ERASMUS POLICY STATEMENT
1. PARTICIPATION IN ERASMUS
Wyższa Szkoła Kadr Menedżerskich (Eng: University of Management Personnel) (WSKM) intends to participate in the following actions within the Erasmus+ Programme:
- Key Action 1 (KA1) - Learning mobility of individuals,
- Key Action 2 (KA2) - Cooperation among organisations and institutions,
- Key Action 3 (KA3) - Support to policy development and cooperation.
KA 1:
WSKM in Konin considers active participation in the Erasmus+ Programme and implementation of the projects within its Key Actions as a vital part and a central tool necessary for the internationalisation and modernisation of the institution – processes that we intend to start as soon as possible. It will be very difficult to achieve the objectives of our Internationalisation Strategy without the support of the Erasmus+ programme.
We expect that incoming and outgoing mobilities of students and staff within the programme will constitute the majority of all international mobilities at our university. Therefore, we have consulted our partner universities in Poland to learn how to organise the process in the most efficient way and designed our mobility organisation model. Our International Relations Office, led by the International Relations Coordinator, together with our Institutional Erasmus+ Coordinator and Faculty Erasmus+ Coordinators (deans of Faculties), will report on projects to the Rector of WSKM and National Agency in Poland, manage inter-institutional agreements, and incoming and outgoing mobilities of students and staff. We will implement Erasmus Without Paper tools and other applications to streamline all administrative procedures associated with all types of mobilities (Erasmus+ Dashboard, Erasmus+ App, OLS, Beneficiary Module).
Mobility opportunities will be promoted among our students and staff – we will publish information on our university webpage and social media, send informative e-mails and organise face-to-face or online meetings. We also plan to organise Erasmus+ Information Days (also online). We will develop and add more information on the part of WSKM’s webpage devoted to international cooperation, IRO’s activities and Erasmus+ opportunities (in Polish and in English: https://www.wskm.edu.pl/wspolpraca-miedzynarodowa and https://www.wskm.edu.pl/international-cooperation ) – we will regularly publish information about calls (at least 2 times a year), recruitment rules and regulations for both students and staff, financing, partner universities and institutions abroad, course catalogue for incoming students etc. This is to make sure that selection procedures for mobility activities will be fair, transparent, coherent and documented. Moreover, it will ensure equitable access to all potential participants, especially those with fewer opportunities. We also plan to extend our informative activities on WSKM’s social media (mostly Facebook, but also Instagram and LinkedIn in the future).
Students will be able to go for studies and traineeships (including traineeships of recent graduates), but we will also encourage them to take advantage of blended intensive programmes offered by our future international partners. We expect that our students will most probably choose SMP and BIP options rather than SMS, but we will be ready to help them organise all types of mobilities. Students from disadvantaged backgrounds will be strongly encouraged to participate in the programme as well (information will be published in the Student Department and disseminated by the Rector’s plenipotentiary for the disabled). We intend to prepare an online application form for our students who would like to participate in the programme – our aim is to fully digitalise the application process in the future. Erasmus+ outgoing students will be selected by the Erasmus+ Recruitment Committee of WSKM (International Relations Coordinator, Institutional Erasmus+ Coordinator, Faculty Coordinators, and Foreign Language Teaching Coordinator) after a scheduled interview with the candidates conducted in English or other foreign languages. We will ensure fair and transparent selection criteria and the procedure will be diligently documented. All students will have the right to lodge an appeal to the Rector against the Committee decisions. Students going abroad for SMS, SMP, BIP will be supported by the Institutional Erasmus+ Coordinator and Faculty Coordinators when preparing their mobility documents (OLA, Learning Agreement for Traineeship) and the mobility itself. They will be encouraged to use the Erasmus+ App and OLS. Students’ admission process to partner universities and institutions will be closely monitored by our IRO. Students choosing SMP mobilities will be encouraged to find attractive institutions and companies abroad by themselves, but they will be also supported in case they have problems with that. When their applications are accepted and signed by the receiving institutions (before the mobility), students will sign their financial agreements and start organising their mobilities (plan the journey in a green way if possible, find accommodation following partners’ advice, buy insurance, apply for visas if necessary, register their mobilities in services run by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Students’ scholarships (individual support) will be paid in two instalments – 90% (and 100% of the travel grant if applicable) before the mobility starts, and 10% when it is finished, after submitting the on-line EU survey. Institutional Erasmus+ Coordinator and Faculty Coordinators of WSKM will monitor students’ mobilities on a regular basis and react accordingly if any changes in learning agreements or problems appear. Students’ outgoing mobilities will be fully and automatically recognised at WSKM within two weeks from the moment their final documents (transcripts of records, traineeship certificates) are available. The recognition process will be supervised by the Erasmus+ Faculty Coordinators and ECTS Coordinator at WSKM. We will ask Erasmus+ alumni (students) to share their stories and useful tips, promote the programme, and encourage other students to take part in it as well. We will publish their memories and photos on our university webpage. We will also support their reintegration into our university community.
WSKM in Konin will strongly promote mobility opportunities for teaching and training (also BIPs) within KA 131 and KA 171 among our didactic and administrative staff, because we believe they will contribute to the modernisation and internationalisation of our higher education institution. IRO will send personalised e-mails and disseminate information inviting them to join the Erasmus+ programme and presenting the possibilities it offers. We will also explain the application and selection procedure for the staff. Just like in the case of students, we intend to prepare an online application form for our staff who would like to participate in the programme – our aim is to fully digitalise the application process in the future. Erasmus+ outgoing staff mobilities will be selected by the same Erasmus+ Recruitment Committee of WSKM after a scheduled interview with the candidates in English. We will ensure fair and transparent selection criteria and the procedure will be diligently documented. All staff will have the right to lodge an appeal to the Rector against the Committee decisions. When applying for mobilities, our didactic and administrative staff will be required to prove that their future mobility programmes have already been accepted by the receiving institutions (e.g., include invitation letters or present mobility agreements signed by the receiving institutions). Next, the selected mobility participants will sign their financial agreements and 100% of their individual support (and 100% of their travel grant if applicable) will be paid before their mobility starts. IRO at WSKM will support our staff in organising the journey (encouraging them to choose green transportation option), choosing proper insurance, applying for visas (if necessary), and registering their mobilities in services run by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. IRO will monitor outgoing staff mobilities at their all stages, also in case any problems appear. WSKM is dedicated to recognise staff mobilities – they will be taken into consideration in accreditation processes and during systematic assessment of their work performance. We will ask Erasmus+ alumni (staff) to share their stories, promote the programme, and encourage their colleagues to take part in it as well. We will publish their memories and photos on our university webpage and social media.
WSKM will be open to foreign students participating in the Erasmus+ programme as well. We plan to develop a separate course catalogue for them in English in case their participation in classes provided in Polish to our students is impossible. However, we expect that incoming SMS mobilities from our partner universities will not be very popular. Therefore, we plan to focus on promoting SMP and BIPs at WSKM and our local business and institutional partners. All foreign students can expect complete support from our International Relations Office and coordinators at all stages of their mobility. We will send placement and BIP offers, advise them on the journey itinerary, insurance necessary in Poland, visa procedures, accommodation in Konin. All necessary information will be available on our university webpage (course catalogue with ECTS, academic year calendar, application forms (also e-forms), placement and BIP offers, contact details, grading system and grade distribution tables). Incoming students will be expected to send their motivation letters and participate in an online interview with our Erasmus+ Recruitment Committee – to check their level of English/Polish in order to ensure quality of their mobility. Students’ mobility documents (with exceptional changes) will be checked, accepted, and signed by Faculty Erasmus+ Coordinators. Institutional Erasmus+ Coordinator together with faculty coordinators will monitor incoming students’ mobilities on a regular basis and stay in contact with partners at the sending institutions abroad. WSKM in Konin does not have an ESN unit, but our incoming students will be supported by the coordinators and our students-buddies. We will support their integration with our academic community (e.g., we plan to organise Erasmus+ Welcome and Farewell Meetings, city games and trips) and promote possibilities to learn Polish and understand our culture (optional classes). Our intention is to send Transcripts of Record and Traineeship Certificates within one week after the end of students’ mobilities to ensure quick and automatic recognition at their home universities. Erasmus+ incoming students within KA 171 will be expected to sign their financial agreements before their mobility and their scholarships will be paid in two instalments – 90% (and 100% of the travel grant if applicable) before the mobility starts, and 10% when it is finished, after submitting the on-line EU survey. All incoming students will be encouraged to use Erasmus+ App. WSKM will not charge any fees from incoming students. WSKM will ask them to promote mobility opportunities at WSKM during dedicated meetings and their memories and photos will be published on our university webpage and social media.
WSKM will welcome incoming staff willing to carry out their teaching and training mobilities at our university in Konin, both within KA 131 and KA 171. Although our intention is to organise International Staff Weeks in the future, we will show flexibility regarding mobility dates. Mobilities of incoming staff will be managed by our International Relations Office – we will collect and accept applications, discuss mobility programmes with faculty coordinators, take care of the mobility documents (invitations, confirmations), help with the journey, accommodation, insurance. Our Erasmus+ coordinator will support incoming staff at all stages of their mobilities. Staff mobilities within KA 171 will have to be approved by our Erasmus+ Recruitment Committee. Their financial agreements will be signed before their arrival and 100% of their individual support and 100% of their travel grant will be paid on the first day of their mobility.
All incoming mobility participants will be offered the same academic treatment and access to facilities as our home students and staff.
University of Management Personnel is not experienced in managing mobility projects, but we have trained our staff in order to be prepared for their efficient organisation and implementation.
KA 2 and KA 3:
We assume that mobilities of students and staff will be the most important aspects contributing to the internationalisation and modernisation of WSKM. However, we will remain open to other possibilities aiming at expanding our scope of international cooperation. Therefore, we would like to participate in KA 2 and KA 3 projects as well, since they lead to changes and improvement of the didactic offer (tailoring it to the dynamic social and economic needs), structural reforms and organisational changes at higher education institutions, and building long-lasting partnerships. Our intention is to implement projects together with our international partners – initially only as partners. We would like to gain necessary experience to become coordinators of such projects in the future as well. We will motivate our didactic and research staff to join projects leading to the development of didactic innovations, modern approaches to teaching, constructing new curricula, syllabuses or study programmes, and the exchange of good practices, among others. Our Project Office will be also involved in the implementation of these projects in the future.
WSKM will appoint a worker at our Financial Department responsible for proper administration of all financial issues connected with the projects that we will coordinate. We will also provide adequate visibility to the results achieved by the projects (on our university webpage, social, media, and local media as well).
2. Strategy, objectives, and impact
WSKM, established in 2007, is a multidisciplinary private higher education institution which perceives internationalisation as one of the key factors necessary to achieve the goals of its Development Strategy (outlined in its statute of 2019: https://www.wskm.edu.pl/files/documents/statut-wskm-2019.pdf). We have already successfully completed several EU-funded projects and our intention is to further enhance our involvement in the coming years, prioritising activities within the Erasmus+ programme, according to our internationalisation strategy of 2022 (https://www.wskm.edu.pl/strategia-umiedzynarodowienia ). WSKM is unexperienced in organising student and staff mobility projects, but we are ready and dedicated to implement these activities at our higher education institution.
International cooperation in four fields (education, scientific research, administration, promotion) are strategic goals of the aforementioned Internationalisation Strategy of WSKM. We perceive our participation in the Erasmus+ programme as a key element and central condition of ensuring the implementation of the strategy objectives, leading to our internationalisation and modernisation.
WSKM offers first-, second- and long-cycle studies at 4 faculties as well as a variety of post-graduate programmes and vocational training courses for adults. We also cooperate with Wyższa Szkoła Humanistyczna Towarzystwa Wiedzy Powszechnej in Szczecin in organising some of the programmes in the most professional way possible. Our ambition is to create a programme taught completely in English and increase the number of courses lectured in English to attract international students and staff, also within the Erasmus+ programme. We notice the huge potential of our Energy Engineering programme and foreigners’ interest in gaining knowledge in the field here, in Konin, which is connected with our unique location (very close to one of the biggest power plants in Poland) and the global trend to turn to green energy. Other programmes that need to be internationalised are Economics, Administration, and Pedagogy. Therefore, joining the Erasmus+ programme actions is the natural step we would like to take. Our goal is to offer, promote and support international educational mobility of students, graduates and staff of WSKM within Erasmus+ KA 131 and KA 171. Most of our students combine work with studies, so long semester mobilities will be less attractive for them than traineeships and blended intensive programmes, currently possible within the programme. Such mobilities will let them gain international knowledge and experience, develop skills and competences in specific unique areas (also digital), and enhance their employability on the modern and dynamic labour market. Student international mobilities will also lead to building a truly integrated and coherent European community. Staff mobilities will contribute to developing new teaching methods and improving the quality of the education we offer. They will also influence lecturers’ professional development and their job satisfaction. We want to increase the number of incoming international students and staff at our higher education institution – not only are we ready to offer courses (also blended intensive programmes) for them, but also attractive placements for students in our local partner companies and institutions, and possibilities to carry out teaching and training mobilities for the staff. Lecturers and experts visiting WSKM are expected to share their knowledge, experience, opinions, contributing to versatile development of our students. Staff mobilities should also improve educational and administrative processes at our university. Our intention is to transform our academic community into more internationalised in both quantitative (higher numbers of cooperation agreements as well as incoming and outgoing mobilities) and qualitative aspects – making it more interculturally sensitive, open, creative, tolerant, mobile, entrepreneurial, democracy-oriented, engaged in civic issues, and environmentally-conscious.
Another educational objective of our strategy is to improve language competences of our students and staff – by participating in international mobilities and taking advantage of the Online Language Support offered to the Erasmus+ students. We will offer additional language courses for future participants of Erasmus+ mobilities (English classes financed by the OS, provided that we get financing in the future). Mobility participants will be also motivated to learn other languages, next to the main language of mobility abroad. Furthermore, our ambition is to constantly improve our educational offer to make it as flexible, attractive and valuable as possible for the students and we would like to cooperate with our international partners regarding that issue, also to ensure full recognition of mobilities. Our goal is to coordinate or become a partner in strategic partnerships in the future with the aim to develop new courses and programmes in English or other innovative and sustainable educational products.
Our active participation in the Erasmus+ programme may help us strengthen e-education and build an offer of online courses, also to allow access to blended learning and blended mobilities. The Erasmus+ programme will direct our activities and attention at developing digital skills and competences, with greater concern for environmental issues, in both students and staff.
We would like to stress that the Erasmus+ programme will foster inclusion of participants coming from disadvantaged backgrounds (e.g., with disabilities or financial barriers).
The strategy of WSKM highlights the need to strengthen international cooperation with partner universities and institutions abroad. It also underlines that finding new partnerships is essential to stimulate internationalisation of the university, its faculties, and functioning. We believe that the Erasmus+ programme will be of fundamental importance in achieving this objective. At the moment we cooperate with 10 partner universities and institutions abroad, mostly from Ukraine and Lithuania, but also from Cyprus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, and Uzbekistan. Our intention is to maintain and deepen this cooperation (focusing on organising mobilities and implementing other international projects). Our ambition is to enhance the level of cooperation between WSKM and business representatives in designing our study programmes. It is certain that being the ECHE holder will let us find more partners (higher education institutions, research centres, business entities) in Western Europe as well, which is of great importance for both our students and staff, because it will allow them to gain international experience and develop new teaching skills based on mobilities organised with recognised partners abroad. It will also contribute to improving the image and attractiveness of WSKM on our regional, national, and international educational market – and thus promote out higher education institution. We will continue to emphasise the quality of our international cooperation.
Our participation in the Erasmus+ programme will contribute to achieving also the second strategic goal of our internationalisation strategy – internationalising our scientific research. International mobilities of students and staff will facilitate collaboration in the scientific field as well – networking and personal contacts should initiate or strengthen international scientific cooperation, because they will help develop stronger relationships and a broader understanding of each other’s strengths and interests. Moreover, the programme will enable students and staff to access additional, often specific expertise, gain new perspectives on research, which may become a key to the development of their scientific careers in the future.
WSKM is currently undergoing a process of digital transformation and modernisation of its educational and management processes. Our participation in the Erasmus+ programme will contribute to further intensifying the changes we intend to introduce at our university – digital exchange of documents between faculties and departments, students, staff, fully digital administration of students’ education at all stages, digitalisation od scientific resources we offer and access to them. We are also ready to implement European Student Card Initiative and EWP at our university and manage international cooperation using Erasmus+ Dashboard, Beneficiary Module, OLS, Erasmus+ App. The programme will also allow us to exchange good practices and solutions (also environmentally friendly) with our partners or benchmark our processes to finally modernise and improve our higher education institution.
WSKM is determined to become a part of the Erasmus+ programme, because it will contribute to the creation of the European Education Area and our ambition is to become a part of that. We believe that our participation in this programme will contribute to creating a more integrated and sustainable European society, based on quality education, inclusion and gender equality, green and digital transformation, with mobile students and teachers, highlighting the central role of higher education institutions, promoting a positive image of Poland and Europe also in different regions in the world.
We perceive our participation in the programme as a central and vital tool to achieve the goals of our internationalisation strategy, but also to create and reshape the university culture in Konin – making it more internationalised.
3. Indicators
WSKM has adopted ambitious indicators showing the extent to which our strategic internationalisation and modernisation objectives are achieved:
- Constantly increase the number of international partners (higher education institutions, research centres, business entities). At the moment we have 10 Cooperation agreements. Our intention is to have at least 40 inter-institutional agreements with partner universities within KA 131 and KA 171 (especially in West Balkans, Eastern Regions, and Central Asia) and at least 8 partner organisations ready to accept our students for traineeships by 2027.
- We want to create relatively equal opportunities for students and staff from all faculties. Therefore, we will seek attractive partners for students and staff from all our faculties.
- We would like to reach the following numbers of incoming and outgoing mobilities per year: 10 outgoing students for SMS/SMP/BIP, 15 incoming students for SMS/SMP/BIP, 10 outgoing staff mobilities for teaching, 5 outgoing staff mobilities for training, 10 incoming staff mobilities for teaching (including experts), 5 incoming staff mobilities for training.
- Our goal to recognise students’ mobilities within 2 weeks from the moment their final documents (transcripts of records, traineeship certificates) are available. The recognition process will be supervised by the Erasmus+ Faculty Coordinators and ECTS Coordinator at WSKM. We will also issue all necessary documents for our incoming students as soon as possible (within 1 week) to make sure their recognition process is also automatic and quick.
- We want to ensure high satisfaction levels (over 80%) of mobility participants, which will be checked in the reports and surveys submitted by them.
- We want to increase the number of courses/components taught in foreign languages to increase language competences in both students and staff (1 course in English in every year of students’ education). It will prepare us to open a programme/specialization taught entirely in English in the future, which should also enable us to build double diploma programmes with our partners.
- We want to develop e-learning at WSKM and create an offer of online and blended courses (also in English), which will definitely help us apply for at least 2 BIPs within the Erasmus+ KA 1 by 2027.
- We want to become a partner in at least 2 KA 2 or KA 3 projects/partnerships by 2027.
- We will monitor scientific activities of our staff checking the impact of the Erasmus+ mobilities and projects on their scientific output (participation in scientific conferences at partner universities, joint publication of scientific articles and monographs with partners from abroad).
- We will implement the European Student Card Initiative and apply digital tools of Erasmus Without Paper once the ECHE certificate is granted to WSKM.
- We expect that students’ language competences will increase after participating in mobilities within the Erasmus+ programme – their initial and final level will be monitored in OLS.
- We will analyse thoroughly all final reports and their assessments to ensure the highest quality of our work – our aim is to score at least 85%.
- We will publish information about the project on our university webpage and in social media to attract public attention and promote the project and WSKM. We will monitor the reach of the information we share (numbers of reactions, followers, shares).
- The impact of our participation in the programme will be assessed by the Rector on the basis of annual rapports prepared by the IRO (Coordinator of International Relations and Institutional Erasmus+ Coordinator together with faculty coordinators).
