D. ERASMUS POLICY STATEMENT (Overall Strategy)

The priority of the university’s international (EU and non-EU) strategy is to aim realizing the objectives of the Bologna, “Education and Training 2020” and contribution to the European Union Modernization and Internationalization Agenda in Higher Education.

The university aims to modernize and further develop its educational and research capacity in international context by pro-active participation in European Union programmes, including 2014-2020 European Union programmes for education, training, youth and sport, Horizon 2020 and other programmes. According to the objectives of HEI 2020 and based on an on-going European and international mobility cooperation, will be:

1. further promotion and support student mobility for studies, both credit and degree mobility, student mobility for traineeships and staff mobility within European and to/ from third bodies countries leading to increase the mobility numbers and to improve the quality of mobility

• to increase the number of student mobility for studies of all cycles, in particular of third
  cycle by broadening the scope of agreements and signing the new ones
• to enter into the new agreements with non-participating countries to set up new
  possibilities for new activities within the Programme
• to sign new agreements
• significantly increasing the number of courses taught in English
•  to encourage participation in mobility as a way to find new possibilities of research or/and to find partners for new international cooperation projects

2. increasing the number of international degree students

• to establish English taught study programmes for incoming students
• to enhance promotion activities within Europe and worldwide targeted to foreign potential students
• further improvement and development of educational and research capacity
• further improvement the administrative, logistic and cultural services for students and staff

3. increasing the participation in international cooperation projects

• efficient use of existing contacts with the partners participating in the former and/or on-going projects for further cooperation and for creation new international cooperation projects
• focus on the staff mobility with regard to developing cooperation projects as a follow-up of their mobility
• to support the participation of staff in international cooperation projects by offering wider recognition to the staff involved, e.g. points in staff evaluation scheme, reducing the number of mandatory teaching hours should be carried out by the staff involved, specialist administrative back-up from respective units of the university

4. to improve the quality and attractiveness of education

• to strive for the cohesion of curricula and learning outcomes for the individual fields of study with study programmes in Europe, while maintaining the distinctiveness associated with the region
• to create the ordered fields of study and thereby to educate people who are better prepared for the needs of society
• better adaptation of curricula to current and emerging labour market demands, employability offer and transversal skills by developing active cooperation with partners form outside of HEI, e.g. enterprises, local/regional authorities
• to increase the number of incoming staff from foreign enterprises to provide courses/ training to home students what makes study programmes more practical and business oriente
• to carry out regular evaluation and quality control of all current study programmes and to strive for awarding accreditation for all of them
• to support further development e-learning tools and methods
• to continue the modernization of information and communication technology facilities to support teaching, research, administrative services and governance

5. to stimulate international cooperation of the staff within Horizon 2020 and other international research programmes

• use of experience and cooperation contacts from both mobility and agreements for developing research projects

In pursuing to accomplish mentioned above objectives, the university will continue to enter into inter-institutional agreements with both participating and non-participating partners, based on a comprehensive understanding of the partner institution, compatibility of academic profiles and a relationship of trust between the institutions in making academic decisions.

For seeking partners, the university will pay attention on didactic and research profile which according to the university’s mission consists of three areas: 1) science, technology and organization of food production; 2) health, healthy lifestyle; 3) development and protection of the human environment, which are related to the individual fields of study.
Regards the incoming international degree students, special emphasis will be given to the BRIC Countries, in particular India and China, as well as to others such as Iraq.

In regard international cooperation projects the university will cooperate first of all with partner institutions with which it has signed agreements up to date, both in Erasmus programme and other agreements.
The natural partners of the university are neighbouring countries, with which the HEI has a tradition of cross-border cooperation and will strive to strengthen its cooperation under the new Programme, in particular with Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus. Moreover the university aims to continue the international cooperation with other Central and Eastern European countries and to enter into strategic agreements with other foreign partners.
The university aims to participate both as a coordinator, organizer and partner in European and international EU and non-EU cooperation projects in teaching and training in pro-active way based on the objectives for its participation, its role in a project and expected results and taking into account subject area priorities.
The university will strive to enter into cooperation with regard to, e.g.:
– the cooperation with non-participating, neighbouring countries, e.g. Ukraine, Belarus will be based mostly on capacity building projects to support the modernization and internationalization of higher education there. In addition the university will be able to offer its organizational and educational expertise.
– strategic partnerships to foster intense, structured and long term cooperation among HEIs and with key stakeholders, in particular SMEs and local/regional authorities
The implementation of the international cooperation projects will be carried out by departments and other university units with the support of the administrative units at a central level responsible for coordinating of the European/ international projects.

The participation in the Programme will play a key role in achieving institutional objectives concerning modernization and internationalisation of the university.
Participation in individual learning mobility, such as student mobility for study and traineeships as well as mobility of staff invited from enterprises to provide course/ training to the local students, will make the university’s graduates equipped with additional skills and new competences which will help them to run successfully on the labour market and increase their employability and also boost their career prospects.
Additionally, traineeships will offer international experiences and expertise achieved during the placements as either obligatory or non-obligatory within their study programmes at the home university.
Staff mobility, both teaching and training, will give the opportunity for staff involved to gain international experience in teaching and/or research and also possibility of participation in international cooperation and research projects.
Opening the English taught study programmes will result in an increase in the number of incoming international students who, in turn, will also contribute to the overall number of graduates and will affect a greater internationalisation of university’s departments, administration units and services.
Regarding the internationalisation of researches, the university will gain internationally recognized researchers, carrying out their research activities in an international context, and who are better prepared to engage in university’s cooperation both with local and foreign enterprises, thereby stimulate and strengthen the knowledge triangle between education, research and business.

By participation in international cooperation programmes the university will have possibilities:

• to create new multidisciplinary curriculum and/or new innovative a curriculum
• to implement new learning/teaching methods
• to improve the quality and relevance of teaching and researcher training
• to develop competencies, practical skills of the staff involved to
• to gain experience and new competencies and also improve language skills of administrative staff involved to
• to internationalize governance and funding mechanisms

Additionally university’s participation in all above activities leading to the internationalization, will provide substantial funds which can be used for develop of university’s capacity international potential and to better adapt to the dynamically changing competitive global educational market.