As of this month, the ACA Secretariat started coordinating a new project – A comparative analysis of Erasmus+ staff mobility flows – as well as contributing, in an expert capacity, to two important initiatives – PROFFORMANCE and PLAR4SIMP.

The first project is based on Erasmus+ staff mobility data (KA103 and KA107) that is already regularly collected through the EUSurvey, but not necessarily systematically processed at system level. The data will be analysed, over a six-year timespan and for nine participating countries –  Austria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Croatia, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, and Slovenia – with a view to identifying staff mobility flows and interesting patterns, in a comparative perspective. In the project framework, ACA will be closely working with the Erasmus+ National Agencies in the nine countries, six of which are ACA members – CMEPIUS (NA coordinator), DZS, IKY, OeAD, Rannis, and TPF. Tangentially, through this initiative, the potential for further analysis of Erasmus+ staff mobility data will be assessed as well, particularly in the area of impact on teaching at the home and host institutions. The analysis is scheduled to be completed in in autumn 2020.

Staff of ACA Secretariat also participates, in an expert capacity in PROFFORMANCE – Assessment Tool and Incentive Systems for Developing Higher Education Teachers' Performance – a project that is coordinated by the Ministry for Innovation and Technology (Hungary) together with the Tempus Public Foundation (TPF). Project partners are the Bundesministerium für Bildung, Wissenschaft und Forschung (Austria), the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and the Czech National Agency for International Education (DZS), National Center for Educational Quality Enhancement, Ministry of Science and Education (Croatia) and the Foundation Tempus (Serbia). The aim of the initiative is to develop an evaluation/assessment tool and incentive systems to improve the performance of higher education teachers. The project foresees six main activities:

• Benchmarking, mapping of higher education institutional strategies and practices in the participating countries, reviewing research results and relevant literature.

• Organizing 3 international peer learning activities (PLAs) to determine the focus and questions of the assessment tool.

• Finalizing and customizing the assessment tool (teaching, student, managerial, external, and self-assessment) versions.

• Piloting and testing the evaluation system in one institution of each partner country.

• Collecting of good practices based on the evaluation system criteria in an online database through the International Higher Education Award Call.

• Finalising the assessment tool and making recommendations for the establishment of an incentive scheme at institutional, national, EU and EHEA level.

And last, but certainly not least, ACA began association in the PLAR-4-SIMP project – Peer Learning Activities and Resources for Social Inclusion in Mobility Programmes, which is led by the Ministry of Education and Training of Belgium/Flemish Community in collaboration with the Support Centre for Inclusive Higher Education in Flanders (SIHO), the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research of Austria (FMESR), and the Erasmus Student Network (ESN), with expert participation by ACA, Ghent University (UGent), European University Association (EUA) and Universities UK International (UUKi). Within the project framework, which aims to contribute to achieving more inclusiveness in mobility programmes, the partners are to organize two large-scale peer learning activities (PLAs) and to :

• publish a comprehensive policy report and database on national social inclusion measures and practices that have been implemented across the EHEA to widen the participation of students from disadvantaged groups in mobility programmes, and in which innovative inclusive policy measures will be highlighted.

• publish a communication package to promote the benefits of outward mobility towards students of underrepresented groups in an inclusive way (different formats and languages, allowing adaptation to local contexts).

• develop a blended training package to equip staff of higher education authorities and institutions with skills, knowledge, attitudes, and tools required to best organise inclusive student mobility in the 21st century.