- Strategic aims, the objectives and priorities for the Erasmus mobility and Erasmus projects for the next years also in the framework of the Lifelong Learning Programme. What specific action are planned and implemented to give visibility to the Erasmus activities and what type of publicity are given to the Erasmus University Charter and the EPS? What kind of support, if any, the Institution gives to the non-discrimination policy? Since 1999 Academy of Humanities and Economics in Lodz has been participating in the ERASMUS programme, which allows the exchange of students and teaching staff and is of major importance for the process of internationalization and good practice exchange. Till now about 400 of our students have had the possibility of studying at one of our 70 partner universities. At the same time, we have received over 450 Erasmus students, offering them a wide range of courses given in English. Our participation in the Erasmus programme helps our students and our teachers to break barriers and directly contributes to the strengthening of pro-European attitudes. On the other hand, the incoming Erasmus students and teachers also provide for the exchange of good practice, in both scientific and cultural aspects. AHE successfully will coordinate other projects from LLP. From few years have been taking an active part in other Socrates projects (Intensive Projects, Thematic Networks) and have been strengthening our efforts as far as Curriculum Development is concerned. We have great experience in other programs as a coordinator and as a partner, e.g. Grundtvig, Minerva, Lingua and Comenius as well as the Leonardo da Vinci Programme. The European Policy Statement has been developed by a team consisting of the Educational Research Center, the Head of the International Office, the Erasmus Coordinator and the International Project Department, chaired by the Vice-Rector for Education and supervised by AHE’s Chancellor. Several units, such as: International Office, International Projects Department, Studies Organization Department, Education Department, Educational Research Center, as well as all teaching institutes know and approve the EPS and will provide for its realization, giving it priority. EUC and EPS will be widespread at AHE by homepage of our Academy and additionally by IRD’s page. As regards quality of our educational standards in the context of internalization, we take all measures to assure gender equality, prevent racism and xenophobia, and make our institution fully accessible to socially and physically disadvantaged groups. Gender inequality is definitely not a problem at out Academy. Among AHE‘s authorities and management, the scientific and administrative staff of different levels there are both women and men. AHE’s Vice-Rector is a woman, as well as half of our deans and heads of departments. We are aware that young people all over Europe can be influenced by various subcultures. Therefore we have made it a point to make our institution a multicultural place. Our teaching staff is international. All of them are integrated with the academic society and fully accepted by the students. Among our students there are young people from all over Europe and also some from Africa, China. AHE has also developed architecture friendly for disabled students, which encourages them to actively participate in academic life.
- Quality of academic mobility activities. What kind of specific measures are implemented in the Institution to ensure high quality in academic mobility? The high quality within the Erasmus programme is of major importance for our institution. The International Office together with the Educational Research Center carry out regular surveys addressing outgoing and incoming Erasmus students as well as teaching staff. This allows us to constantly improve the satisfaction of Erasmus participants and contributes to the general quality of the programme. As far as the promotion of Erasmus mobility is concerned, it should be stressed that our internal credit system follows the ECTS, which allows for the recognition of the study period spent abroad. Other aspects promoting the Erasmus cooperation are measures extending the use of foreign languages in teaching and research. AHE offers courses held in English for students of Marketing and Management, Journalism and Social Communication, Educational Science, Computer Science, Political Science, Graphics and is preparing such an offer for all departments. Naturally, our English and German Philologies offer courses for outgoing Erasmus students. Researches of AHE publish their scientific articles in different languages. AHE takes care of promoting the Polish language and culture among incoming students. An internal credit system which follows the ECTS facilitates full recognition of the study period spent abroad. Before going to the partner university the student consults his/her tutor and the dean in order to define the learning agreement. If the student manages to complete all planned courses amounting to 30 credit points per semester, the study period is fully recognized. We would like to stress that AHE is working on a complex analysis of good European practice concerning study programmes in order to make our programme as compatible with European standards as possible.
- Quality of student placement activities. What kind of specific measures are implemented in the Institution to ensure high quality in student placement? From the very beginning AHE’s deans and people from International Office helped foreign students to get some practical skills connected with their field of study. Now we trying to organize placements for incoming and outgoing students. The basic quality is provided by:
- recruitment which includes: study results, knowledge of foreign language, intership agreement according to field of study
- identification of individual intership’s curriculum with approval of Vice-Dean of department
- organizing the placement in well-known Polish and foreign companies, also in companies educationally cooperated or the places recommended by partners from foreign universities
- signing appropriate bilateral agreements with special information about placements (name of the place, period, hours in a week, number of students, specialization)
- permanent contact with coordinator from each company
- obligation to official settlement of staying on the placement (to prepare report from achievement intership)
Conditions which each applicants should do are following: main goals of placement should exactly lay out with field of study; student should discuss the plan of placement with Vice-Dean of department; student should get positive opinion (certificate) from host company; student is obliged to give report to International Office; Vice-Dean of department accepts the placement based on agreement with host company. Students from AHE can make practice during their academic semesters min. of 3 months (if they get the acceptation from Vice-Dean of department) or aside from academic year (during their summer holidays). If students pass their interships they can get ECTS points according to their field of study. We have very good cooperation with all partner universities. Till this time we have organized few placements for our incoming students and have taken care of placement of our outgoing students. That is the one of the main reasons why AHE will be perfectly prepared to do good practice.
