Project for higher education student and staff mobility between Programme Countries and Partner Countries (2017)
Unipi Team Leader: Francesco Marcelloni, Vice-Rector for International Cooperation and Relations
The KA107 2017 project was conceived to consolidate the cooperation of the University of Pisa (UNIPI) with the countries of Central Asia, Asia, southern Mediterranean and western Balkans, and to start a stable collaboration with Africa and Oriental Partnership.Several new partners have been included in the consortium in order pursue the educational and research goals of the universities involved.The project is fully part of the internationalization strategy of UNIPI.It has long been involved in the implementation of projects under the Erasmus LLP, Socrates and Tempus programs.UNIPI has played an important role in the development of ECTS, since 1989, and in the Bologna Process.It is part of the Tuning in Europe, Central Asia, South-East Asia and Latin America.The relations with Asia, in particular, focus on the fields of Agriculture (food safety) and Veterinary, but the various KA107 projects have allowed UNIPI to extend collaborations in the fields of Engineering, Economics, Computer Science, History and Philosophy.The 2017 project involved 19 higher education institutions in 14 different countries.In the Asia macro-region area Cambodia (Royal University of Agriculture RUA), Laos (Savannakhet University SKU), Mongolia (National University of Mongolia NUM, Mongolian University of Life Sciences MULS, Mongolian University of Science and Technology MUST),Thailand (Kasetsart University KU) and Vietnam (Vietnam National University of Agriculture VNUA) took part in the project.Whereas Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam joined the project to consolidate the partnership with an international university, such as UNIPI, to increase the quality of their study programs and become more attractive among the universities of southeastern Asia, Thailand was involved to enhance the collaboration with UNIPI in the fields of Veterinary and Toxicological Studies on exotic animals.The universities of Mongolia saw in the KA107 programme an opportunity to improve their rating and become one of the first 100 universities in the QS Asia University Rankings.Since 2004, UNIPI has been involved in the construction of the Central Asia Higher Education Area according to the European model.The KA107 projects continue this commitment. Kazakhstan (Al Farabi Kazakh National University AFKNU, International University of Information Technology IITU), Kyrgyzstan (International University of Kyrgyz Republic IUKR, S Naamatov Naryn State UniversityNSU) and Tajikistan(Tajik State University of Commerce TSUC) belong to Central Asia area. IITU, IUKR, NSU,TSUC have increased the mobility flows started in the frame of the Tempus CAHEA project and the previous KA107 projects. AFKNU intends to use international credit mobility (ICM) to reach the level of internationalization envisaged by the Kazakhstan-2050 Strategy. All the flows requested for Central Asia area have been realized.Egypt (Alexandria University AU),Morocco (Cadi Ayyad University UCA, Hassan II University of Casablanca UH2C) and Tunisia(Carthage University UCAR) belong to the southern Mediterranean area. One of the primary objectives of the universities of Morocco is the internationalization of teaching and research. Indeed, they are the ones in the area that are adopting the ECTS system. UCAR participates for the first time in the programme, with staff mobility only, to start a collaboration with UNIPI in the fields of rural engineering and microbiology.Novi Sad University UNS (Serbia) has long been committed to the ICM.The project with UNIPI is aimed at increasing the already numerous mobilities, which are currently being carried out also with other European universities. Samara University SU (Ethiopia) is a young institution that focuses on staff mobility to improve the quality of teaching and attract students from all over the country.The Tblisi Medical State University TSMU is a university with a strong international mark.The cooperation with UNIPI is part of the strategy to strengthen relations with Europe.96% of the mobilities was completed. Incoming and outgoing staff mobilities were carried out with all partner institutions, even more than expected. Staff mobility had a relevant impact, above all in the scientific and institutional fields, as a prerequisite to start or strength joint research and cooperation projects, and collaboration agreements on educational issues.The mobility for study mainly concerned the third and partly the second cycle. More than half of the students conducted research activities at UNIPI with the aim of developing a PhD thesis.This allowed them to learn a research methodology, which they often do not develop in their countries because of the lack of resources and research infrastructures.Moreover, since they are also lecturer and at the same time PhD students,they updated their teaching approach.As they will be the future ruling class,the increase and diversification of skills will have a long lasting, though not immediately measurable, impact in these countries.
Coordinator: UNIVERSITÀ DI PISA (Italy)
Start date: 01-06-2017
End date: 31-07-2019
EU Grant: 314.702 €
Project website: http://erasmuspluska107.unipi.it/
