Erasmus Policy Statement

I

Akademia Nauk Stosowanych w Koninie (formerly Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Zawodowa w Koninie) strongly supports the modernisation and internationalisation agenda for Higher Education, and the Erasmus Charter for Higher Education is integral to the realisation of our institutional plans, strategies and aspirations. Our target is to internationalize our students and staff members as well as have intensive project cooperation with our partner universities. Through internationalization, ANS w Koninie wants to achieve high international standards in teaching and also in applied research if applicable. ANS w Koninie aims to enable its students to compete successfully in today's global employment market ANS w Koninie will educate internationally competent experts with skills needed in the labor markets in the future. Both full-time and part time study programmes are offered as well as continuing education and studies in open university of applied sciences. Education in ANS w Koninie is developed with regional needs in mind. Working life connections are maintained by e g. creating internship and thesis work possibilities. This provides the students with an opportunity to establish business life contacts which will promote their future professional careers ANS w Koninie offers all of its degree students as well as for its staff members a possibility to get international experience This can be realized by participating a mobility (student and staff mobility). By welcoming incoming exchange students and teachers, internationalization at home is enabled also for the students who don’t want to complete part of their studies abroad. It is important that our staff members are able to understand cultural differences, to know other cultures, foreign working lives and different structures of higher education. This will enable creating a modern interesting and also new kind of learning environment and atmosphere for students studying at ANS w Koninie. Through intensive staff mobility and cooperation between staff members from different universities in Europe or other part of the world we seek for even deeper cooperation (intensive programs, curriculum development, project cooperation). All of these targets can be achieved by participating in the Erasmus Programme. While maintaining our existing geographical priorities (in Europe. Eastern Europe and Asia), we remain open to new and unexpected opportunities. Through the International Cooperation Office we encourage the development of academic-led initiatives and projects, disseminating information about new opportunities and promoting good practice in all aspects of our international operations and strategy. We actively disseminate across the institution and to our local community and beyond, as appropriate, examples of the outcomes and benefits of our international partnership activity. Our goal is also to be an active part of the European Education Area, an initiative aiming at benefiting young people across Europe to gain the best possible education, training and job perspectives. The important asset of this initiative is the fact that eventually it will give students the opportunity to find employment across Europe It is crucial for ANS w Koninie to give out students the opportunity to acquire a strong sense of their European identity, the European cultural heritage and its diversity. By taking part in European Commission initiatives, we want to build the academic student community consisting of the Europeans open to other cultures

II

By signing 2021-2027 Charter, ANS w Koninie undertakes to further modernise the institution and contribute to the goals of the European Education Area laid down in the communication on “Strengthening European Identity through Education and Culture" published in 2017. By agreeing to the principles of the Charier, our university will work towards achieving these goals by participating in the following activities. Key Action 1 "Learning Mobility". The mobility of higher education students and staff as well as Key Action 2 "Cooperation among organisations and institutions" Partnerships for Cooperation and exchanges of practices We do know that the participation in the abovementioned activities should be underpinned by high quality mobility of students and staff and cooperation with partner higher education institutions and other strategic partners such as enterprises, companies, regional authorities, etc. Therefore, our university plans to make mobility and cooperation one of the central elements of our institutional policy and strategic procedures. Thus we plan to focus on promoting and supporting student and staff mobility, especially for individuals with fewer opportunities and further develop non-discrimination and equal chances policy. We also plan to aim at signing new inter-institutional agreements and developing cooperation with partners in other countries In the framework of a clear strategy of internationalization with the strong focus on the exchange of good practices. We also recognize the importance of the results achieved by the staff members engaged in individual mobility or in cooperation projects with strategic partners. Becoming a truly international higher education institution is one of the main strategy goals set by ANS w Koninie. As an active participant of the Erasmus + programme we, every year, carry out more and more student and staff exchanges. We seek to improve mobility chances for students, support the role of our staff and students in an interconnected world and raise the profile of our research and teaching internationally. Our international engagement will maintain and enhance strong institutional links across the globe, including those with the European Union, emerging economies and key partners, across the full spectrum of our research and academic activity. We can see that the Erasmus programme has a positive impact on people and-holistically-on our institution To maintain and enhance its intellectual strength, ANS w Koninie must academically support students and staff at all levels, whatever their background. Thus, within the main focus of our strategy we decided to move on with the Erasmus programme. We want to work, preserve and increase access to funding and networks to undertake our research and collaborate with partners within action 1 and 2 (cooperation and exchange of practices)

III

ANS w Koninie is aware of the fact that an effective implementation of the Erasmus actions needs a clear internationalisation strategy. We see internationalisation practices as a mam focus of our actions and hope that international cooperation will ultimately permeate all our operations and activities and we will manage to create for out university itself, our students, staff and partners the best conditions for the full utilisation of being part of the Erasmus programme. Given the above we plan to introduce and monitor the impact on different levels of institutional and academic activity In the context of the Erasmus programme. As for students, we plan to focus on both outgoing and incoming students by monitoring them separately, and at the same time, perceiving them as one international academic community We notice the need for the intensive assistance for outgoing students (especially when they decide to follow study mobility and spend at the receiving institution 3 months or more). To encourage and prepare outgoing students for Erasmus, ANS w Koninie needs to develop mechanisms through which outgoing Erasmus students meet with academic staff or faculty coordinators to prepare for the educational and administrative side of an Erasmus exchange. Academic staff and/or coordinators should follow up with returning students to discuss possible ways to further develop the knowledge acquired by way of a thesis or other type of work Our university should, thus, plans to offer outgoing students mentorship assistance before and after the exchange. Student mobility should especially be promoted in teacher education programmes. Students who participate in exchanges while In higher education are likely to seek international opportunities later once they are working in schools, hence they will be more likely to create international engagement opportunities for their own students in primary schools and high schools. Fostering international orientation of students should not begin in higher education, but much earlier. Only in this way is it possible to create a fully European community. Moreover, we do and plan to do our best to integrate home and incoming students by offering not only separate content courses in English for incoming students but we offer regular content courses in English which incoming students can join and, at the same time study, integrate and exchange ideas with home students. Foreign students appreciate that and like attending courses with Polish students. Moreover, we offer a module of internationalisation courses (students from all faculties can choose  course from that module). It gives students the opportunity to acquire Polish language, Polish and European culture and specificity. We also try to internationalise the curricula so that all students have an exposure to an international learning experience. Also incoming staff members by being assisted by university and faculty coordinators will feel as being a part of international academic community. For incoming staff members our university offers different possibilities of becoming engaged with academic life. It is Important to emphasise that integration of the academic community does not only refer to students and academic teachers, but also to administrative staff. Next focus of our strategy is the promotion of research as well as knowledge and technology transfer. Thus, we will seek opportunities that build and expand relationships with industry and government locally, regionally and internationally. We sign new agreements and attract and retain the recognized researchers and graduate students. We organize international conferences, offer post conference publications in quality journals, invite researchers from partner universities, plan publications. Our university looks for and finds more and more local community and industry partners where home and international students can carry out their internship and develop practical skills. ANS w Koninie will also seek to both extend their partnerships in terms of different areas and deepen them. The choice of preferred partners for such special international partnerships will almost necessarily be defined bottom-up by individual academics and research groups, but they should be coordinated and supported by the top leadership. We also plan to develop research on on the possibilities and opportunities for integrating learning with the use of ICT and distance education into teaching, especially in view of fostering virtual mobility and internationalisation of study at home. Overall ANS w Koninie perceives the internationalisation the main focus of its strategy since internationalisation is central for institutional existence and permeates all aspects of our university operations and life. There are two arguments as to why internationalisation of ANS w Koninie is important. First, higher education needs to prepare graduates adequately for life and work in increasingly globalised environments by adding intercultural skills, attitudes and multilingualism to their learning outcomes. Second, research requires collaborative efforts and intensive international collaboration due to the increasing specialisation and the size of the investments needed in certain areas of research and its practical applications. This is particularly true for universities of applied sciences, such as e. g. our university. Beside the above mentioned aspect of internationalisation we also want to focus on developing strategic partnerships and networks as well as support services for international cooperation. Strategic partnership and networks can be an important driver of internationalisation. In addition to mobility, bilateral Erasmus contracts can also open doors to other forms of cooperation, such as collaborative research projects and the exchange of best practices. In the long run we plan to develop partnerships with some institutions that will be multilayered' and thus enable continuous and often overlapping interactions between students, academic and administrative staff and institutional leaders. Such partnerships have made joint course delivery, curriculum development and/or creation of joint or double degree programmes possible, which is one of the forms of a more long-term institutional partnership. Furthermore, such partnerships could further ease the mutual recognition of credits, which still frequently poses a challenge as reported by former Erasmus students. Such deepened cooperation might drive more joint programmes as well as better compatibility between study programmes at different institutions. Consequently this might help overcome some of the problems with the recognition of credits that students often experience. More intense cooperation could possibly lead to arrangements where elective courses could be taken at partner institutions and would be fully recognised at home institutions. We do believe that Erasmus Programme is and will be well utilised in our university because of a clear internationalisation strategy and our ambitions in international orientation Erasmus Programme should come and be implemented naturally since it is compatible with other measures and helps strengthen the international profile of our institution.

With reference to the sustainability/long-term impact of the projects administered by ANS w Koninie, it can be considered from several perspectives including: financial sustainability, organizational sustainability operational sustainability as well as multiplicativity of the project results. Financial sustainability is determined by the possibility of further funding after the end of the project. The project team can seek various sources of funding. This can be either a contract with the business sector in need of services / products provided as a result of the project, or budget funds from the local authorities, or financial resources of the university. The organizational sustainability involves maintaining the infrastructure and resources, both human and intellectual. For instance, this can be teaching methods acquired during the project, developed curricula, or intellectual property that allows to produce products or provide services. This list may also include tangible/material products, books, brochures released during the project, other materials, the use of which will allow the university / structural unit to continue its activities in the area of the project. Operational sustainability is the viability of the project after the completion of funding and the potential to implement the tasks and functions identified in the project after the end of the project eligibility period. Multiplicativity of the project results is reflected in the impact of the project on the extended group of beneficiaries and other stakeholders. It is important for the project team to understand that project sustainability is ensured through the human resources that were involved in the project implementation. In particular, the staff members trained within the project will ensure that the received skills will be used after the project is completed. Thus, we can say that it is human resources that ensure continuity and the added value of the project Therefore, the project team should try to preserve human resources involved in the project from the very beginning.