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
•
•
•
•
4/2007
Current situation & trends
National level elements
Institutional elements
Challenges
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, UniversityEnterprise 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
ERASMUS STUDENT EXCHANGE IN FINLAND 1992-2005
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
92 - 93
93 - 94
94 95
95 - 96
96 97
97 - 98
98 - 99
OUTGOING
4/2007
99 - 00
INCOMING
00 - 01
01 - 02
02 - 03
03 - 04
04 - 05
Erasmus students as proportion of the student population: EUR31
6,0
% in 2005/06
5,0
Average in 2005/06
4,0
3,0
2,0
1,0
0,0
LI NO
BG RO TR
1,3 1,5 0,8 1,0 0,8 0,5 1,2 1,0 0,8 0,8 0,6 0,5 1,0 4,9 0,6 1,9 0,8 1,7 0,5 1,1 0,8 0,7 1,3 0,6 0,3
1,3 5,6 0,7
0,4 0,5 0,1
Average in 2005/06 0,8 0,8 0,8 0,8 0,8 0,8 0,8 0,8 0,8 0,8 0,8 0,8 0,8 0,8 0,8 0,8 0,8 0,8 0,8 0,8 0,8 0,8 0,8 0,8 0,8
0,8 0,8 0,8
0,8 0,8 0,8
% in 2005/06
4/2007
BE CZ DK DE EE GR ES FR IE
IT CY LV LT LU HU MT NL AT PL PT SI SK FI SE UK
IS
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!!
[email protected]
[email protected]
www.cimo.fi
4/2007