Erasmus Policy Statement

Erasmus Policy Statement (Overall Strategy)

 

Activities that UHK plans to implement within the Erasmus+ Programme and which are covered by the declaration of compliance with the principles of the Programme:

Erasmus Key Action 1 (KA1) – Learning mobility

The mobility of higher education students and staff

Erasmus Key Action 2 (KA2) - Cooperation among organisations and institutions

Partnerships for Cooperation and exchanges of practices

Partnerships for Excellence – European Universities

Partnerships for Excellence – Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degrees

Partnerships for Innovation

Erasmus Key Action 3 (KA3)

Erasmus Key Action 3 (KA3) – Support policy development and cooperation

 

What would UHK like to achieve by participating in the Erasmus+ Programme? How does participation in the Erasmus Programme fit into the institutional internationalisation and modernisation strategy?

The University of Hradec Králové (UHK) considers internationalisation one of the essential priorities of its activity (all strategic documents can be found on the UHK website). We regard internationalisation as one of the main prerequisites for quality increase both in education and science & research. The Erasmus programme holds a central position within the internationalisation of education. Erasmus helps to set high and generally accepted standards of internationalisation management and administration, allows interconnection of teaching and education at the UHK and institutions from the programme countries, and significantly supports the international credit mobility with the partner countries. Therefore participation in the Erasmus programme is of key importance for the future development of the UHK internationalisation.

In the 2021-2027 programme period, the UHK will strive for further increase and improvement of mobilities and their impact; the UHK wants to focus more on systematic evaluation of existing agreements and creation of strategic partnerships with the aim to engage in the consortium of universities striving for the European University Initiative. The development of future mobility of the University students and employees will be more diversified and will aim at supporting the mobility of individuals with special needs and from disadvantaged backgrounds. The UHK's involvement in the new programme period will include an emphasis on automatic recognition of achieved results and support of digitalisation, including the development of digital mobility. The international experience thus should become a general part of the curriculum. Thanks to the Erasmus programme, the international competence of both the academic and administrative staff at the UHK will continue to be cultivated, and mobilities will enable the institution to intensify cooperation both in science and education. Cooperation in education will enable us to extend the offer of courses led by foreign experts enriching the UHK students’ curricula. Care for incoming students and employees and the “internationalisation at home” will be developed systematically. Internationalisation in education will also contribute to strengthening international cooperation in science and research. The internationalisation of science and education is interconnected at the UHK, especially in doctoral study programmes. Currently, the UHK is working on the HRS4R (Human Resources Strategy for Researchers) project, which should support commitment to the principles of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers, and thus contribute to obtaining the HR Award. The project activities are focused especially on science and research, namely at the setting of the research organization strategic management, implementation of the system of human resources management in science and research, evaluation of the quality of science and research, development of international cooperation in science and research, and internationalisation of the research organization.

The basic platform for involvement in international networks and the creation of strategic partnerships is at the UHK represented by the following institution-wide research areas: 1) Healthy Ageing and Quality of Life; 2) Security and Sustainable Development in Digital Society; 3) New Challenges in Education; and also by research topics and areas developed at the individual faculties.

Involvement in the programme will further strengthen the positive perception of the European identity; current issues like globalization, safety, transformations of civil society, stability of democratic systems etc. will be dealt with in the framework of international cooperation too. The dissemination activities related to the participation in the Erasmus programme will include not only the University and the city of Hradec Králové but the whole Hradec Králové Region and surroundings as well. The UHK international cooperation will further be presented both at national and international fora (e.g. Czeducon, EAIE, NAFSA, Comenius Association, UHK Erasmus Staff Training Week) and will also have a positive influence on the development of partner institutions.

 

What Erasmus actions would the UHK like to take part in, and how will they be implemented in practice? How will participation in these activities contribute to achieving the objectives of the UHK institutional strategy?

The UHK is an ECHE holder and has been participating in the Erasmus programme regularly since the 1998/1999 academic year. At present, the UHK has agreements with almost 200 institutions from the programme countries and with approx. 25 institutions form the partner countries. The University and its International Offices have undergone great development in the past two decades and have been still striving to improve the internal procedures and make them more effective. As for international cooperation, the UHK has been oriented primarily and in the long-term on the European Union education programmes, especially on the Erasmus+ programme and its Mobility of Individuals (Key Action 1) on the KA103 and KA107 activities. The implementation of these types of projects has already been stabilised at the UHK; they are well organized, and the conditions are being improved constantly, which is also facilitated by external analyses and audits that the UHK undergoes. Recently, the UHK also started to participate in cooperation projects (Key Action 2).

In addition to the mobility activities KA103 and KA107, the 2021–2027 period is planned to greater focus on cooperation projects. The UHK's aim is to strive to maintain the number of outgoing students and minimize the obstacles preventing the students from making use of the mobility offers. We will also use more diversified offers of mobilities: the individual faculties will prepare targeted offers of suitable mobilities for studies and traineeships according to the student’s profile. Strategic planning involves the responsibility of individuals from the top management to the representatives of the individual departments and the determination of numeric indicators and deadlines. The University will continue monitoring and improving the efficiency of the recognition procedure of the study results achieved at the partner university in order to manage fully automatic recognition based on the ECTS credits. The University pays attention to the systematic inclusion of foreign experience in the study programmes accredited at the UHK. The University further strives to increase the number of foreign students enrolled in its accredited programmes and creates suitable conditions for participation in the mobility for such students. Within the mobility development, the UHK will support the “internationalization at home” that will further increase employee language and intercultural competence of employees and at organization of thematic workshops and seminars. Regarding internationalisation, emphasis is placed on continuous improvement of conditions for foreigners who work and study at the UHK (e.g. growing number of bilingual materials, planned creation of a pre-arrival manual for foreigners). The internationalisation of the University environment has been further deepened by the support of mobilities of incoming foreign students. Special emphasis is placed on the internationalisation of doctoral programmes; at present, all newly accredited programmes include mandatory mobility (taking into account any potential special needs of doctoral students).

The existing excellent inter-institutional relations will be used in cooperation with partner universities to open double degree and/or joint degree study programmes. More systematic cooperation, especially with the institutions defined as strategic partners, will further be supported by Key Action 2, the principal aim being the effort to successfully apply in the consortium of universities for the European University Initiative. The identification of suitable partners for the consortium will depend on the institution-wide defined topics in which education will be provided in the close link to excellent science and creative activity. Involvement in the Jean Monnet programme and in Key Action 3 (Support to Policy Reform) is planned within the centralized actions. We have decided to get involved in Key Action 3 because the UHK is the only Czech university that has been systematically pursuing the development of study programmes and research aimed at sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America for more than 13 years. And thus, the UHK has developed a network of partner institutions in these countries with an intense two-way exchange of students and academic staff, which means that the UHK encounters different concepts of cooperation while working on the organization of common mobilities.

 

What is the envisaged impact of participation in the Erasmus+ Programme on the UHK? What are the targets? What are the qualitative and quantitative indicators for monitoring the impact of the Programme, and what is the indicative timetable for achieving the targets?

The aims for the 2021–2027 period will follow up on the results achieved in the previous period in which the UHK aimed at the internationalisation of the following areas: education, research and other creative activity, University life, international projects, strategic partnerships and creation of prerequisites to start the double degree and/or joint degree programmes. According to the UHK strategic documents, the following activities will be the priority aims for the 2021–2027 period:

1) KA103. Mobilities with Programme Countries. In the past five academic years (2014/2015 to 2018/2019), the average annual number of outgoing mobilities was 135 student mobilities for studies, 50 student mobilities for traineeships, 79 academic mobilities and 19 administrative mobilities. The average number of incoming mobilities was 100 student mobilities for studies, seven student mobilities for traineeships, 57 academic mobilities and 14 administrative mobilities. The priority aim for the new period is to stop the adverse tendency of decreasing the number of outgoing students and maintain and/or increase the number of incoming students; emphasis will be placed on the development of new possibilities for both groups. The expected average number of outgoing mobilities is 120 student mobilities for studies, 60 student mobilities for traineeships, 90 academic mobilities and 30 administrative mobilities per one academic year. A noticeable decrease has been evident recently, especially in the outgoing mobilities for studies (there were 110 of them in the last academic year), which is caused to some extent by the adverse demographic development that will be stabilized in the next period, and also by a mild increase of the interest in traineeships or KA107 mobilities. A mild increase in the absolute number of mobilities (as compared to 2018 and 2019) is expected in the next period (the increase in the relative number will be more significant due to the demographic development in the Czech Republic). The basic prerequisite, however, will be a quick and effective coping with the COVID-19 pandemic impacts. The expected number of incoming students is about 100 in one academic year. Increase of language competencies of mobility participants, creation of awareness about the UHK as a high-quality and reliable partner for all activities within the programme, and increase of the UHK students’ competitiveness in the labour market remain the aims for the next period. The University will also focus on systematic support of the mobilities participants and on diversification of possibilities, for which greater support of short-term mobilities will be welcomed.

2) KA107. Mobilities with Partner Countries. These mobilities were developed dynamically in 2015–2019, especially in the regions of Latin America, Africa, and Asia. In 2019, the UHK obtained EUR 697,215 in total within the KA107 project to realize 171 mobilities (113 IN, 58 OUT). These mobilities are crucial for the development of cooperation with a number of prestigious universities in the partner programme countries and contribute essentially to profiling the university as a leading Czech institution focused on cooperation with the Latin American and African regions. The UHK has the capacity to continue increasing this volume in the next period.

3) KA2. Cooperation Projects. In connection with the inter-institutional agreements´ systematization, emphasis has been placed recently on the cooperation projects development for which the UHK has used the KA203 strategic partnership projects. The UHK obtained one project (2019) as the project coordinator and two projects (2015, 2019) as a co-partner. A qualitative aim is to create a network of strategic partners and focus on closer and more intense cooperation than in the past. In that context, the UHK will strive for more significant involvement in projects of this type. The University newly plans to apply for centralized projects within KA2, where the most significant highlight will be the application within the European University Initiative.

4) Jean Monnet. Within the Czech Rectors Conference, the UHK has been engaged in the preparation of the Universities for Enlightenment project aimed at Jean Monnet-type protection of academic freedoms.

5) KA3. Support for Policy Reform. During the programme period, the UHK will strive to create space for involvement in the KA3 project, initially as a co-partner. The aims will include a larger connection of higher education institutions in the organization of mobilities, sharing of best practices in management and institution operation (especially in the area of education and science), cooperation in curricula updating and modernizing (development of the “internationalisation at home” and common study programmes), or the University third role. The aim of the project should also include the creation of capacity in doctoral programmes aimed at African and Latin American studies, regarding the need to involve the doctoral students in scientific teams and strengthen the international research networks.