VUC at the top nationally on staff mobility

VUC has been at the top of the national statistics in the use of Erasmus scholarships for faculty and staff for the last two years, being awarded more scholarships than many larger universities and colleges in Norway.

Valuable contribution

In the academic year 2013/2014, 74 staff and faculty members at VUC were given the chance to visit one of our Erasmus partner universities, an allocation of more than 500,000 Norwegian kroner. For this school year, the same number is estimated at 55 staff/faculty and slightly more than 300,000 Norwegian kroner in scholarships. This means that VUC has received some 800,000 Norwegian kroner to finance staff/faculty exchange over the last two years.

These figures were revealed at a meeting for the VUC International Board in the town of Sæbø in early May 2015.

– Mobility of staff and faculty is extremely important for the work we do with Internationalization at VUC. The high number of grants and the high activity level is very valuable for us and we can become even better at using these resources strategically. When VUC staff/faculty exchange to our partner universities abroad, they contribute to the work with quality assurance and in gathering information about our partner universities for our students interested in Erasmus exchange. Furthermore, mobile faculty and staff contribute to the recruitment of international exchange students to VUC and to strengthen the ties to our international partner universities, says Head of VUC International Office, Arne Humberset.

Humberset goes on to say that the VUC International Board wants to increase the number of staff/faculty that take advantage of the opportunity for a mobility period abroad.

– The faculties vary greatly in the way they make use of the opportunity for Erasmus exchange. The International Board wants to lay the ground work for common routines for staff/faculty mobility for the entire university college, and in this way work for a more even use of Erasmus scholarships among the faculties, says Humberset.

Quality control of partner universities

At the meeting in Sæbø the International Board also discussed other important issues.

– The International Board has decided that the Internationalization efforts at VUC should focus on two prioritized areas in the near future. One of these areas is staff/faculty exchange, and the other is a review of VUC's agreement portfolio. Most of our international agreements are regularly used for the exchange of students and/or staff, but not all. Therefore, we plan an in-depth review of all VUC's agreements in which we will look at the exchange activity on each agreement and, together with the faculties/departments, evaluate which agreements are important to continue and which can be terminated, says Humberset. He adds:

– We want to strengthen the academic staff's feeling of ownership for the agreements so that they take a more active role in guiding our students and quality assuring our partners.

Here is a list of all international partner universities of VUC as of today.