The mobility project with Georgia in the frame of the Key Action 107 was born on the base of a close cooperation between our Department of Economics and the Ivane Javakhishvili State University of Tblisi. Even before applying for the action, a collaboration and teacher exchange agreement was signed with the Georgian Institution and, thanks to this, one of our lecturers delivered seminars in Georgia and a Georgian visiting professor came to our University for teaching activities already in 2015. From these initial activities the idea arose to include Georgia among the destinations of a mobility program of the Department of Economics, the International Practicum, aimed at providing Italian and international students with a theoretical preparation thanks to lectures in English and practical experience through the development of marketing projects and business plannig in collaboration with local companies. Given these premises and the interest in Georgia of many small and medium-sized companies, shortly after the contributions grant, it was decided to expand the collaborative network with two further Georgian institutions already cooperating with our University, which were formally included in the project with a special amendment signed with the National Agency. Inter-institutional agreements including the mobility of students and staff and the use of ECTS were signed on the European model with the three Georgian institutions. in relation to this it should be emphasized that the partners were already aware of the European tools used to ensure the quality of mobility and it was therefore very easy to prepare the operational part of the project; the very first incoming mobility activities by a lecturer and an administrator from Ivane Javakhshvi State University helped to clarify the very few still outstanding aspects and to agree on criteria and selection procedures for student mobility. In December 2016, a selection call for incoming and outgoing student mobility was published by all the participating institutions, Seven students from our University and four from Georgian institutions applied and, according to what designed two outbound and four inbound mobility periods have been granted; all such mobilities have been performed between the second semester of 2016-17 and the first of 2017-18. Student mobility involved four second-cycle students, two incoming and two outgoing, who attended lectures and passed exams, earning the credits required by their Learning Agreements and two incoming third-cycle students who took advantage of their mobility period to perform bibliographic research for their PhD thesis, furthermore, all incoming students had the opportunity to make practical experiences by participating, together with other Italian and international students, in the development of marketing projects in collaboration with managers of local companies. All students received the mobility contribution before their departure and, for the incoming ones, places in the university residence have been reserved and a free Italian language course has been offered . In May 2017, three Georgian visiting professors held seminars at our University for the students of the Master in Global Entrepreneurship Economics and Management and, over the same period, a unit of administrative staff from Ivane Javakhshvili University spent a week of job shadowing in our International relations office. The outgoing mobility of the staff concerned the teacher who promoted the collaboration with Georgia that has carried out two mobilities for teaching in Tblisi in two different institutions. The project has been implemented according to what expected and it has been easy to manage thanks to the constant collaboration of all the involved institutions; both the students and the staff showed a high degree of satisfaction in relation to the experience and the results, even if it has been highlighted that staff mobility experiences did not yet receive an appropriate recognition from the sending institution. The KA107 2016 project was just the spin off of a collaboration that all the parties involved want to keep alive and improve regardless of the funding opportunities from the EU even if, of course, these remain the main and most desired management and support tool for exchange programs with the partner institutions. For the future, the University of Insubria intends to maintain and improve the exchange program with Georgia and, thanks to the inclusion of traineeship activities in the KA107, collaboration with local companies will be intensified to further expand the collaborative network and to offer better and more diversified opportunities for students.

Per l'Anno Accademico 2018/19, L’Università degli Studi dell’Insubria ha riconfermato il proprio forte impegno nella gestione e nello sviluppo della mobilità studentesca e dello staff. L’Ateneo ha continuato a promuovere l'internazionalizzazione con il mantenimento ed il miglioramento di ulteriori programmi di mobilità a vantaggio sia degli studenti sia del personale docente e tecnico amministrativo, con nuovi corsi di laurea magistrale erogati totalmente o parzialmente in lingua inglese, programmi di doppio titolo frutto di nuovi accordi, impegnando le proprie risorse umane ed economiche con l’obiettivo di rendere la cultura dell’internazionalizzazione il più diffusa possibile. Il numero di soggetti in mobilità per motivi di studio è sensibilmente cresciuto infatti, rispetto all’anno precedente, durante il 2018/19 abbiamo assistito ad un incremento dell'8%, parimenti, la durata media dei periodi di mobilità è aumentata, anche se di pochi giorni, rispetto a quella attestata durante lo scorso anno accademico. Per quanto riguarda la mobilità per traineeship, la contrazione del numero di partecipanti che ha interessato lo scorso anno accademico è stata superata grazie ad un aumento dei soggetti in mobilità nel 18-19 pari al 33% anche se per una durata media dei periodi sensibilmente inferiore rispetto al precedente Anno Accademico. Relativamente al numero delle unità di staff in mobilità, nonostante ci sia stata una entusiastica risposta ai bandi di selezione, molti dei candidati risultati assegnatari hanno di fatto rinunziato all'esperienza per i motivi più vari implicando così un calo, seppur di poche unità, del numero di partecipanti sia per le attività di insegnamento che per quelle di formazione. Il numero degli studenti e dello staff provenienti da istituzioni partner è rimasto stabile, l’istituzione di nuovi programmi di doppio titolo ha particolarmente favorito l’ingresso di incoming students di secondo ciclo da Istituzioni dalle quali non era mai giunto nessuno studente.Tali risultati derivano dalla promozione di Erasmus+ in eventi promozionali ed informativi sulle opportunità di mobilità internazionale tenuti dal personale dell'Ufficio Relazioni Internazionali a favore di tutti gli studenti dell'Ateneo, convocati con comunicazioni massive ed attraverso la pubblicizzazione presso le strutture didattiche ma anche in occasioni come gli Open Days e la Welcome Week per le matricole organizzati dallo staff dell’Ufficio Orientamento nonché interventi o incontri orientativi durante le presentazioni dei vari corsi di laurea organizzati dai Dipartimenti. Per quanto riguarda gli studenti incoming, il servizio di tutoraggio è stato affidato ad una neo costituita associazione studentesca che è in fase di affiliamento ad ESN i cui componenti, in accordo con lo staff dell'Ufficio, hanno costruito un buddy system ben più strutturato di quanto era stato realizzato in passato grazie all'azione volontaria di qualche studente ex-Erasmus. Per quanto riguarda le opportunità alloggiative, è stata riservata una quota di camere nelle strutture di accoglienza universitarie su entrambe le sedi. L’Ateneo infine è particolarmente attento alle problematiche legate alla preparazione linguistica degli studenti in mobilità, infatti sia per studenti outgoing sia incoming, è stata offerta la possibilità di partecipare gratuitamente a corsi di lingue straniere o di italiano per stranieri. Anche per il 2018/19 si è riscontrato un miglioramento in termini qualitativi. Infatti, durante lo scorso anno accademico, sono partiti:- 15 studenti in doppio titolo che arriveranno a breve al conseguimento della nostra laurea magistrale in Global Entrepreneurship Economics and Management e del Master of Science in Economics della Friedrich Schiller Universitaet Jena o del Master in International Business and Economics della Hohenheim Universitaet.- 2 studenti in doppio titolo che conseguiranno la nostra laurea magistrale in Matematica ed il Master of Science in Mathematics della svedese Linnaeus University- 1 studente in doppio titolo che conseguirà la nostra laurea magistrale in Molecular and Industrial Biotechnology ed il Master of Science in Biotechnology presso la UCT di Praga- 2 studenti in doppio titolo che conseguiranno la nostra laurea magistrale in Biomedical Sciences ed il Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences della tedesca Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-SiegOltre ai citati programmi, nel 2018-19 è stata stipulata una nuova convenzione di Doppio titolo con l'Université de Bordeaux che permetterà ad altri 5 studenti del CdLM in Global Entrepreneurship Economics and Management di conseguire anche il titolo dell'Università partner. In generale, il rapporto tra crediti pianificati, crediti acquisiti e crediti riconosciuti si mantiene buono ed il numero di mobilità che non hanno fruttato il riconoscimento di crediti è limitato a pochi casi soprattutto per le attività di traineeship,

"The mobility project with Georgia as part of the Key Action 107 was re-proposed in 2018 after the positive experience we had in the context of the same action on the 2016 call. Already during the 2016 project, the collaborative network between our Department of Economics and Georgia had extended to two other institutions and it was decided to involve, in addition to Ivane Javakhishvili State University, also the International Black Sea University, since its start. Erasmus inter-institutional agreements with both the Georgian Institutions already started in 2016 with validity until 2021 which included the mobility of students and staff and which envisaged the use of ECTS. The collaboration with Georgia dates back to 2015 when it was included among the destinations of a mobility program of the Department of Economics, called ""International Practicum"", aimed at providing Italian and international students with theoretical preparation thanks to lectures in English and a practical experience through the development of marketing and business planning projects in collaboration with local companies. The very first incoming mobility activities involved a teacher from Ivane Javakhshvili State University for a seminar cycle on the Georgian experience regarding European integration and internationalization of companies, and an administrative from the Black Sea University with whom criteria and methods of selection for student mobility has been shared. In January 2019, the Black Sea University selected 4 students who then spent a mobility period between spring and summer 2019 performing training activities at the Economics Department and at the small and medium-sized enterprises identified within the aforementioned International Practicum; In September 2019, a selection call for outgoing student mobility was published, 7 students from our University applied, but only one actually left between October and December 2019 for an extra-curricular internship experience. The student mobility involved three second cycle students, two incoming and one outgoing, who performed internship activities and two incoming third cycle students who used their mobility period for bibliographic research for their PhD thesis. All students were paid the mobility contribution before their departure and for incoming ones, places in the university residence were reserved and free Italian language courses were offered. Outgoing staff mobility, scheduled for spring 2020, was not realized due to the raise of the Covid-19 pandemic. The mobility project with Moldova was born from a previous close collaboration between our Department of Economics and the IMI nova of Chisinau with which, even before submitting the application for the action, a collaboration agreement were signed, thanks to this, already in 2017, one of our teachers taught seminars in Moldova and our University had welcomed a visiting professor for teaching activities. The first mobility activity we performed as part of the 2018 call, was that of the Rector of IMI nova who visited our University in May 2019. During this period, Prof. Railean was trained by the International Relations Office on the most important aspects of the action and the procedures for selecting the students who should have participated in the International Practicum in 2020 were agreed, In June of the same year the coordinator of the International Practicum went to Moldova to teach using this period also to promote mobility at our University; in December 2019 the vice rector for internationalization of IMI Nova came to visit us to define the last details of the student mobility project before the launch of the selections scheduled for January 2020 during which six IMI Nova students were awarded a mobility period at our University starting from March 2020. Unfortunately, the pandemic made it impossible to carry out these activities and those scheduled for September 2020. The last activities we managed to carry out were those relating to mobility of teachers, 2 outgoing and 2 incoming, for the conduct of seminars in favor of doctoral students and to plan future developments of the fruitful collaboration between the two institutions. Despite the canceled or unrealized mobilities, the project was carried out according to expectations and it was easy to manage it thanks to the constant collaboration of all the institutions involved; both the students and the staff showed a high degree of satisfaction in relation to the experience and the results obtained even if it can be noted that the staff mobility experiences do not yet obtain adequate recognition from the sending institution. The KA107 2018 project strengthened the collaboration with Georgia and it was only the beginning of a collaboration with Moldova that all the involved parties want to keep alive and improve regardless of the funding opportunities from the EU although, of course, these remain the main and most desired tool for managing and supporting exchange programs with partner institutions."

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This action supports physical and blended mobility of higher education students and staff from EU Member States and third countries associated to Erasmus+ to any country in the world. Students in all study fields and cycles can take part in a study period or traineeship abroad. Higher education teaching and administrative staff can take part in professional development activities abroad, as well as staff from the field of work in order to teach and train students or staff at higher education institutions.