Here some remarks about EMMA staff applications to IMFs
Academic
staff mobility is only for TG1 (TG2, TG3: not
applicable see 6.5.2 p17)
Academic staff mobility
In the context of the individual mobility flows, academic staff mobility
refers exclusively to
training, teaching and/or research activities performed by invited
academic staff of partner
universities in host institutions which are members of the partnership.
Travel and staff costs linked to the organisation of the mobility are
not considered as part of the
individual mobility and must therefore be covered with the lump sum
awarded to the partnership for
mobility organisation purposes.
The objectives of "academic staff mobility" must be:
·
to provide academic staff with opportunities
for professional and personal development, through the possibility of doing
practical training, research or teaching assignments in a partner institution;
·
to encourage universities to broaden and enrich
the range and content of courses they offer;
·
to allow students to benefit from the knowledge
and expertise of academic staff from universities in participating in the
partnership;
·
to consolidate links between institutions in
different countries;
·
to promote exchange of expertise and experience
on pedagogical methods;
·
to strengthen the capacity for international
cooperation;
·
to prepare long-term recognition of studies
between institutions through ECTS (European credit transfer system) or other
compatible systems.
Academic staff undertaking a period of teaching, training or research in
a partner university must
1. work in or be associated to one of the participating institutions;
2. have the nationality of one of the eligible countries and
3. be fully integrated into the Department or Faculty of the host
institution(s).
This last criterion means that:
In the selection process, priority should be given to mobility
assignments which will also:
o ensure that the visiting
teacher’s contributions will be an integral part of a diploma
programme of the host institution;
o will lead to the production
of new teaching material;
o will be used to consolidate
and extend links between departments and faculties and
to prepare for future cooperation projects between the sending and host
university;
o will help strengthen the
international cooperation departments in the foreign
universities;
o will lead to progresses in
the application of ECTS or other systems for recognition of
studies in the partner institution.
Please note that academic staff cannot benefit from more than one
mobility activity within the same project and that mobility of Third-country
academic staff between Third-country institutions cannot be covered by this
scheme.
From the EMMA grant application:
7.2.1. How relevant is the
proposal to the objectives of the call? (…)
7.2.1.b.To promote cooperation between sending and hosting
institutions, thus mutually enriching the educational environment of both
hosting and sending institutions in the European and Third-countries (…) On
the other hand the mobility of staff and postdocs will simultaneously put them
into the role of both ambassadors for their institution and multiplier for the
contacts to the host university. Especially the inclusion of teachers into the
teaching at the host university will give students in these courses a unique
chance to experience different cultures of teaching habits. (…)
7.2.1.f.To enhance the skills and qualifications of foreign higher education
staff so that they can contribute actively towards improvement of quality and
pertinence, to university research, to changes in system governance and to
innovation of higher education through an institution-based visiting teacher
exchange system. The selection process (see 7.0.6) is tailored to select for
postdocs and staff IMFs people whose influence on the development is regarded
significant judging from their application data. To ease staff mobility (2
months), in general we aim to perform
it during the lecture-free period of the academic year of the sending
university: one month of lectures and one month of research at the host
university, to deal with both aspects of educational work. The European
partners agree to include their foreign colleagues in suitable courses as guest
lecturers thus giving them the opportunity to learn from the advise of a
seasoned lecturer and at the same time introduce some aspects of a foreign
education to the European partners – a mutual exchange from which both sides
will benefit. For selected courses of the sending university a thorough revision of the syllabus will be
undertaken, including possibly reciprocal visits when financing of travel costs
can be found on national level. This will stimulate innovation of single
courses and of complete programmes in view of the Bologna process and its
results in Europe.
(…)
7.4. Sustainability
7.4.1
Is the project likely to be sustainable in the light of its
impact on its target groups and at institutional level? (Including recognition
of studies among partners, creation of international cooperation cells in
third-countries.)
The
expected result of the programme is to set-up a sustainable mobility programme. (…) creation inside the IRO of partner
universities of European/Asian Higher Education (EHE/AHE) cells. (…) [Staff
IMFs] will also create personal and institutional links that will have seminal
influence on EU universities due to the specificities and long traditions of
Eastern cultures. More specifically,
during their stay in partner universities, members of IRO staff will
meet students from their fellow-countries and will have the opportunity to put
together local connections that will be as many links for European Higher
Education Cells (EHEC) in their home institution, formal or not, possibly
in connection with European national culture and language centres that will
become associates in further programmes. A first production of such a EHEC will
be a presentation (poster, video, power-point) of its university and
its relations with Europe at the second EMMA meeting.
From my message to one partner contact-person:
Number of (partners and) Staff IMFs: Pakistan
(1) 6; Bangladesh (3) 17; Cambodia(1) 8; India (1) 5; Philippines(2) 13. Thus
there will be a total of 49 staff IMFs. I would find it fully advisable that
most EMMA contact-persons apply for it and I would guess that possibly again
most would get accepted if they apply.
The chances of success depend mostly (if not exclusively) on the care taken in
preparing the application, which means preparing the project on what will be
done during the two months visit to the host (EU) university (and possibly to
other universities as the allowance of €2.500 per month leaves enough money to
travel around- the most expansive being lodging, and €600 per month should be a
reasonable estimate). See above a selection from the Emma Project Description:
a good individual-project is the one that correspond to the Guidelines and
contributes the best to the objectives of Emma.
I would guess that student mobilities will begin end August 2009 (or end
of July if they want to enter a summer language course): this will leave a
reasonable time interval for visas, etc.
In case of staff, if the project is planned earlier, we could imagine of
applying for visa
soon after the dead line of Febuary 28th, as we could have a rapid first
selection soon
after. In the case of application of staff that belong to some local Emma panel
they will be examined by the European panels. So, please begin to fill in an
application form so that, just like other applications, you will benefit of
suggestions adapted to the expressed wishes.
Marc Diener, EMMA Project
Director