Erasmus Policy Statement - Oświadczenie dotyczące polityki w zakresie programu Erasmus

It is extremely difficult to imagine today’s reality at Poznan University of Technology (PUT) without the Erasmus+ Programme. For over 20 years of active participation in the Programme, PUT has become a part of it, as the Programme has become an inseparable part of the University. So far, the participation in the Programme enabled PUT to build and develop networks of contacts, which resulted in vivid cooperation between different institutions, exchange of students and staff, as well as joint national and EU projects.

Holding the new Erasmus Charter for Higher Education (2021-2027), PUT commits itself to all ECHE principles. ECHE guidelines and ECHE self-assessment will be used to ensure proper implementation of the principles of the Charter.

Erasmus+ Programme enables the continuous development and internationalisation of Poznan University of Technology. Both, modernisation and internationalisation are key factors for building HEIs to meet current challenges, to avoid being marginalised as a purely local, regional institution with no links in Europe and/or beyond.

PUT will undoubtedly continue to modernise itself as a university open for cooperation with institutions from Europe and other continents. Being aware of the importance of strengthening European Identity through education in European Education Area, PUT will continue to cooperate closely with its partners to answer the challenges that the European Union will face in the future.

Poznan University of Technology will benefit from opportunities offered by the Programme within:

• Erasmus Key Action 1 (KA1) - Learning mobility
• Erasmus Key Action 2 (KA2) - Cooperation among organisations and institutions
• Erasmus Key Action 3 (KA3) - Support to policy development and cooperation

In the new Programme, PUT will, above all, continue to cooperate with those foreign institutions with which it have already worked in the previous Erasmus+ Programmes and this cooperation has been fruitful, meaning there was at least one of the following activities in place:

• an active exchange of students,
• exchange of academic and/or administrative staff of the University,
• joint teaching initiatives,
• common research projects,
• workshops or other (not only scientific-based) activities.

Due to the geographical location, PUT activities under the Programme will be concentrated in Europe. University partners should come from all the countries of the European Union to offer a wide range of mobility and cooperation opportunities. However, partnerships with some strategic countries such as Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal or Finland will be stressed. Going beyond the borders of Europe, the most important will be activities undertaken jointly with foreign institutions from Ukraine, Kazakhstan, India, USA, South America, Asia and Australia.

Poznan University of Technology’s Senate resolution of 15 December 2010 adopted the "DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY FOR 100th ANNIVERSARY OF THE UNIVERSITY TO THE YEAR 2020". The strategy outlines the vision of Poznan University of Technology as a leading technical university in the country, well recognizable in Europe, a significant and wanted partner university abroad, ensuring high quality education and world-class scientific, research and development works/projects. The document presents the records for the purpose of domestic and international strategy. Internationalisation of education occupies an important place as a factor for motivating employees to develop their workshop and for students to continually improve their knowledge of foreign languages. The internationalisation of study is an important factor in promoting Poznan University of Technology in the world. This strategy was translated into the following activities:

• increase of the number of classes offered in English,
• increase of the mobility of students and teachers,
• creation of joint degree programmes with foreign universities (double/joint degree).

The measures of the internationalisation of the University are:

• the number of foreign students studying at the University,
• the number of classes taught in the English language,
• the number of programmes conducted jointly with foreign institutions.

The new strategy of Poznan University of Technology for the forthcoming years, including the strategy of internationalisation, will be developed in detail and adopted by the Senate after the election of the new Rector (25 May 2020). It will inevitably incorporate the ideas included in the existing strategy and will be based on exchange of students and staff, close cooperation with partners from the European Union and beyond as well as participation in European and international cooperation projects. Those activities will be complemented by the innovative vision of European University for Customised Education (EUNICE) as a result of the transnational alliance of seven HEIs from seven EU Member States including Poznan University of Technology as a leading partner.

Poznan University of Technology has been developing for a hundred years, at the same time implementing the mission - promoting technical sciences and educating young people. The University is a great combination of modern thinking with many years of tradition. Erasmus+ Programme will give a perfect opportunity to build the new quality at PUT, linked with necessities resulting from the rapidly changing and challenging reality, that requires clear strategy to reach the predefined targets. PUT is willing to respond to the local and global needs of today and tomorrow by educating high quality professionals in demanding fields.

Poznan University of Technology will support and implement adequate procedures in order to respond to the priorities of the European Education Area, such as:

1. Full automatic recognition of all ECTS credits gained for learning outcomes in a partner institution, as agreed beforehand in a Learning Agreement and confirmed in the Transcript of Records, with Egracon grade distribution conversion.
2. Language learning and multilingualism for the development of a European identity and better understanding of other cultures.
3. Key Competences for lifelong learning such as motivating young people and increasingly more girls and young women, to engage in STEM careers or increasing and improving the level of digital competences at all stages of education.
4. Digital Education plan to support technology use and the development of digital competences in education. The reality, as the world knew it, changed dramatically with the emergence of COVID-19 in the year 2020. The pandemic forced almost everyone to a greater use of all advantages of new technologies. Hopefully, the lessons learned during this difficult time will remain, enriching PUT educational offer and bringing the University a few steps forward to blended mobility. PUT intends to implement such mobility in the framework of the new Erasmus+ Programme and within the European Universities Initiative project - EUNICE.
5. Common values as well as inclusive and high-quality education to help increase a sense of belonging to PUT academic society as well as to the European family for all.
6. European Universities Initiative. In February 2020 PUT submitted the application under the EUI call with EUNICE (European University for Customised Education) proposal - created of seven partners from: Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland, with one strategic vision for a new European University (Multicentric, Intercultural, Open and Person-Centred).
7. European Student Card Initiative to enable every student to easily and safely identify and register themselves electronically at HEIs in Europe when going abroad for studies, eliminating the need to complete on-site registration procedures and paper work.

As internationalisation is placed within the core objectives of university, therefore the Erasmus+ Programme will be one of the priority projects in the future of PUT. It will contribute to the significant changes within internationalisation and modernisation process of the University, at the same time meeting the purposes of building the European Education Area.