This project aimed to strengthen exisitng cooperation by continuing and more fully embedding a regular staff mobility flow for both Academic and Administrative staff. Both Faculties of Education at the University of Chester (UoC) and Bethlehem University (BU) had an established cooperation history built through previous bids. The exchange of good practice provided opportunities for staff training in arts-based research methods. Student mobilities were not included as the focus was firmly on building staff capacity to understand the potential of arts-based research methods in order to explore their application in future collaborative projects. This is now well established. UoC and BU also continue to share the common goal of international cooperation and the range of opportunities for staff exchanges has further strengthened cooperation, allowing knowledge and experience sharing, developing programme outlines for academic and administrative work together. Staff in both institutions learnt from each other, exchanged ideas, practices, teaching and research methodologies. Visiting each other’s institutions and meeting local staff and students, for example through two cross-faculty events and learning more about local environment and culture, for example the ‘Occupation of the mind’ conference at Manchester Museum in the middle mobility. This hugely benefited the plans for future closer cooperation. In total 8 outgoing staff mobilities from Chester and two incoming staff mobilities from Bethlehem took place. Activities included; meeting with senior academic staff from the faculty to create events to increase capacity in arts-based research to inform teaching and learning. For example a joint programme outline in Creative Pedagogies was drafted, an exchange of arts- based research and teaching methodologies took place at the University of Bethlehem in the final mobility. Strategies for market based research were re-visited in the West Bank to ensure the draft programme with an arts-based critical research foundation caters to local needs and interests. The main outcome and impact of this project is the strengthened collaborative partnership in pedagogy and research particularly at senior academic level. This led to detailed exploration of learning and teaching excellence common interests and aims at both UoC and BU. Both institutions benefited from the internationalisation of activities through this collaborative programme, longer term benefits include enhancing understanding and quality of arts-based research for both partners; this in turn strengthened opportunities for future joint capacity building.

The University of Chester continues to maintain an active mobility programme for both staff and students. We continue to see a general increase in international engagement and the development of relationships with European partners which is reflected in the growing number of inter-institutional agreements. The Erasmus+ Mobility project remains important in enabling us to continue to meet our internationalisation objectives and we have seen a general expansion over the years of the project, both in numbers of participants and partners. The mobility programme supports students to undertake study abroad as part of the degree programme for Modern Languages, Business and Psychology students, usually for their 3rd year of study. We also offer a short placement for Modern Languages students at the end of the 2nd year of study. Students either undertake a study placement at one of our partner universities, a language assistantship or work placement. For our staff, the project has enabled them to teach at partner institutions, to observe different work practices and to incorporate those considered to be ‘best practice’ when returning to their own roles. In total we supported 124 students to participate in the project (an increase on the planned amount); 73 undertook traineeships and 51 undertook study at partner institutions. We supported 22 members of staff (an increase on the planned amount) - 10 undertook teaching, 12 undertook training mobility. The results of these mobilities can be measured by the impact at an individual level; Students – increase their personal development, engaging in different cultures, fulfilling their degree programme requirements and enriching their life experience; Staff – developing their skill sets, inputting to their core roles, for example, by developing and increasing the quality of their teaching programme or broadening knowledge to improve work practices. Also, it is felt that there has also been a wider impact on the institution which has resulted in an improvement and ongoing development of the teaching/study/working environment at the University, which in turn will contribute to attracting high quality students and staff to the University in the future. We were grateful to the evaluators of last year's Final Report for identifying the 3 main areas to address. We are pleased to report that all of these have now been fully addressed.

The University of Chester continues to maintain an active mobility programme for both staff and students. We continue to see a general increase in international engagement and the development of relationships with European partners which is reflected in the growing number of inter-institutional agreements. The Erasmus+ Mobility project remains important in enabling us to continue to meet our internationalisation objectives and we have seen a general expansion over the years, both in numbers of participants and partners. The mobility programme supports students to undertake study abroad as part of the degree programme for Modern Languages, Business and Psychology students, usually for their 3rd year of study. We also offer a short placement for Modern Languages students at the end of the 2nd year of study. Students either undertake a study placement at one of our partner universities, a language assistantship or work placement. For our staff, the project has enabled them to teach at partner institutions, to observe different work practices and to incorporate those considered to be ‘best practice’ when returning to their own roles. In total we supported 101 students (an increase of 13% on the previous year) to participate in the project; 66 undertook traineeships and 35 undertook study at partner institutions. We supported 25 members of staff - 4 undertook teaching mobility (a decrease of 6 % on the previous year) and 21 undertook training mobility (the same number as the previous year). The results of these mobilities can be measured by the impact at an individual level as follows and include;Students – increase their personal development, engaging in different cultures, fulfilling their degree programme requirements and enriching their life experience; Staff – developing their skill sets, inputting to their core roles, for example, by developing and increasing the quality of their teaching programme or broadening knowledge to improve work practices. Also, it is felt that there has been a wider impact on the institution which has resulted in an improvement and ongoing development of the teaching/study/working environment at the University, which in turn will contribute to attracting high quality students and staff to the University in the future. This mobility project has enabled us to develop international collaborations with wider impacts which may lead to, for example, international research funding applications, an increased engagement in research projects and ongoing fulfilment of the the University's Internationalisation Strategy.

The University of Chester and Tbilisi State Medical University have an established working relationship in a partnership within the framework of Erasmus Mundus projects. Both universities share a common goal of international cooperation, believing this enriches intellectual and cultural diversity of the University, its students and staff. This also reinforces the University of Chester’s mission to be ‘actively committed to working in partnership to promote educational opportunities and cultural and economic growth’, and combining its own efforts internationally with those sharing our educational aim. The objectives of the project included: international cooperation, active commitment to working in partnership to promote educational opportunities and cultural and economic growth, developing scientific research and transferring its scientific findings into business and providing a high quality of education.This project enabled a total of 8 incoming students to benefit from an international credit mobility. Students were engaged in a range of activities including learning, assessments, acculturation, integration within the university and involvement with international and home students, visiting other faculties and observing computer modelling, and social activities. The overall impact has been profound for the students, in both personal and academic terms. Students integrated very well, and maintained their enthusiasm throughout their mobility. Longer term benefits can be measured in terms of their improved understanding of the UK HEI, increased cultural awareness, significant improvement in language skills and enhanced employability status in their home country.A total of 6 staff participated in this international credit mobility. The mobility enhanced the international understanding of the delivery of academic programmes, sharing of exemplars of academic provision, curricula development, cultural awareness, strategic development and provision of a high quality of education and also internationalising both university’s activities. Longer term benefits include long term collegiate working to continue Erasmus collaborations, and enhanced status for staff recipients in terms of employability, indeed two recipients have recently received promotion and consider the participation in this project as a contributing factor.

This project involved 2 partner organisations and countries, this summary will look at each in turn:Moldova: The University of Chester (UoC) and UNIVERSITATEA DE STAT DE MEDICINA SI FARMACIE NICOLAE TESTEMITANU DIN REPUBLICA MOLDOVA (NTSU) have an established working relationship in a partnership within the framework of Erasmus Mundus projects. Both universities share a common goal of international cooperation, believing this enriches intellectual and cultural diversity of the University, its students and staff. This also reinforces the University of Chester’s mission to be ‘actively committed to working in partnership to promote educational opportunities and cultural and economic growth’, and combining its own efforts internationally with those sharing our educational aim. The project was designed to support and promote international cooperation, active commitment to working in partnership to promote educational opportunities and cultural and economic growth, developing scientific research and transferring its scientific findings into business and providing a high quality of education. In total 7 incoming students and 7 incoming and outgoing staff participated in the project. Students were engaged in a range of activities including learning, assessments, acculturation, integration within the university and involvement with international and home students, visiting other faculties and observing computer modelling, and social activities. The overall impact has been profound for the students, in both personal and academic terms. Students integrated very well, and maintained their enthusiasm throughout their mobility. Longer term benefits can be measured in terms of their improved understanding of the UK and partner HEI, increased cultural awareness, significant improvement in language skills and enhanced employability status in their home country. The mobility enhanced the international understanding of the delivery of academic programmes, sharing of exemplars of academic provision, curricula development, cultural awareness, strategic development and provision of a high quality of education and also internationalising both university’s activities. Longer term benefits include long term collegiate working to continue Erasmus collaborations, and enhanced status for staff recipients in terms of employability.Palestine: Bethlehem University (BU) was selected for this project as its Faculty of Education has an established cooperation history with the UoC’s Education Faculty. The project aimed to strengthen this cooperation by starting a regular staff mobility flow (for both Academic and Administrative staff). The institutions believe that this will allow an exchange of good practice and provide opportunities for staff training necessary for re-alignment of its practices, building trust and establishing resources to prepare for planning of a joint Masters degree in Creative Education. Both institutions will also benefit from ability to discuss mutual research ideas and pursuing common research goals. Student mobilities were not included here, as the initial focus is preparing staff to deal with future cooperation. Once this is well established we hope to open the mobility to students. UoC and BU also share a common goal of international cooperation as outlined above. Offering a range of opportunities for staff exchanges will strengthen cooperation, allowing knowledge and experience sharing, and building foundations for future academic and administrative work together. Staff in both institutions hope to learn from each other, exchange ideas, practices and teaching methodologies. Visiting each other’s institutions and meeting local staff and students, learning about local environment and culture will hugely benefit the plans of future closer cooperation. In total 4 outgoing staff participated in the project, activities included; meeting with senior academic staff from the faculty to explore the possibilities of developing a joint programme in Creative Education, exchange of teaching/research methodologies and good practice, developing of strategies for market based research, in the West Bank to ensure the Creative Education programme caters to local needs and interests, discussions to develop research capacity, future collaborative projects and mobilities. The primary outcome and impact of this project is the strengthening of the cooperation between UoC and BU, with both institutions benefitting from the internationalisation of activities through a collaborative programme, longer term benefits will include enhancing the quality of teaching and research for both partners, strengthen opportunities for further bid writing and research activity.