ERASMUS CHARTER FOR HIGHER EDUCATION 2021 …

ERASMUS CHARTER FOR HIGHER EDUCATION 2021-2027

The European Commission hereby awards this Charter to:

FUNDACIO UNIVERSITARIA BALMES

The Institution undertakes to:

? Respect in full the principles of non-discrimination, transparency and inclusion set out in the Erasmus+ Programme. ? Ensure equal and equitable access and opportunities to current and prospective participants from all backgrounds, paying particular attention to the inclusion of those with fewer opportunities. ? Ensure full automatic recognition of all credits (based on the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System ? ECTS) gained for learning outcomes satisfactorily achieved during a period of study/training abroad, including during blended mobility. ? Charge no fees, in the case of credit mobility, to incoming mobile students for tuition, registration, examinations or access to laboratory and library facilities.

? Ensure the quality of the mobility activities and of the cooperation projects throughout the application and implementation phases. ? Implement the priorities of the Erasmus+ Programme:

? By undertaking the necessary steps to implement digital mobility management in line with the technical standards of the European Student Card Initiative. ? By promoting environmentally friendly practices in all activities related to the Programme. ? By encouraging the participation of individuals with fewer opportunities in the Programme. ? By promoting civic engagement and encouraging students and staff to get involved as active citizens before, during and after their participation in a mobility activity or cooperation project.

WHEN PARTICIPATING IN MOBILITY ACTIVITIES

Before mobility

? Ensure that selection procedures for mobility activities are fair, transparent, coherent and documented. ? Publish and regularly update the course catalogue on the website well in advance of the mobility periods, so as to be transparent to all parties and allow mobile students to make well-informed choices about the courses they will follow. ? Publish and regularly update information on the grading system used and grade distribution tables for all study programmes. Ensure that students receive clear and transparent information on recognition and grade conversion procedures. ? Carry out mobility for the purpose of studying and teaching only within the framework of prior agreements between institutions which establish the respective roles and responsibilities of the parties, as well as their commitment to shared quality criteria in the selection, preparation, reception, support and integration of mobile participants.

? Ensure that outgoing mobile participants are well prepared for their activities abroad, including blended mobility, by undertaking activities to achieve the necessary level of linguistic proficiency and develop their intercultural competences. ? Ensure that student and staff mobility is based on a learning agreement for students and a mobility agreement for staff, validated in advance between the sending and receiving institutions or enterprises and the mobile participants. ? Provide active support to incoming mobile participants throughout the process of finding accommodation. ? Provide assistance related to obtaining visas, when required, for incoming and outgoing mobile participants. ? Provide assistance related to obtaining insurance, when required, for incoming and outgoing mobile participants. ? Ensure that students are aware of their rights and obligations as defined in the Erasmus Student Charter.

During mobility

? Ensure equal academic treatment and the quality of services for incoming students. ? Promote measures that ensure the safety of outgoing and incoming mobile participants.

? Provide appropriate mentoring and support arrangements for mobile participants, including for those pursuing blended mobility.

? Integrate incoming mobile participants into the wider student community and in the Institution's everyday life. Encourage them to act as ambassadors of the Erasmus+ Programme and share their mobility experience.

? Provide appropriate language support to incoming mobile participants.

After mobility

? Provide incoming mobile students and their sending institutions with transcripts of records containing a full, accurate and timely record of their achievements at the end of the mobility period. ? Ensure that all ECTS credits gained for learning outcomes satisfactorily achieved during a period of study/training abroad, including during blended mobility, are fully and automatically recognised as agreed in the learning agreement and confirmed by the transcript of records/traineeship certificate; transfer those credits without delay into the student's records, count them towards the student's degree without any additional work or assessment of the student and make them traceable in the student's transcript of records and the Diploma Supplement.

? Ensure the inclusion of satisfactorily completed study and/ or traineeship mobility activities in the final record of student achievements (the Diploma Supplement). ? Encourage and support mobile participants upon return to act as ambassadors of the Erasmus+ Programme, promote the benefits of mobility and actively engage in building alumni communities. ? Ensure that staff is given recognition for their teaching and training activities undertaken during the mobility period, based on a mobility agreement and in line with the institutional strategy.

WHEN PARTICIPATING IN EUROPEAN AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION PROJECTS

? Ensure that cooperation activities contribute towards the fulfilment of the institutional strategy. ? Promote the opportunities offered by the cooperation projects and provide relevant support to staff and students interested in participating in these activities throughout the application and implementation phase.

? Ensure that cooperation activities lead to sustainable outcomes and that their impact benefits all partners. ? Encourage peer-learning activities and exploit the results of the projects in a way that will maximise their impact on individuals, other participating institutions and the wider academic community.

FOR THE PURPOSES OF IMPLEMENTATION AND MONITORING

? Ensure that the long-term institutional strategy and its relevance to the objectives and priorities of the Erasmus+ Programme are described in the Erasmus Policy Statement. ? Ensure that the principles of the Charter are well communicated and are applied by staff at all levels of the Institution.

? Make use of the ECHE Guidelines and of the ECHE Self-assessment to ensure the full implementation of the principles of this Charter. ? Regularly promote activities supported by the Erasmus+ Programme, along with their results. ? Display this Charter and the related Erasmus Policy Statement prominently on the Institution's website and on all other relevant channels.

The Institution acknowledges that the implementation of the Charter will be monitored by the Erasmus+ National Agency and that the violation of any of the above principles and commitments may lead to its withdrawal by the European Commission.

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ERASMUS POLICY STATEMENT

The University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia (UVic-UCC) comprises two main campuses (Vic and Manresa) and two sites (Barcelona and Granollers). Its seven faculties provide 36 undergraduate degrees, 15 masters and 8 PhD programs across a wide range of areas of knowledge, including Biosciences, Communication, Design, Education, Business Studies, Engineering, Sports, Languages and Translation, Psychology and Health. With more than 8300 students on campus, taking blended and online courses in official studies, get to a dynamic and committed community which comes from across Europe and from beyond.

The UVic-UCC currently has 31 research groups and 13 Chairs and has international agreements with 277 institutions in 43 countries and it is rapidly expanding its international activity at all levels. Our university has been recognized by the CYD Foundation as the fastest growing Spanish university in terms of international research in the last 5 years. It also holds the 13th position from the 73 Spanish universities in terms of international orientation.

The UVic-UCC is governed by the Balmes University Foundation, whose Board of Trustees is comprised of representatives of government bodies, companies and social agents. After 30 January 2014 the structure was enriched with a federation agreement with the Bages University Foundation in Manresa and later on, in December 2016 a new federation agreement with the Foundation of Health Higher Education, managing our new Medicine Faculty. The UVic-UCC structure is finally completed with three ascribed centres, BAU Higher Education design center, EADA School for Administration and High Management and ESERP Barcelona School of Business and Social Science, complete the university structure.

This university model is dynamic and permeable, with flexible management bodies and a high decision-making capacity. This structure creates synergies in the organisation of course offerings, in the promotion of research and knowledge transfer, and in relationships with the economic and social fabric.

Our university sets the student at the centre of the learning process, considering that personal growth in the context of the common European values is the basis for comprehensive and lifewide education.

UVic-UCC internationalization strategy

A Strategic Comprehensive Internationalization Plan is now being redesigned to be implemented during the following four-year period. This plan is founded the concept of comprehensive internationalization (Hudzik, 2011) defined as the commitment, confirmed through action, to infuse international and comparative perspectives throughout the education, research, and service missions of higher education. This idea is grounded on six interconnected pillars that must necessarily participate in the process at different levels:

1) Articulated Institutional Commitment towards the achievement of a Comprehensive Internationalisation in benefit of to the quality of its higher education programmes and student experience, respecting in full the principles of non-discrimination, transparency and inclusion and encouraging the observation of sustainable and environmentally friendly practices. 2) Administrative leadership, structure and staffing to ensure an efficient and progressively digitalised mobility management, promoting friendly practices, encouraging civic engagement of students and staff and the participation of all individuals, especially those with fewer opportunities. The virtual component of blended mobility will be guaranteed through adequate infrastructures and staff formation. Structural and quality processes will be revised to consider the results of internal monitoring mobility and cooperation activities, thus further improving its international performance. 3) Curriculum, co-curriculum and learning outcomes, especially promoting the development of integrated, transnational teaching activities (joint courses / modules / curricula, double / multiple / joint degrees). Automatic recognition of all ECTS-based credits will be ensured for successful periods of study/training abroad, including blended mobility. 4) Faculty policies and practices to stimulate and recognise the importance of, and provide visibility to, the results achieved by their staff members engaged in individual mobility or in cooperation projects with strategic partners. 5) Student and staff mobility, aiming at benefiting most of the UVic-UCC community in any format (online, blended, physical), especially promoting inclusive actions for individuals

with fewer opportunities, with efficient and transparent procedures and full automatic recognition of credits. 6) Collaboration and Partnership with different kinds of stakeholders to foster every type of synergy (research and technology transfer, student mobility, teaching innovation, cooperation for development...), participating in coordinated actions, consortiums and projects.

The strength of this view, is its connectedness, so that progress (or lack of progress) in any of its six dimensions greatly impacts on what can be achieved in another one or in global, not merely in an additive way. Therefore, for a successful comprehensive internationalization, every member of the community, at any level, needs to feel identified with this shared international perspective and, specially, struggle to permeate all academic activity with the European values and transnational educational scope.

In this context of strategic institutional commitment to pursue academic excellence through internationalization, the Erasmus+ Program is an essential tool not only to foster student and staff mobility, increase research competitivity and promote initiatives of International Cooperation but specially to induce profound and systemic changes in our institution.

A new training program of European Competences is being designed and will be progressively introduced at different levels in current and future study plans to reinforce European Values, promote mobility and acquire humanistic values and Key Skills. This program should also become a common ground for embedded mobility actions and joint discussion activities with international partner institutions. The main competence areas will comprise: 1) Sustainable development goals (sustainability, health promotion, gender policies, and social responsibility), 2) Entrepreneurship, leadership and creativity; 3) Humanities, culture and multiculturality; 4) digital and communication skills.

Different strategies will be used to increase all kinds of mobility among students and staff, including physical, online and blended mobility, combined in planned succession wherever possible. Embedded mobility within courses and networked programs will be introduced in existing and new curricula at different stages to ensure opportunities of participation in international experiences to all members of the community, in an equalitarian and inclusive but personalized context. Intercultural and multilingual diversity will meet in these mobility opportunities to take the chance to specially promote and teach the European values in a trans-national environment.

The UVic-UCC will continue to implement a competence-based, student-centered learning system while encouraging staff training to enable them to efficiently perform their tasks in a multilingual, international and technologically advanced context.

Because internationalization means diversity, equity, inclusion and of course digitalization, which are strategic issues for our University, we contemplate the Erasmus programme as a crucial tool to foster societal engagement of higher education and empower people by increasing their educational opportunities. Furthermore, international experiences enrich both people and cultures through diversity and promote critical thinking, open-mindedness and creativity, thus driving forward competitiveness and economic growth.

Erasmus key role in UVic-UCC Internationalization and Modernization Process

From its foundation as University, the UVic-UCC has focused on achieving excellence in Education and Research. In keeping with its institutional policy, the UVic-UCC has centred on creating international networks and projects, which have become increasingly important and enhanced the university's prestige. In this context, Erasmus has offered a wide range of advantages, creating opportunities to share experiences and explore research, teaching and management synergies. These initiatives boost students, faculty and administration and services staff exchange, creating an ideal environment to start up and implement international projects.

One of the key issues of the UVic-UCC strategic vision is the commitment to academic excellence in research, teaching and knowledge transfer. In order to meet with this objective, we know Erasmus will remain more than relevant for our institution amid the changing higher education landscape and no matter what developments could be on the horizon.

Expected outcomes

The participation of our University in the Erasmus+ program does not only fit in our strategic vision but it is key part of its outreach and progression pathway. The renewal of our commitment with the Erasmus+ program will permit our institution to take a large leap forward towards this comprehensive internationalization scenario that will allow the successful participation in a European University consortium in a context of inclusive European Education Area.

We expect to continue increasing our mobility indicators (incoming and outgoing students and staff), but also our participation and coordination of research, technology transfer and cooperation and innovation projects.

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