about one fifth of the whole Erasmus mobility. In this context, some CG universities together with other distinguished universities and partners propose a project, which focus on promoting quality of Erasmus mobility through the development of monitoring and self-certification tools for the benefit of HEIs.

The project overall delivery should be prepared by the partners’ platform, through common debate, reflection and search for agreement on procedures and indicators, within six lines  of action (to be dealt with by specific Task Forces) which cover the main aspects of Erasmus Mobility.

Lines of action

a) General organizational models within HEIs: human and financial resources, partnership agreements,  student selection process, allocation of mobility grant to students, broaden funding base and additional grants, care of disabled students or of other excluded groups,  centralized vs decentralized management/administration, constraints from National Agencies, IRO’s cooperation with other institutional services, ICT tools and data banks (dialogue among different institutional e-banks inter-university integrated approaches, …);

b) Language preparation and related issues: resources, institutional language centers, models and type of offered services, timing, assessment and certification of understanding-speaking-writing, weight/role in selection criteria, EILCs availability/usefulness, didactic offer in vehicular languages,…;

c) Information and orientation: sources and tools (including websites), institutional marketing policies; models and levels of counseling (individual, institutional, academic counseling vs IRO’s role), role of flow coordinators, promotion of a mobility culture,…;

d) Students’ performances and recognition: overall general framework  (national, institutional and degree-course regulations; window mobility/ thesis work mobility/ free semester/…; use of credits, coherence of Learning Agreement and its time evolution, overall recognition procedure, monitoring documents and protocols,  institutional self-certification of  good practice in recognition, internal quality mechanisms, validation by the students (ESN or other organization/bodies),…;

e) Reception of host students: one desk vs many desks, accommodation services, other services during the stay, support with policy authorities, academic and social Integration (welcoming courses about host university, local and national cultural environment, teaching methodology and ways of assessment), enrolment procedure, ways of taking examinations,…;

f) e-Coaching or ICT mobility tools: e-mail services, virtual buddy-system for preparatory support, e-portfolios during the stay abroad, virtual consulting hour, self-assessment,… .


Main foreseen outputs:

- “Guidelines for good practice in Erasmus Mobility”, including a general mapping report, based on the TFs’ Guidelines and mapping reports.

- “Quality Tools’ Box”, describing key-indicators and relative weights, possible Quality Patterns, Minimal Standards identification, Positioning Scale, guidelines to improve positioning of concerned HEI, mechanisms and procedures of institutional accountability (e.g. self-certification) and of external validation/assessment.

The results of the project will hopefully deeply impact on the quality of Erasmus students mobility in the Bologna Area, affecting not only the involved partner universities, which nevertheless move quite a fraction of the EU total of Erasmus students, but also their many mobility partners, the policies of the LLP agencies and of the QAAs, and last but not least the moving students and their families as well. Moreover we envisage both exploitation and dissemination actions, which have an high outreach potential.