ERASMUS+
Proposal Template
Administrative Forms (Part A) Project Technical Description (Part B)
Erasmus: Key action 1: Erasmus Charter for Higher Education EACEA-03-2020 ECHE-LP-2020
Version 1.1
4 March 2020
Call: EACEA-03-2020 — Erasmus: Key action 1: Erasmus Charter for Higher Education EU Grants: Proposal template (EACEA Erasmus+ IBA): V1.0 – 11-02-2020
ERASMUS+
PROPOSAL (PART B)
Erasmus: Key action 1: Erasmus Charter for Higher Education
EACEA-03-2020 ECHE-LP-2020
Call: EACEA-03-2020 — Erasmus: Key action 1: Erasmus Charter for Higher Education EU Grants: Proposal template (EACEA Erasmus+ IBA): V1.0 – 11-02-2020 IMPORTANT NOTICE
Applications must be submitted via the Funding & Tenders Portal Submission Service before the call deadline.
Applicants must use this template for their applications (designed to highlight important aspects and facilitate the assessment against the evaluation criteria).
Character and page limits:
• page limit 20 pages
• supporting documents can be provided as an annex and do not count towards the page limit
• minimum font size — Arial 8 points
• page size: A4
• margins (top, bottom, left and right): at least 15 mm (not including headers & footers).
Please abide by the formatting rules. They are not a target! Keep your text as concise as possible. Do not use hyperlinks to show information that is an essential part of your proposal.
If you attempt to upload an application that exceeds the specified limit, you will receive an automatic warning asking you to shorten and re-upload your application. After you have submitted it, any excess pages will be made invisible and thus disregarded by the evaluators.
Call: EACEA-03-2020 — Erasmus: Key action 1: Erasmus Charter for Higher Education EU Grants: Proposal template (EACEA Erasmus+ IBA): V1.0 – 11-02-2020
HISTORY OF CHANGES
VERSION PUBLICATION DATE CHANGE
1.0 11.02.2020 Initial version
1.1 04.03.2020 Changes in page 10, 1st box after the Erasmus Policy Declaration
Call: EACEA-03-2020 — Erasmus: Key action 1: Erasmus Charter for Higher Education EU Grants: Proposal template (EACEA Erasmus+ IBA): V1.0 – 11-02-2020
COVER PAGE
Part B of the proposal must be filled out by the participants in WORD, assembled and uploaded as PDF in the Funding &
Tenders Portal Submission System. The template to use is available there.
Note: Please take due account of the objectives and Charter’s principles to be awarded with the Charter under the call (see Call document). Pay particular attention to the award criteria; they explain how the proposal will be evaluated.
Call: EACEA-03-2020 — Erasmus: Key action 1: Erasmus Charter for Higher Education EU Grants: Proposal template (EACEA Erasmus+ IBA): V1.0 – 11-02-2020
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PROPOSAL (PART B) ... 2
COVER PAGE ... 5
COMMITMENT TO THE ERASMUS CHARTER PRINCIPLES ... 7
1. Erasmus Policy Statement (EPS) ... 10
1.1 Erasmus activities included in your EPS... 10
1.2 Erasmus Policy statement (EPS): your strategy ... 10
2. Implementation of the Fundamental Principles ... 15
2.1 Implementation of the new principles... 15
2.2 When participating in Mobility Activities - After mobility ... 17
2.3 For the Purposes of Visibility ... 18
Call: EACEA-03-2020 — Erasmus: Key action 1: Erasmus Charter for Higher Education EU Grants: Proposal template (EACEA Erasmus+ IBA): V1.0 – 11-02-2020
COMMITMENT TO THE ERASMUS CHARTER PRINCIPLES
Declaration
I, undersigned, declare that if my institution is awarded with an Erasmus Charter for Higher Education, my institution will undertake to:
• Respect in full the principles of non-discrimination, transparency and inclusion set out in the Programme.
• Ensure equal and equitable access and opportunities to current and prospective participants from all backgrounds, paying particular attention to the inclusion of those with fewer opportunities.
• Ensure full automatic recognition of all credits (based on the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System – ECTS) gained for learning outcomes satisfactorily achieved during a period of study/training abroad, including during blended mobility.
• Charge no fees, in the case of credit mobility, to incoming mobile students for tuition, registration, examinations or access to laboratory and library facilities.
• Ensure the quality of the mobility activities and of the cooperation projects throughout the application and implementation phases.
• Implement the priorities of the Programme:
o By undertaking the necessary steps to implement digital mobility
management in line with the technical standards of the European Student Card Initiative.
o By promoting environmentally friendly practices in all activities related to the Programme.
o By encouraging the participation of individuals with fewer opportunities in the Programme.
o By promoting civic engagement and encouraging students and staff to get involved as active citizens before, during and after their participation in a mobility or project.
WHEN PARTICIPATING IN MOBILITY ACTIVITIES Before mobility
• Ensure that selection procedures for mobility activities are fair, transparent, coherent and documented.
• Publish and regularly update the course catalogue on the website of the Institution well in advance of the mobility periods, so as to be transparent to all parties and allow mobile students to make well-informed choices about the courses they will follow.
• Publish and regularly update information on the grading system used and grade distribution tables for all study programmes. Ensure that students receive clear and transparent information on recognition and grade conversion procedures.
• Carry out mobility for the purpose of studying and teaching only within the framework
of prior agreements between institutions. These agreements establish the respective
Call: EACEA-03-2020 — Erasmus: Key action 1: Erasmus Charter for Higher Education EU Grants: Proposal template (EACEA Erasmus+ IBA): V1.0 – 11-02-2020
roles and responsibilities of the different parties, as well as their commitment to shared quality criteria in the selection, preparation, reception, support and integration of mobile participants.
• Ensure that outgoing mobile participants are well prepared for their activities abroad, including blended mobility, by undertaking activities to achieve the necessary level of linguistic proficiency and develop their intercultural competences.
• Ensure that student and staff mobility is based on a learning agreement for students and a mobility agreement for staff validated in advance between the sending and receiving institutions or enterprises and the mobile participants.
• Provide active support to incoming mobile participants throughout the process of finding accommodation.
• Provide assistance related to obtaining visas, when required, for incoming and outgoing mobile participants.
• Provide assistance related to obtaining insurance, when required, for incoming and outgoing mobile participants.
• Ensure that students are aware of their rights and obligations as defined in the Erasmus Student Charter.
During mobility
• Ensure equal academic treatment and the quality of services for incoming students.
• Promote measures that ensure the safety of outgoing and incoming mobile participants.
• Integrate incoming mobile participants into the wider student community and in the Institution’s everyday life. Encourage them to act as ambassadors of the programme and share their mobility experience.
• Provide appropriate mentoring and support arrangements for mobile participants, including for those pursuing blended mobility.
• Provide appropriate language support to incoming mobile participants.
After mobility
• Provide incoming mobile students and their sending institutions with transcripts of records containing a full, accurate and timely record of their achievements at the end of their mobility period.
• Ensure that all ECTS credits gained for learning outcomes satisfactorily achieved during a period of study/training abroad, including during blended mobility are fully and automatically recognised as agreed in the learning agreement and confirmed by the transcript of records/traineeship certificate. They shall be transferred without delay into the student’s records, shall be counted towards the student’s degree without any additional work or assessment of the student and shall be traceable in the student’s transcript of records and the Diploma Supplement.
• Ensure the inclusion of satisfactorily completed study and/or traineeship mobility activities in the final record of student achievements (the Diploma Supplement).
• Encourage and support mobile participants upon return to act as ambassadors of the
Call: EACEA-03-2020 — Erasmus: Key action 1: Erasmus Charter for Higher Education EU Grants: Proposal template (EACEA Erasmus+ IBA): V1.0 – 11-02-2020
programme, promote the benefits of mobility and actively engage in building alumni communities.
• Ensure that staff is given recognition for their teaching and training activities
undertaken during the mobility period, based on a mobility agreement and in line with the institutional strategy.
WHEN PARTICIPATING IN EUROPEAN AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION PROJECTS
• Ensure that cooperation activities contribute towards the fulfilment of the institutional strategy.
• Promote the opportunities offered by the cooperation projects and provide relevant support to staff and students interested in participating in these activities throughout the application and implementation phase.
• Ensure that cooperation activities lead to sustainable outcomes and that their impact benefits all partners.
• Encourage peer-learning activities and exploit the results of the projects in a way that will maximise their impact on individuals, other participating institutions and the wider academic community.
FOR THE PURPOSES OF IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING
• Ensure that the long-term institutional strategy and its relevance to the objectives and priorities of the Programme are described in the Erasmus Policy Statement.
• Ensure that the principles of the Charter are well communicated and are applied by staff at all levels of the Institution.
• Make use of the “ECHE guidelines” and of the “ECHE self-assessment” to ensure the full implementation of the principles of this Charter.
• Regularly promote activities supported by the Programme, along with their results.
• Display this Charter and the related Erasmus Policy Statement prominently on the Institution's website and on all other relevant channels.
On behalf of the Institution, I acknowledge that the implementation of the Charter will be monitored by the Erasmus National Agencies and that a violation of the above principles and commitments may lead to its withdrawal by the European Commission.
On behalf of the institution, I commit to publishing the Erasmus Policy Statement on the institution website.
Legal representative of the institution
Nina Waller, Vice-rector for education Signature of the legal representative
Call: EACEA-03-2020 — Erasmus: Key action 1: Erasmus Charter for Higher Education EU Grants: Proposal template (EACEA Erasmus+ IBA): V1.0 – 11-02-2020
In the following sections of the application form, you will need to explain how your institution will fulfil the ECHE principles if the Charter is awarded. You are encouraged to consult the ECHE Guidelines for support in completing this application.
Please note that your Erasmus+ National Agency will monitor your Erasmus Policy Statement and your answers to the questions given in the application. The Erasmus+ National Agency reserves the right to request more information on your activities and propose supplementary measures, for the purposes of monitoring and implementing the Charter principles by your institution.
1. ERASMUS POLICY STATEMENT (EPS)
1.1 Erasmus activities included in your EPS
In this section, you need to tick the Erasmus activities covered by your Erasmus Policy Statement. Please select those activities that your HEI intends to implement during the entire duration 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 to policy development and cooperation: ☒
1.2 Erasmus Policy statement (EPS): your strategy
Your Erasmus Policy Statement should reflect how you intended to implement Erasmus after the award of the ECHE. Should you wish to add additional activities in the future, you will need to amend your Erasmus Policy Statement and inform your Erasmus National Agency.
What would you like to achieve by participating in the Erasmus Programme? How does your participation in the Erasmus Programme fit into your institutional internationalisation and modernisation strategy?
(Please reflect on the objectives of your participation. Please explain how you expect the
participation in Erasmus to contribute towards modernising your institution, as well as on the
Call: EACEA-03-2020 — Erasmus: Key action 1: Erasmus Charter for Higher Education EU Grants: Proposal template (EACEA Erasmus+ IBA): V1.0 – 11-02-2020
goal of building a European Education Area
1and explain the policy objectives you intend to pursue).
Original language (and translation into EN, FR or DE if the EPS is not in one of these languages)
OsloMet has, as a Norwegian public higher education institution, responsibilities to society as expressed in our Strategy 2024: OsloMet is an urban university with a diverse academic profile and a clear international orientation. Through the research we conduct and the students we educate, OsloMet seeks to respond to the needs of society and the labour market. OsloMet is forward-thinking and committed to adopting new technologies and innovative solutions that improve the way the university is run.
The strategy encompasses four main goals with underpinning actions covering among others internationalisation, diversity, modernization and enhancing quality in education. Action plans and budgets have been or are developed to implement the four main goals further, one example being the Action plan for education 2018-2021 focusing on working together with the labour market, research based education and a holistic approach to the learning environment. The latest addition is an action plan on sustainability – how OsloMet will prioritise and implement UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. The plan is expected to be finalised in June 2020.
In addition to the overarching strategy with its underlying action plans, OsloMet has developed a more detailed strategy for digital transformation 2018-2024 called the Digital University of the future. This strategy sets goals for digital infrastructure, digital administrative systems and work processes, as well as for digital teaching and learning. This strategy clearly links to the goal of building a European Education Area (EEA) through digitalization.
Through our participation in an application for a European University Initiative and the planned application for a Centre of Vocational Excellence, we work towards the very essence of the EEA-goals.
However, we see clear links between many more of our goals and those of the EEA and hence of the new Erasmus+
programme. Some of the goals and targets taken from our strategies and action plans that highlights these links are:
Digitalisation
• Make digital and technological expertise an integral part of our study programmes and academic environment
• Develop our position as a provider of decentralized teaching using digital teaching methods Cultural understanding/internationalization/ diversity
• Develop interaction between students, alumni, staff, employers, Norwegian, and international knowledge communities
• Increase participation in international cooperation relating to education and research, particularly linked to EU programmes.
• Increase our numbers of Erasmus+ students.
• Develop knowledge about the international situation and about global challenges that are relevant to our study programmes and our research.
• We will promote equality and understanding—in society in general and among our students and staff in particular.
• Integrate students with a refugee background in the student community and in our study programmes.
• Follow up and further develop the action plan for diversity in cooperation with relevant stakeholders in the region.
Labour market skills
• Offer relevant practical training of high quality in our study programmes
• Develop the teacher and nursing education programmes to become the best in Norway.
Climate Change
• An educational portfolio that contributes to increased awareness of and action for a sustainable welfare society
• Develop a mandatory course on sustainability for all students.
• Prioritise infrastructure solutions that reduce our ecological footprint
1
For more information on the priorities of the European Education Area, such as recognition, digital skills, common values and inclusive education, please consult the following website:
https://ec.europa.eu/education/education-in-the-eu/european-education-area_en
Call: EACEA-03-2020 — Erasmus: Key action 1: Erasmus Charter for Higher Education EU Grants: Proposal template (EACEA Erasmus+ IBA): V1.0 – 11-02-2020
Innovation and entrepreneurship
• Establish innovation, value creation and entrepreneurship as key elements of education and research Lifelong learning
• Adapt the further and continuing education programmes to meet the needs of the employment market.
For OsloMet the Erasmus+ programme gives plenty of opportunities that will help us reach these and other objectives in cooperation with our partner institutions.
Please reflect on the Erasmus actions you would like to take part in and explain how they will be implemented in practice at your institution. Please explain how your institution’s participation in these actions will contribute to achieving the objectives of your institutional strategy.
Original language (and translation into EN, FR or DE if the EPS is not in one of these languages)
We will build on the experiences gained during our participation in the actions KA1, KA2 and KA3 under Erasmus+
2014-2020 and we plan to expand both in terms of numbers of projects within the actions and also in the number of actions.
Many of our objectives will be achieved through several of the actions. One good example is our objectives within digitalisation. Here both student mobility (studies, blended and practice placements) and staff mobility (teaching and training) will cover the objectives on a more individual level, but participation in these actions will also help us achieve our goals on a more institutional level through sharing of best practices and peer learning, particularly among our staff.
The different objectives within our digitalisation strategy will also be achieved through particularly Partnerships for Cooperation and Exchanges of Practices and Partnership for Innovation.
As OsloMet educate a lot of professionals for the welfare state where practical training is an integral part of our study programmes, particularly the student mobility for practice placement gives us the mean to reach our objective of offering relevant practical training of high quality. Practical training abroad is a very good way of preparing our future nurses, teachers, social workers, social educators, midwives and more for a work life where they will interact with patients, users, parents and pupils from many different backgrounds.
In regards to our teacher education we also use student mobility to ensure our future language teachers are able to immerse themselves in tailormade one-year-language training with our partner institutions in Spain and Germany, and now more recently a new agreement has been made with a partner institution in France. Through this scheme which has so far been popular among our students, and which gives our future language teachers a solid education that will in turn result in better language education in schools.
We are very keen to explore the possibilities that Blended mobility will bring as we have several study programmes, particularly the bachelor degree programmes within vocational teacher education, where we have mature students with responsibilities that makes it very difficult for them to engage in a regular Erasmus+ mobility. Also, these study programmes are relatively unique to Norway in that it is placed at HEI-level, making it difficult to find partner HEIs that can offer relevant studies for longer periods. We also believe that Blended mobility can be the key to inclusion of other students that find it difficult to go abroad for more than three months. By participating in Blended mobility, we hope to be able to reach our objective of an increase in the number of students for Erasmus+ mobility through inclusion of more students.
We need to step up on innovation and entrepreneurial skills. OsloMet has been working towards increased focus on this, but it has taken time, different models of implementation and support have been tried out with only sporadic success. With the current situation and the increase in unemployment rates not seen in Norway since right after WWII, we see an increase in the interest in and need for innovation and entrepreneurship as part of our study programmes.
Norway solves the rise in unemployment particularly by offering more young people the chance to study, and we see that this is somewhere where we might benefit from the Erasmus+ programme to reach our objective of establishing innovation, value creation and entrepreneurship as key elements in eduation and research. It is an area that we really have something to gain by cooperating with partners in Europe. This can be achieved through particularly staff training and incoming staff mobility on a lesser scale, but especially through Partnership for Innovation.
The planned participation in the Centre of Vocational Excellence-call will be a means to reach our goal of being an urban university with regional and national responsibilities and with a clearly international character. The Department of Vocational Teacher Education started the process with the first call in 2018 and will build on experiences gained through Erasmus+ Sector Alliances and Strategic Partnerships to build a center of excellence with regional and international partners.
OsloMet embraces the priority of climate change and although we are still in our early stages as regards our full action plan on SDGs, we are already discussing the way forward, both relating to physical mobility in a world where we need to see some radical changes taking place, and relating to the way we educate our students. We will use the Erasmus+
programme to reach our objectives whether through the use of top up grants to students and staff for traveling greener or through the participation in projects to improve on a larger scale giving our students the competencies and skills needed to work in a changing world.
Call: EACEA-03-2020 — Erasmus: Key action 1: Erasmus Charter for Higher Education EU Grants: Proposal template (EACEA Erasmus+ IBA): V1.0 – 11-02-2020
OsloMet has a network of Erasmus+ coordinators. This network consists of the institutional coordinator team and administrative coordinators working in close connection with academic coordinators for each study programme. This network meet six times annually to learn about new calls, new regulations, new possibilities etc and also to discuss different issues that arise in relation the use of the Erasmus+ programme as well as the annual report on the mobility grants.
We will use this network to implement the new programme too. We have, for several years, had an informal and person- to-person type of cooperation with the Horizon 2020-team in the R&D administration both at central level and at faculty/department level. We started to formalise this in 2019 through meetings to discuss where we could cooperate better to improve the links between Horizon 2020 and Erasmus+, and especially how we could work together to inform and support staff at all levels better of the different possibilities. This is particularly important for information and support to PhD candidates (students) that are regarded as academic staff in Norway and therefore come under the administration of R&D, yet have many opportunities within the Erasmus+ programme. We have already seen an increase in the interest from them in the Erasmus+ programme. Lately, innovation has also been placed under R&D, so we will continue to work together, also at faculty/department level to improve and streamline information and support to staff at all levels. As we are part of a consortium that has applied for the European University Initiative, this cooperation will of course be fundamental if we prove successful.
What is the envisaged impact of your participation in the Erasmus+ Programme on your institution?
Please reflect on targets, as well as qualitative and quantitative indicators in monitoring this impact (such as mobility targets for student/staff mobility, quality of the implementation, support for participants on mobility, increased involvement in cooperation projects (under the KA2 action), sustainability/long-term impact of projects etc.) You are encouraged to offer an indicative timeline for achieving the targets related to the Erasmus+ actions.
Original language (and translation into EN, FR or DE if the EPS is not in one of these languages)
The quantitative targets (cf attachment) are in line with our strategy to increase participation in the Erasmus+ overall and also in line with the recommendations of our National Agency on commission from the Ministry of Higher Education.
We have settled for a timeline indicating targets for each year during the next Erasmus+ programme period. There are however, differences. Some of the actions are limited by the Erasmus+ framework both in numbers and budgets, others are of a size that makes it very demanding on resources, hence the participation and success rate makes it difficult to participate in several at the same time.
As OsloMet is a fairly large institution, covering a variety of study programmes, the quantitative targets are on an overall level, i.e. some targets will be more valid for some study programmes than for others. For example student mobility for practice placements are more easily integrated into study programmes where this kind of experience is part of the national curricula set. This does not mean that we do not try to integrate this kind of learning experience into other study programmes, and we have seen an overall increase in the numbers over the last few years.
The number of student and staff mobility (studies, practical placement, training and teaching) has been set to increase year by year with a smaller increase in the practical placement mobilities as this takes more time to increase. With the current situation leading to almost no mobility at all for the autumn 2020, it is difficult to set targets for the next seven years. Also, the uncertainty of UK’s participation in Erasmus+ 2021-2027 will have a bearing on the results as we send quite a lot of students and staff to the UK at present. On the other hand, and as indicated above, Blended mobility is something that we believe will increase our numbers, but it will take some time to build good partnerships to support high quality Blended mobilities. We also plan to participate in the global (international) mobility during the new programme period as we have seen signs that makes it easier to use (longer contracts being one of them). This will give us the opportunity of offering more balanced partnerships with partners in particular in African countries where we send a lot of our students, but where their students do not have the funding to come to us.
We have a very good track record regarding Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships (runner up in Norway). We will continue participating in the Partnership for Cooperation that replaces it as we see this as a huge stepping stone for staff that have no previous experience of participating in EU programmes, possibly giving them the experience towards bigger Erasmus+ projects or Horizon Europe-projects further down the line, but also being the means to direct results from Horizon 2020 and future Horizon Europe-projects, or other EU-funded projects, into improving education. We also see these projects as particularly relevant to our Teacher Education-faculty as we can contribute towards lifelong learning of teachers as well as prepare our teacher students for their profession. Even so, we have only planned for a limited number of these projects with no annual increase. The reason being that with the experience we have gained through the Strategic Partnerships, we would like to move into bigger projects such as Partnership for Innovation and KA3 actions as these will contribute to our objectives in different and complementary ways than the Partnership for Cooperation projects will.
We have set the target at two Erasmus Mundus projects for the whole period, one being part of the hopefully, future European University Initiative that we have applied for with our consortium U!reka. The second Erasmus Mundus project is still not decided upon, but we do have several candidates that are eager to pursue this kind of collaboration.
Call: EACEA-03-2020 — Erasmus: Key action 1: Erasmus Charter for Higher Education EU Grants: Proposal template (EACEA Erasmus+ IBA): V1.0 – 11-02-2020
We will use the Mundus action to underpin our objective of offering study programmes that lead to employability and thus meets the needs of the labour market.
Qualitative indicators and indeed targets are by far the more challenging as they need to make use of other kinds of means. The number of students and staff, both incoming and outgoing, will of course have impact on OsloMet, but it is more difficult to find out what it means other than in terms of numbers. One could argue that the percentage of students reporting that they are happy with the academic mentoring and administrative support can be said to be a qualitative as well as a quantitative indicator. They measure impact on a more individual level but this will hopefully lead to a sharing of good experiences that might in turn lead to more students and staff choosing to go abroad.
We have chosen some indicators where we presently score very well, and it is important for us to keep those high scores. They are therefore included among the indicators and targets.
Qualitative indicators (cf attachment) are often mapped rather than measured, usually through more in depth questions through interviews either individually or in groups, or through surveys. We have, both on institutional level and on national level, student surveys which map among other things how soon after graduation our students find work, and even relevant work, but it is very difficult to measure to what extent this is due to the Erasmus+ action they have participated in.
We have therefore chosen to set qualitative questions related to the impact of KA2 projects in our plan. So far it has been difficult to evaluate the long term impact of KA2 projects. Our national agency wrote a report on national level, the downside to this report, being that it happened before many of the projects had had any results yet. We would therefore like to know more about the qualitative results of our participation in projects to see if we have reached the intended impact, or even other types of impact than the ones intended. We have therefore selected a number of qualitative indicators that we would like to explore and possibly expand upon through surveys and possibly interviews with staff, students and participants from outside OsloMet participating in these projects.
Call: EACEA-03-2020 — Erasmus: Key action 1: Erasmus Charter for Higher Education EU Grants: Proposal template (EACEA Erasmus+ IBA): V1.0 – 11-02-2020
2. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES 2.1 Implementation of the new principles+
Please explain the measures taken in your institution to respect the principles of non- discrimination, transparency and inclusion of students and staff. Describe how your institution ensures full and equitable access to participants from all backgrounds, paying particular attention to the inclusion of those with fewer opportunities.
One of OsloMet’s three core values is diversity. We aim at providing equal opportunities and treatment to all students and staff, incoming as well as outgoing.
As a public institution we are governed by laws and regulations that are set out to ensure these very principles. In adherence to this framework all our students are eligible for mobilities provided they have completed one year of study according to their study plan. In addition to this comes different academic criteria depending on their study programme at OsloMet and on the offers at our partner institutions both in order to ensure a pre-approved and recognised mobility period. Information on the criteria is posted on our website, in addition to information given in meetings with the students (individual meetings, group meetings or in classrooms). We have a Student Ombud to whom the students can talk if they find that they have been discriminated against in any way. Our students are overall very good at bringing matters before the Ombud, we are therefore confident that this is a system that works. The Ombud has an independent position to ensure the fair treatment of the complaints that the students bring forward, and is currently held by a legal adviser.
Staff on mobility is selected based on non-discrimatory criteria and application procedures posted on our website. We have currently two internal application calls each year. Information on this, the criteria and the process, is sent on e- mail to all employees approximately a month in advance and is also posted as news on the intraweb. The link to OsloMet’s strategies is a vital part of the criteria for being selected for an Erasmus+ mobility, as is the need to show how the planned mobility is contributing towards personal competency-building.
Additionally, each Inter-institutional agreement and partnerships entered into, has to adhere to our criteria that we do not accept cooperation agreements that are against the Human Rights, this encompasses all forms of collaboration leading to a deterioration for exposed, marginalised groups or minority groups based on ethnicity, colur, gender identication, religious beliefs or sexual orientation.
Free access to higher education in Norway is available to all. There are no tuition fees and each student can apply for support from the State Educational Loan Fund. The support consists of a combination of a very favourable loan and grants. Additional loans and grants can be obtained from the same institution when going for a study abroad period.
Information on this is posted both on the website of the Loan Fund and ours. The information is also distributed during information meetings, leaflets etc. This framework make for an inclusive higher education for Norwegian students and also forms the basis for an inclusive study abroad-offer.
According to national regulations recently been put into place, we are committed to providing all our online information according to universal design, or inclusive design, ensuring accessibility to information for all. OsloMet is a member of the International Association of Accessibility Professionals and we have an Accessibility Statement and a system for reporting any web sites not adhering to it.
For students with learning disabilities or with any kind of special needs, OsloMet has a team that provides guidance on different matters related to their study at OsloMet. The Erasmus+ team and the special needs’ team have worked together to create a website with information on what kind of national support you are able to carry with you when going abroad, what kind of support you are otherwise entitled to (e.g. Erasmus+ top up-grants) and we do our best to inform all students alike. The two teams continue to collaborate also when students have specific questions regarding study abroad.
For students with children we have informed about the newly introduced top-up grant which we have already used to help students with children go abroad. We will flag this opportunity more when we know what the new programme will bring.
For mature students with family ties and obligations to follow up on, we are welcoming the new blended mobility- activity which we intend to make use of to ensure a mobility experience for those that cannot go abroad for minimum of 90 days (see box on EPS). A communication plan has been made to inform relevant study programme leaders of this new activity starting already in the autumn of 2020.
Apart from having these different measures in place already, we will continue working to inform all our students more about these possibilities through blogs, videos, information meetings, one-to-one-guidance and more.
Please explain what measures your institution will put in place to implement the European Student Card Initiative, and promote the use of the programme’s Erasmus+ mobile App to students. Please refer to the timeline indicated on the European Student Card Initiative website
2.
2
https://ec.europa.eu/education/education-in-the-eu/european-student-card-initiative_en
Call: EACEA-03-2020 — Erasmus: Key action 1: Erasmus Charter for Higher Education EU Grants: Proposal template (EACEA Erasmus+ IBA): V1.0 – 11-02-2020
We fully support the ESCI with all the different tools necessary to make it work as we see this as a huge improvement for students as well as staff. We have been following the development of EWP, Emrex, Egracon since first hearing about it during EAIE in Prague in 2014. We have been in regular contact with EUF about the use and development of OLA since we first met and discussed OLA during EAIE in 2016. We presented the early version of OLA to our network of Erasmus+ coordinators at faculty level, and the comments we received were passed on to EUF to help improve upon the tool. We continued to follow the development and experiences gained by colleagues at the University of Bergen, a partner in the OLA-project. The first pilot was launched at OsloMet in early 2019 before launching another pilot for students going abroad in the autumn. We planned to expand this year, but as matters now stand, this has been postponed. We fully intend to implement OLA for all outgoing students within the timeline of 2021. We have also followed closely the development of the other tools such as the IIA manager and we informed our Erasmus+
coordinators, leaders as well as our colleagues working with the student information system (SIS) about the plans ahead for the ESCI even before it was given that name. We had already presented the IIA manager when it was made available in the Erasmus+ Dashboard and our colleagues are all very eager to start using this as soon as possible for the renewal of our Erasmus+ agreements. We are members of a national working committee lead by UNIT, the national provider of SIS in Norway. This working committee is preparing a project that will ensure the compatibility between the national SIS (which we are linked to) and ESCI through the EWP network. While we are waiting for that to happen, we will use the Erasmus+ Dashboard to access the different tools according to the timeline indicated by the EC.
We have also informed our Erasmus+ coordinators about the Erasmus+ App. As there have been some technical issues with it, especially related to language (Norwegian not being part of the official EU-language-portfolio) it has been difficult. Those of our students who have been introduced to the App through the piloting of OLA have struggled and we have therefore not promoted it in full. When the new App is ready later this year, we will inform our Erasmus+
coordinators and we will inform our students as well as encourage them to use it. This will be done through our coordinators, website, handbook for study abroad and through different media.
Please explain how your institutions will implement and promote environmentally friendly practices in the context of the Erasmus+ programme.
OsloMet has for the last year been working on an action plan on how OsloMet shall prioritise and implement UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (cf box on EPS). All faculties, departments and units have had their role in the process, as have the Student Parliament, the students’ representative body. The European Green Deal has also formed basis for the action plan that carries objectives and activities for sustainability in all parts of OsloMet:
research, education, communication and operations.
Within the area of Operations, a system for Greenhouse Gas Accounting (GHG Accounting) will be ready in June this year. This will be promoted and implemented also for students and staff taking part in the Erasmus+ programme either through mobilities or through project activities.
For years OsloMet has had rules in place to reduce emissions related to for instance air travel, Staff going on Erasmus+
mobilities have complied with these, choosing train when possible.
OsloMet will implement and promote environmentally friendly practices according to the action plan within the framework of the Erasmus+ programme. We will continue to encourage staff to travel in a way that reduces the emissions, and we will do the same for our students. Within the framework of the Erasmus+ projects in KA2 and KA3, we will continue to encourage digital meetings as a substitute for presential meetings when this is feasible, or to find moods of transport that are environmentally friendly. It is also important to look at cooperation with European partners within KA2 in particular, when it comes to develop courses and curricula that includes competencies on the SDGs, and also to develop environmentally friendly practices in operations.
Please explain how you will promote civic engagement and active citizenship amongst your outgoing and incoming students before, after and during mobility.
One of OsloMet’s objectives is to empower more academic staff to better disseminate knowledge about the welfare society, and encourage students and staff to participate in public debate.
Overall, Norwegian students have been content and not eager to engage in civic engagement or active citizenship no matter how much we have tried to encourage it. We do see a shift however, with more young people engaging in the support of climate change and support for refugees.
At OsloMet we have several initiatives to promote the development of skills and take part in their local settings outside the formal education setting. One way of doing this is through a project called Certificate for International Learning (CIL). This aims at giving our students academic, multicultural and international competences through participating in at least three activities from a set list, and to write a reflective summary at the end. On the list of qualifying activities are e.g. being a buddy for international incoming students, to participate in ESN or ISU, arranging an event for international students (funding is available through an easy access application process), participating in
Call: EACEA-03-2020 — Erasmus: Key action 1: Erasmus Charter for Higher Education EU Grants: Proposal template (EACEA Erasmus+ IBA): V1.0 – 11-02-2020
the language café for our international students as well as our Norwegian students, and last, but not least participating as volunteers in Academic dugnad for refugees.
The Academic dugnad for refugees started several years ago and has been running since. Through this initiative we work to make a difference for asylum seekers and refugees in our region through a series of events and initiatives.
One of the activities is the Language café, in the current situation these are run online in cooperation with Norsk start, an NGO. Other activities include language courses covering both English and Norwegian run by the aid of volunteer students of Teaching Norwegian and English as a second language, Career guidance and job application courses, training and sports, Open Day at OsloMet to learn about the different study programmes and how to apply, visits to museums and more.
For our international students, we arrange a fair during welcome week. At this fair they meet representatives for a whole range of student societies at OsloMet as we encourage our incoming students to take part in at least one of these, alternatively apply for funds for setting up new societies of their choosing, as this is by far the best way to engage with Norwegian students.
Through several Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships, OsloMet has also contributed to promote active citizenship and inclusion.
Staff and students at OsloMet as well as at partner institutions and stakeholders in society have been included in four projects in particular:
• Removal of barriers to social inclusion and social participation for children and young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (2019-1-SE01-KA203-060425)
• Relevance in practice placements - inclusion of marginalized people (2015-1-NO01-KA203-013240)
• Career guidance for young refugees – escaping NEET status with good counselling towards training and employment (2016-2-NO02-KA205-000780)
• Multilingual early childhood education and care for young refugees (2016-1-NL01-KA201-023024) In all three projects, a combination of coming together across cultures and working with vulnerable people have given students a whole new set of competences and values. This is particularly true of the Relevance in practice
placement-project where physiotherapist and sports-students from three different countries were working as volunteers during the Homeless world cup in football and as practitioners within prison walls.
All three projects have either sprung from earlier projects or led to new projects and closer cooperation as well as having an impact on the students and staff alike.
As OsloMet is particularly dedicated to providing education for people working in the Norwegian welfare system, these kinds of projects are typical of the kind of projects that OsloMet will support and promote.
Each semester we arrange a preparation course for our outgoing students where two of the themes are: On cultural shock and how to adapt – experiences of students who have participated in exchange. And Ethical use of social media which is run by SAIH and is particularly relevant to those of our students who go abroad on practice placements in children’s homes, hospitals, social services, schools etc.
2.2 When participating in Mobility Activities - After mobility
Please demonstrate your commitment to implement full automatic recognition in your Higher Education Institution.
Please describe the concrete steps you will take to ensure the full automatic recognition of all credits gained for learning outcomes achieved during a mobility period abroad/ a blended mobility, according to the Council Recommendation on Automatic Mutual Recognition
3.
Oslo Met is fully committed to this and we have been complying with it for years. We have also provided input to the policy note coordinated by the EUF on the subject as well as shared our experience with colleagues from several other Norwegian HEIs. At OsloMet the LA signed by the three parties (of whom one is the academic coordinator for the study programme) is regarded as the student’s application and ensuing consent to have the exchange period pre-approved with a view to full automatic recognition on completion. The ECTS credits earned in accordance with the pre-approved LA, or indeed with the approved changes made during the mobility, are registered in our student information system (SIS) towards the student’s degree upon presentation of either a completed LA or a ToR without any further application needed. Mobilities for practice placements do not necessarily carry ECTS credits, but the pre-approved stay abroad with its learning outcomes replaces either practice placements nationally or other kinds of mandatory course work and are as such, included in the study programme, and hence counting towards the degree of the student. In both cases,
3
The text of the Council Recommendation on Automatic Mutual Recognition may be found at: https://eur-
lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?qid=1568891859235&uri=CELEX:32018H1210(01)
Call: EACEA-03-2020 — Erasmus: Key action 1: Erasmus Charter for Higher Education EU Grants: Proposal template (EACEA Erasmus+ IBA): V1.0 – 11-02-2020
the registrations will be made in the SIS. From there it will be incorporated in the Transcript of records as part of the diploma and also in the diploma and diploma supplement according to national regulations adhering to the principles of the ECTS.
If the students have complaints concerning the process, they can either complain to the academic affairs administration, or they can do so by using the Student Ombud (see box above on discrimination).
Likewise, to help incoming students receive their automatic recognition at their home institution, we follow national rules regarding information included in the Transcript of records and Diploma supplement. The students can order the ToR through an online portal. Grade distribution, the work load in ECTS credits as well as an explanation to the two grading scales used at OsloMet is included in these documents. Our online course catalogue contains information on language of instruction, work load measured in ECST credits, learning outcomes, modes of assessment and coursework. We are currently working to improve the course catalogue alongside our course catalogue online for our home students.
Please describe your institution's measures to support, promote and recognise staff mobility:
Please see box below on how we promote/plan to promote staff mobility. We use our network of Erasmus+ coordinators throughout OsloMet to help support and promote staff mobility. We are, sadly, not in a position where we can offer a wider range of support, but we do inform on our Erasmus+ website about the criteria, the size of the grant, the criteria for documentation and inspirational stories that we work to enlarge when we see new, diverse, best practices emerge.
We also give examples of quality providers of language courses as we have quite a few that would like to learn more languages. We also inform through our own cover letter to each grant holder when applications have been successful.
Additionally, we answer questions from people on the phone, or on e-mail or in meetings. We do get a lot of questions immediately after we have distributed our e-mails prior to the internal deadlines for staff mobilities, and we work continuously to improve the information given on our website and in the cover letter to make it more accessible to people.
In terms of recognizing staff mobility, one of the criteria for being granted an Erasmus+ staff mobility, is that the planned mobility should be used to obtain or strengthen competencies needed in the work that they carry out. This is in accordance with our objective to build international networks, gain competencies in international cooperation and projects, among others. Hence the website on Erasmus+ staff mobility is linked from the professional development portal online. Furthermore, staff that goes on mobility, get this recognized as part of their work load. Many of our staff, particularly our administrative staff, are usually invited to talk about their experience during staff meetings. One of the questions included in the guidelines for the bi-annual evaluation of staff members relates to their activities related to internationalisation. In one of our four faculties, the departments have also set themselves targets for how many of their staff should participate in Erasmus+ staff mobility.
During our round of meetings planned for the autumn 2020 (see the last box for details) we will focus on the principle related to support and recognition of staff mobility to improve on this, particularly when meeting the HR-section and the faculties. We will particularly focus on the use of Erasmus+ as part of the evaluation of staff members, and on sharing the best practice of setting targets per department for the number of staff mobilities. We will also look to promote better staff mobility for teaching where we see that a small number of people continue to participate in this action, but we need to see an increase in the number of staff on teaching mobility.
2.3 For the Purposes of Visibility
Please provide the web link where you will host the Erasmus Policy statement in the future.
Please reflect on how you plan to regularly promote the activities supported by the Programme.
https://www.oslomet.no/en/about/memberships
We will continue our current methods of promoting the activities through different media. For students taking part in an Erasmus+ exchange: we tag their contributions on our study abroad-blog with Erasmus+, we make promotion videos featuring Erasmus+ students and we use Erasmus+ ambassadors during information meetings, fairs etc. In addition we inform about Erasmus+ on our website targeting students who would like to study abroad, we have recently made a flyer and a roll-up to use at fairs and orientation meeting. Our Erasmus+ coordinators will continue to inform students at the different study programmes during talks, meetings etc and so will our academic coordinators.
For staff taking part in an Erasmus+ exchange, we select best practices that we link up as inspiration on our website and on flyers that otherwise inform on how to apply for an Erasmus+ exchange.
We will continue to distribute and renew the flyers on Erasmus+ staff moblity and projects to staff at the welcoming- new-employees’ fair in particular, and we will continue to inform of staff moblity through e-mails targeting all staff prior to the two deadlines for applications (at OsloMet). We will also continue to update our Erasmus+ website with information and inspiration on both staff mobility and project calls in addition to inform our coordinators, both administrative and academic linked to the different study programmes and departments. We will also arrange information meetings for staff when we get the more detailed outline of the new Erasmus+ programme especially linked to the new KA2 and KA3 actions.
Call: EACEA-03-2020 — Erasmus: Key action 1: Erasmus Charter for Higher Education EU Grants: Proposal template (EACEA Erasmus+ IBA): V1.0 – 11-02-2020
For project results and conferences as part of projects, we pass on information to member organisations, other relevant organisations, the Brussel Office of our National agency and Oslo’s Brussels Office. Participants in projects or mobilities write articles that are also posted on the intranet. On our Erasmus+ web site we have a list of all the Erasmus+ KA2 and KA3 we have been or are involved in with the contactperson listed as well.
We do, however, see room for improvement. This relates particularly to the promotion on our website both of activities and of results where we have had difficulties not least due to a general problem with the technical side of things. This is now set to improve, and the use of our website and social media to promote activities and results, particularly without the organisation, is something we plan to look more into with the aid of our colleagues in Communcations as soon as our extensive round of meeting (see below) has been carried out.
We will also continue to develop our way of informing about the activities through information meetings, websites, social media and other, more relevant channels that will surface during the programme period.
We are members of a network of institutional Erasmus+ coordinators in Oslo and Akershus and we plan to work together to promote and make visible Erasmus+ activities e.g. through events during the Erasmus+ Days.
Please describe how you will ensure that the principles of this Charter will be well communicated and applied by staff at all levels of the institution.
Our current Charter has been posted on our website along with our EPS. We always include it along with the grant agreement to all our outgoing students and we have informed about it during meetings with administrative colleagues who either work as Erasmus+ coordinators at study programme level or who work in the different sections of administrative support for studies e.g colleagues that provide for special needs, student life, the buddy system, Transcript of Records and Diploma Supplement.
Each year before the final report for Erasmus+ mobility grants is due, we present the findings for our colleagues to have their input on the different points representing our ECHE-performance. These are integrated in the report and we work to improve the points that need improvement.
We do, however, have room for improvement in this respect. As part of the work on this application and the new EPS, we had planned for an extensive round of meetings with staff at all levels, to inform of our duties as reflected in the Charter and its guidelines. The necessary commitment has been given by the rectorate, but the extensive round of meetings had to be postponed due to the current situation. We plan to start the meetings in September 2020 and carry them out during the autumn semester and into the first months of 2021. These meetings will in particular be with both leaders and employees responsible for HR, Communications, Students Services, IT, Digital Learning, Research and Innovation, and Alumni.
We will also continue to monitor the results in our annual final reports through Mobility Tool+ and follow up with relevant units where we see that things are not applied satisfactorily throughout the institution. We will also be using the ECHE self-assessment tool which we are familiar with through participating and giving feedback in the trials of it.
Call: EACEA-03-2020 — Erasmus: Key action 1: Erasmus Charter for Higher Education EU Grants: Proposal template (EACEA Erasmus+ IBA): V1.0 – 11-02-2020