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.

"Mälardalen University (MDH) considers the Erasmus+ project to be a very important part of it's internationalisation since the program offers the possibility for students, teachers and staff to spend time at a partner university as well as living an everyday life abroad. Through such experience all participants acquire an intercultural understanding, knowledge, reflections and objectives that cannot be obtained in an equal way through regular classes or meetings at home. For our students who do not participate in the programme, it is of great value that their teachers go on an exchange so that they can bring back new teaching methods and also new knowledge that can be applied at MDH, while teachers who do not participate in the program gain a better understanding with cultural differences in their encounters with students and colleagues from other countries. The Erasmus+ project also helps the University to increase the ""internationalisation at home"" through all incoming students and staff who enrichen the academic environment with different cultures, background knowledge, perspectives and input. The objective for MDH with the Erasmus+ project is to widen the perspective of its own students, staff and teachers through both exchange, collaboration and ""internationalisation at home"" as well as that students should study courses relevant to their study programs that can be transferred/be fully recognized towards their degree. During the project period 2018-2020 Mälardalen University had 102 outgoing SMS Erasmus+ students, an increase of 45 students from the previous period. The most popular countries for this call were the Netherlands, France, Italy and the United Kingdom, partners whom we have had a long and successful collaboration with. These countries popularity as exchange destinations are due to the fact that our partner universities there have a good reputation, they offer courses in English and have a range of courses that make the exchange easier. Their programs are also similar to the programs at MDH. We also had 1 SMP student that went to the Czech Republic, 2 STT's who went to Finland, Ireland, Norway and Romania and the rest to the Netherlands and Portugal. Our 11 teachers (STA) that participated in the program taught in for example the Czech Republic, Austria and the United Kingdom. The project has overall been successful for the university where the objectives concerning quality as well as the objectives set out by MDH itself have been met even though the quantitative objectives where not met in full. For example, more efforts are required regarding the marketing of the programme's opportunities for traineeship to our students. As we see a great value in participating in an exchange, it is important for us to encourage both students and staff to take part of the Erasmus+ program. We therefore work actively on finding ways to increase the number of participants as well as to reduce late dropouts among other things.The University has used the organisational support to:•Visit partner universities to further deepen collaborations, monitoring and evaluating mobility activities•Meetings with and preparatory visits to potential partner universities•Top up scholarship levels•Work with Learning Agreements and recognition•Preparation, monitoring and evaluation of student and teacher mobility•Selection and preparation- or introductory activities and other support•Production and distribution of information regarding the exchange•Participation in conferences on the Erasmus+ program.MDH has received 235 495 euro for the Erasmus+ call 2018-2020 and spent 91.90 % of the total budget. Both student mobility for studies and staff mobilty for training have been greater than expected,100.66% and 101.69%, exceeding the budget allocated for these activities. The discrepencies are to be taken from funds left in the budget for student mobility for traineeships and staff mobility for teaching."

This action supports physical and blended mobility of higher education students and staff from/to third countries not associated to Erasmus+. 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.

The project primarily aimed to continue to nurture and strengthen an EU- Western Balkans academic mobility network, a well as to expand it to a new partnership with Peter the Great Saint Petersburg Polytechnic University, Russia, to achieve excellence in research and education, with special focus on Information Technology, and Engineering in the global context, by identifying key themes for cooperation, leveraging on the complementary competencies and providing synergies essential for the progress and mutual benefit of the targeted countries and the EU. The project was aimed to play a key role in the increase of the ICT expertise in partner countries and will focused on the involvement of the industrial associate partners to ensure better employability for scholars upon their return to their home countries. The exchange of students, knowledge and competences in multiple study domains of science and technology was expected to have a positive and long ranging impact on the socio-economic development of Western Balkans in a sustainable manner. EU, on the other hand, gained knowledge about the prevalent socio-technological setup in developing the Western Balkan countries and will be able to engage in long-standing business relations with the Western Balkan economies. The students, who participated in our study programmes, are expected to be the future champions of industrial development and research excellence in the global context. Our primary goal was to find top talents from the partner countries, and help them to achieve highest level of excellence in research and education. We aimed mostly at a unidirectional mobility flow of students from the partner universities to MDH, mostly due to the lack of courses in English at the partner universities.The staff mobility has been bidirectional. In total, we implemented 45 incoming student and staff mobilities, which is in line with the approved budget (46 mobilities). Since some mobilities were shorter than planed, we used 81.34% of the budget. As a highlight, one of our incoming students, was awarded the Global Swede Award.

This is a project for higher education student and staff mobility between Programme Countries and Partner Countries. Please consult the website of the organisation to obtain additional details.