The
University of Cantabria (UC) is firmly committed to strengthening its
international dimension, which permeates all university activities as
stated in its most recent Strategic Plan. Internationalisation is
approached as a transversal process closely related to the rest of the
objectives of the Plan, namely modernisation of the teaching model,
consolidation of high quality research and knowledge transfer,
comprehensive digital transformation, improvement of students’
employability and entrepreneurial skills, and enhancement of the local
and regional impact of the institution in a socially responsible way.
Considering the adverse global
impact caused by the COVID-19 outbreak in international education and
the uncertainty of the near future, the Erasmus Programme, more than
ever before, is considered the cornerstone of the UC
Internationalisation strategy. The policy objectives of the programme
are well aligned with the institution’s goals (Action Line 5: Objectives
11 and 12 of the Plan) and provide for an essential instrument to
implement its main priority action lines:
Mobility
Increasing high quality physical
mobility of students, teaching and administrative staff and fostering
virtual and blended mobility for learning and training, making it
accessible to a wider and more diverse population. The UCwill strive to
raise the participation of students of all academic levels
(undergraduate, Master and Ph. D. candidates) coming from all
backgrounds. The UC will design and adopt a pro-active scheme to
addressparticipants with social, economic or cultural disadvantages and
with disabilities or learning problems, in close collaboration with
other university departments and services within the overall strategy
concerning mobility, two priorities will be established, namely to
develop creative wand meaningful schemes of blended types of mobilities,
reinforcing on-line formats and virtual cooperation, and to boost
international credit mobility by optimising the use of research
cooperation partnerships and consolidating the existing ones.
Mobility experiences are to be
further integrated in the university core activities and a set of
meaningful indicators will be established to assess their impact and
results, at individual and institutional levels, and in terms of the key
competences acquired by the participants. The quality of all mobilities
will be improved by the design of a purposeful strategy, which includes
better cultural preparation, easier administrative processes, good
risk-management protocols and the provision of a reliable and complete
range of services.
An effort will be made to increase
and improve teaching and staff mobility, so that it contributes to the
modernisation of the teaching and the overall university organisation,
and has a positive impact on the visibility and recognition of mobility
periods and their outcomes towards the participants’ careers. This type
of mobilitywill also contribute to strengthen the synergies between
research and teaching and will help to better identify common areas of
interest, increase the participation in research and cooperation
projects and foster the partnerships established at a doctoral level
concerning European doctorates and thesis co-tutelles.
Development of cooperation projects among organisations and institutions
One of the most important
action-lines in the Internationalisation strategy of the UC within the
Erasmus Programme is to increase its participation in all types of
Erasmus cooperation projects among organisations and institutions, and
specifically, in the European Universities: Partners for Excellence
Initiative. To this aim, the UC will resort to its long-term strategic
partners both within HEIs and other private and public institutions and
agents, and will identify and establish new institutional and
discipline-oriented relations. The UC will actively strengthen the
offices that deal with the management of these projects.
Development of integrated transnational teaching contents and activities
The design and participation in
transnational teaching activities is a priority, which will reinforce
the synergies with other university innovative teaching initiatives and
will increase mutual academic recognition among universities and
countries. The aim is to increase the number and impact of modules,
courses and undergraduate and graduate double-joint-multiple degree
programmes with a special focus on the development of Erasmus Mundus
Masters and Jean Monnet modules. A clear and informative regulation of
these activities will be developed and will be included in the general
academic regulations of the university, after having been approved by
the University Council, and experienced administrative support will be
provided to facilitate the management of the activities. Current
transnational programmes like the “Introduction to Global Studies”
course taught in collaboration with UNC Charlotte (USA) will be
strengthened and used as a model for future collaborative projects,
including virtual formats.
Reinforcement of strategic partnerships and creation of new alliances
The UC is endowed with an array of
reliable and enduring strategic university partners all over the world,
and participates in several European and International networks such as
the SGroup of universities, CINDA or AIUP. Geographically, the strategic
areas of cooperation have been the EU countries, North America (with
over 20 MoUs, some of which with Ivy League institutions) and Latin
America (Mexico, Chile and Argentina in particular). For international
credit mobility outside the EU, the main cooperation areas have been
Central Asia, Japan, India, Russia and Northern African countries such
as Morocco and Tunisia. This reliable network of strategic partners will
be reinforced by identifying new compatible or complementary HEIs, and
by optimising the synergies between academic and research areas at the
UC.
Together with this network of
reliable university partners, the UC is solidly embedded in its regional
environment and is deeply engaged with local and regional public bodies
and institutions (the Regional Government of Cantabria and the
Santander City Council in particular) and other private stakeholders
such as Banco de Santander and other private local companies.
Attraction of international students and staff
The UC aims at raising its
international profile and attractiveness to incoming students and
academics by consolidating the scope and quality of its academic offer
in English, not only concerning individual courses but also,
undergraduate itineraries with at least 30 ECTS credits, full
undergraduate and Master programmes and also, summer programmes. The UC
Strategic Plan also envisages courses delivered in other languages.
It will also work at stepping up the
number of guest academic lecturers and at strengthening the integration
of incoming students within the campus and within the local environment
by engaging them in civic and social activities through volunteering and
traineeships schemes.
Finally, the UC will work towards
creating an alumni exchange student database in collaboration with the
CEOE Cantabria (Confederation of Employers) with a twofold purpose: to
promote the role of “university ambassadors abroad” and to increase the
catalogue of companies and institutions offered to our students for
traineeship mobility.
Internationalisation at home
Regardless of the number of
participants benefiting from mobility, there will always be a high
percentage of non-mobile students and staff. To address the non-mobile
population, the UC will design an inclusive strategy that intends to
help
all students to develop an international mind-set and acquire multicultural competences, by means of the following actions:
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To raise the English proficiency of the university community.
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To
develop a set of courses duly recognised and certified and a set of
non-formal purposeful international activities recognised with micro
credentials, designed for the development of global competences. The UC
already issues a Certificate for International Intensification, which
will become an option for all undergraduate students, as it will be
converted into a transversal optional course.
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To foster the design of pilot teaching initiatives to internationalise the curricula content of programmes and courses.
The UC designed and published its
Strategic Plan in 2019. Since then, the world has been living in a
completely new scenario due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has and will
deeply affect the heart of international education, at least in the
short term. Travel restrictions, social distances and the shift to
on-line classes will have a significant impact in the experiencing of
traditional mobility. However, these challenges could be turned into
opportunities by re-defining mobility and adding to it a virtual
component, making it more inclusive, reinforcing its engagement in the
Universities’ communities and making use of cooperation projects to
search for solutions to real academic and societal problems.
The award of the Erasmus University
Charter and the active participation in the Erasmus Programme is
considered essential for the accomplishment of the objectives included
in the UC Internationalisation strategy. The impact of the programme
actions will be critical for the modernisation of the institution in the
period 2021-2027. It will contribute to the delivery of a
competence-oriented and well-rounded education to all students, and to
the creation of a global campus with a strong European identity and
solid European values within the European Education Area.
