4/2007 Increasing Mobility - Finnish Perspectives on Academic Mobility and Erasmus Juha Ketolainen, Assistant Director Maija Airas, Head of Unit CIMO, Helsinki Zagreb, October 2007

4/2007 Contents of Presentation Current situation & trends National level elements Institutional elements Challenges

4/2007 Erasmus activities Student mobility (study / work placement abroad) Staff mobility (Teaching staff exchanges, other staff exchanges, university-enterprise exchange) Intensive programmes (courses) EILC (Erasmus Intensive Language Courses) Organisation of Mobility Support European Projects (Curriculum Development, University- Enterprise Cooperation, Modernisation of HE, Virtual Campus projects) European Thematic Networks Support for the Bologna process

4/2007 Administration of Erasmus Central level: European Commission & Executive Agency (+ European Parliament, Programme Committee, Working groups) National level: National Authority (Ministry), National Agency, Expert committee, Individual Experts Institutional level: Erasmus Coordinator, bilateral agreements between HEIs etc. Individual grantholders

4/2007 Current level of student mobility Universities: 1/5 mobile in relation to annual intake (not only Erasmus) Polytechnics(Universities of Applied Scinces): 1/8 Erasmus main channel (outgoing mobility: 45 %, incoming 72 %) but also an increasing number of other possibilities Almost 1/10 participate in Erasmus figures based on CIMO’s national data collection

4/2007 Features of Mobility from Finland Strongly centered to Europe 65 % of mobile students are female All Finnish HEIs are active, no dramatic differencies Engineering, NatSci, Teacher Training, Medicine could be better represented

4/2007

Most popular countries in Erasmus student mobility Outgoing mobility: most popular host countries DE, ES, UK, F and NL Share of UK is going down Mobility to new member states growing annually Incoming mobility: DE, F, ES, PL, IT NB. Nordplus for Nordic exchange

4/2007 Some Erasmus experiences Very few PhD students use Erasmus Academic recognition improved over time, but still not without problems Language preparation important; very positive experiences on EILC courses Cooperation with student organizations important Social integration of exchange students Challenge: Erasmus work placements (trainee exchange, new element in Erasmus)

4/2007 INSTITUTIONAL EXAMPLES (University of Oulu) Incoming Student Services Kummi programme: Kummi (in Finnish: godparent) is a student tutor who helps the exchange student during the first days in Oulu. Each exchange student receives a Kummi 45 Kummis work for the International Relations during the year, each Kummi has 8-10 students Practical matters: registration to University, getting to know University and the City of Oulu, meeting Finnish students etc.

4/2007 INSTITUTIONAL EXAMPLES continued (University of Oulu) Incoming Student Services Kummi Family Programme: Friend family programme, Finnish families from the Oulu Area take part 150 families, about 60% of students have a Kummi Family Family and student meet during free time: getting to know Finnish family life, Finnish sports, customs, traditions etc. Students do not live with the families City of Oulu supports the programme: organises the first meeting with the family

4/2007 INSTITUTIONAL EXAMPLES continued (Univ of Oulu) Incoming Student Services Language preparation several levels of Finnish courses Tandem-project (“Each one teach one”) student pairs (e.g. a Finn and an Italian) learn each others’ language supervised by a Language Centre teacher Café Lingua Multi-language get-together with open programme and presentations

4/2007 Erasmus teaching staff mobility FIN one of the most active countries 1000 teachers annually out, 1200 in Mobile teachers => Mobile students Host countries: Eastern Europe more popular than in student mobility EU funding not sufficient so far Polytechnics more active Challenge: New possibilities for other staff, and staff exchange between HEIs and enterprises

4/2007 Other forms of Erasmus cooperation Intensive courses managed by National Agencies: over 20 coordinated by Finnish HEIs annually Curriculum development projects Other ”centralised” projects - university-enterprise cooperation, modernisation of HE, virtual campuses… Thematic Networks

4/2007 Why – National Factors National policies of the MinE performance based management and funding of HE, internationalisation one indicator Europe as a positive “chance” National study aid – available to all mobile students Module based study system, easy switch to ECTS Creation of study programmes in English (currently over 400) Well developed student services

4/2007 Some Institutional Elements engagement of the leadership, international strategies internal funding arrangements special measures for ”passive departments” quality assurance information and marketing work international cooperation as part of a teacher’s annual work load (especially Universities of Applied Sciences)

4/2007 Challenges Policy level: cooperation => competition exchange students => degree students Shorter study times, less mobility? Labour market changes, smaller generations Joint degrees and mobility within joint degrees

4/2007 Challenges (continued) How to get more male students moving? How to get engineers moving? How to take advantage of the new possibilities offered by Erasmus, especially trainee exchanges?

4/2007 Some words on impact Individual -New competencies -”Erasmus generations” Institutional -Quality in HE improved -Professionalism in international cooperation -Erasmus as vehicle for international coop => networks, contacts, projects…. National -Finnish HE known in Europe -National output in HE better -Other programmes similar to Erasmus

4/2007 Thank you!!