From April 15th to 19th, the Rectorate of the U.Porto hosted its first Staff Week of 2024. The event welcomed 18 participants from 4 continents, representing Argentina, Armenia, India, Kazakhstan, Mozambique, Republic of Korea, Senegal, Spain, Syria, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

The programe included a workshop delivered by the Erasmus + Project unit (IRO), in which participants were invited to collaborate in working groups to develop Erasmus+ project proposals. Additionally, sessions were held on topics such as equality (presented by Professor Marisa Matias), inclusiveness (led by Alice Ribeiro from the Support Centre for Inclusion), sustainability and digitalisation (presented by IRO).

In addition to the enriching sessions and workshops in the historic building downtown, the participants had the opportunity to visit other sites in Porto connected to the University. These included UPTEC (Science and Technology Park of U.Porto) and two faculties located on two different campuses across the city which enabled the multicultural group to have a glimpse of the students’ academic experience. Furthermore, participants explored the Natural History and Science Museum of the U.Porto and embarked on a guided tour of the city centre led by Vítor Bizarro, President of ESN Porto.

At the recently held Erasmus Generation Meeting 2024 in Seville, Porto was announced as the winner of the “Erasmus Destination of the Year 2024” initiative, an award promoted by the Erasmus Student Network (ESN), one of the biggest student associations in Europe. In partnership with the European Commission (EC), ESN fosters this initiative to identify, recognise and honour the best practices in supporting student mobility.

During the awards ceremony, the 5 finalists - Istanbul, Nicosia, Seville, Porto and Sofia – presented their applications to over 1500 participants, members of the "Erasmus Generation".

The selection process involved both a quantitative and a qualitative assessment - to which the U.Porto’s Internacional Relations Office contributed. This evaluation included the analysis of the number of activities organised by ESN Porto and the presence of "tips" associated with Porto in the Erasmus+ app by the EC, as well as the number of initiatives promoted by the city to support international students through Higher Education Institutions, the City Hall, local associations, and other entities.

With over three decades of history, and following ESN’s motto of "Students helping students", ESN Porto organises more than 160 events every year, including cultural activities, trips, volunteering days and debates. Furthermore, it offers over 30 local partnerships, covering housing, transportation, and cultural services, all aimed at smoothing the integration of international students in the city.

The U.Porto annually welcomes over 6,000 international students: more than 4,000 degree-seeking students and more than 2,000 participants in mobility programs. Porto’s recognition as the Erasmus Destination of the Year 2024 demonstrates our commitment and dedication to promoting a welcoming and inclusive experience for all international students.

Within the framework of the Erasmus+ program, RISHII (Resources for Internationalisation of Higher Education Institutions in India) was created to contribute to the modernisation and internationalisation of Indian Higher Education. This initiative focused on the Internationalisation of Curriculum (IoC) of fourteen Indian Higher Education Institutions.

The project was designed to equip these institutions with the necessary procedures, tools, human resources and continuous professional development mechanisms necessary for Curriculum Internationalisation and creating institution-wide thriving cultures of Internationalisation-FOR-ALL. Through a series of workshops, staff members were empowered to become champions of IoC, improving the quality of education and preparing students for a globalised world.

One of the significant results of the project was the development of a Map of institutional needs in terms of internationalisation identified by the Indian partners. Additionally, a Comprehensive Internationalisation framework was created to evaluate each institution's performance in terms of internationalisation strategies.

The project also hosted 4 Training Seminars, which focused on crucial strategic lines, namely: Internationalisation of curriculum and student-centred approach; Global Competences and Learning Outcomes; Engaging students in globally relevant active learning; and Innovative Assessment methods that promote Global Learning.

Furthermore, Indian partners developed Internationalisation of Curriculum Workshops focusing on 4 Strategic Lines and 3 different targets/levels (pilot programme-level, institutional level and regional level), as well as a set of tools to help partners promote the Internationalisation of Curriculum, making them available for all Indian HEIs to use.

Despite facing challenges posed by COVID-19 restrictions, the project adapted by conducting online meetings, ensuring the progress of the project and collaboration among the consortium. In 2023 all partners were able to gather in Bilbao for the fourth meeting, and again in New Delhi, for the final meeting.

Within the scope of the new Erasmus+ Programme 2021-2027, one of the projects in which U.Porto is currently participating is the Erasmus+60, coordinated by the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines.

Erasmus+ 60 focuses on a particular age group that has not been sufficiently considered in the development of Higher Education Institutions’ activities and framework programmes like Erasmus+: European citizens aged 60 and above. With life expectancy increasingly growing and given the fact that one citizen in three is expected to be over 65 by 2060, the need for studying and training opportunities grows correspondingly.

The consortium constituted by 8 universities along with the European University Foundation (University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, University of Porto, University of Split, University of Latvia, Eötvös Loránd University, University of Zurich and Mendel University in Brno) will work throughout the next three years to:

• - map the existing Higher Education offers for citizens aged 60 and over;
• - develop pilot courses contributing to the aim of building inclusive higher education systems that contain adapted offers to citizens over 60, including student life activities to maintain one’s health;
• - promote inter-connected higher education systems in Europe by providing a pilot platform for an online offer of shared courses as well as intercultural learning activities for citizens over 60;
• - develop policy recommendations that will draw on the project results in order to highlight the urgent need to open new and more systematic educational perspectives for senior citizens of the European Higher Education Area.

You can subscribe the project’s Newsletter to keep informed about all activities, developments and achievements.

More information at: https://www.erasmusplus60.uvsq.fr

On 30 June 2022, more than 600 participants convened at the Palais des Congrès in Versailles on the occasion of the “Campus des universités”, a large gathering bringing together representatives of the 41 European universities alliances and the last higher education event organized under the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Erasmus4ALL was represented by Mariana Silva, from the University of Porto and the lead institution in the project, Eva Marcen, from the European University Foundation, as well as Mathilde Morgat and Carle Bonafous-Murat, both from France Universités, the French rectors’ conference.

Our four delegates were met by Minister Sylvie Retailleau and Minister Clement Beaune at the Erasmus4ALL stand and were able to present the project in detail. It was agreed that they and their teams would be kept informed throughout the project, and that they would receive the Policy Paper: “Recommendations towards a more social and economically inclusive Erasmus scholarship” upon its completion.

The project also gained much traction from the representatives of the 41 alliances. This could be expected as improving student mobility is an objective that the 280 or so member institutions all share. The next step will be to liaise with them through the two umbrella organisations, ForEU 1 and ForEU 2.

On the 20^th and 21^st of June, the Rectorate building of U.Porto was the stage for the discussion of the activities of the DITE Project. With the participation of representatives of the partner and associate institutions of this Erasmus+ project, the meeting allowed for the analysis of the work developed that far and the detailed planning of the next steps towards the implementation of the project’s activities and production of expected outputs.

The DITE Project (Diverse Internationalisation of Teacher Education) focuses on the element of internationalisation to increase capabilities of future teachers by sensitising Teacher Education students to international perspectives. As a matter of fact, data shows that Teacher Education in universities has remained one of the least internationalised subjects in higher education. Yet, teachers are expected to educate future generations to become global citizens.

In this context, DITE will learn about the status quo of the internationalisation of teacher education in the involved countries by collecting examples of good practice and interviews with persons actively participating in future teachers’ education. Gathered information will become a basis for the series of trainings for the academic teachers in the partner institutions who teach students of teacher education. It will investigate how such trainings impact skills and competences of the participants in order to make sure that the training objectives are important factor in shaping future teachers’ education. The project is also going to present a model and guidelines for implementing DITE in other institutions. At the very end of the project’s implementation, a DITE network is going to be created consisting of organisations from within and outside the consortium. This DITE network will build on dissemination efforts and ensure long-term sustainability by keeping the DITE spirit alive.

The partnership integrates 6 partner institutions focused on different aspects of internationalisation of higher education: University of Szczecin, Poland (project leader), Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland, University of Porto, Portugal, Rovira i Virgili University, Spain, Global Impact Institute, Czech Republic and SGroup – Universities in Europe.

More information at: https://dite.usz.edu.pl/