Information for coordinators for international exchange

The regulations for concluding inter-institution agreements regarding mobility of students and academic staff of the University of Szczecin under Erasmus+ programme, Key Action 1 – Learning mobility for higher education, 2021-2027 prospects (KA131)

1. Depending on the arrangements with the partner university the agreement may cover mobility within the framework of one, two or all categories: SMS – Student Mobility – Studies, STA – Staff Teaching Assignments, STT – Staff Training. Concluding an agreement for one category does not entitle to implement mobility within the framework of other category.
2. Implementation of the SMS – Student Mobility – Studies as well as STA – Staff Teaching Assignments mobility can be effected only on the grounds of an Erasmus+ inter-institution agreement whereas in respect to STT – Staff Training mobility concluding an agreement is optional.
3. An inter-institution agreement can be realized only with a university from one of the countries participating in the programme authorized to participate in the Erasmus+ 2021-2027 programme i.e. a university which holds Erasmus University Charter (ECHE) valid for the academic year to which exchange pertains as well as with other universities in partner states – under separate regulations.
4. The separate regulations pertaining to agreements with partner states refer to:
   • the necessity of concluding such agreement regardless of the type of mobility, i.e. SMS, STA and STT mobilities can be implemented only on the basis of a valid inter-institution agreement;
   • the agreement may be concluded on paper (partner states are not required to join the EWP network);
   • parties to the agreement have to be higher education institutions recognized by appropriate bodies.
5. Inter-institutional agreement on the basis of which a mobility can be realized has to be concluded prior to the process of qualification for a particular type of mobility.
6. Consistently with ordinance of Rector of the University of Szczecin no. 171/2019 and the ordinances altering ordinances no. 178/2019, 188/2019 and 137/2021, persons authorized to draft and conclude inter-institution agreements for all types of mobility listed hereinabove (SMS, STA, STT) are coordinators competent for international exchange of students and academic staff and in the case of SMS mobility of doctoral students: the Doctoral School coordinator competent for international exchange of doctoral students.
7. Erasmus+ inter-institutional agreements are concluded in electronic form by using the Erasmus Without Paper (EWP) network. An agreement concluded with a university which has just joined the programme in the current academic year and thus is not adapted in terms of IT systems to operating the EWP system is an exception.
8. Agreements concluded in the academic year 2021/22 (or earlier) signed in paper form or renewed in form of email arrangements with partner institution has to be concluded as per provisions of section 6 of these regulations, i.e. in an electronic form, by 31st of December 2022 at the latest under pain of nullity.
9. Concluding inter-institution agreements covers:
   • checking whether a prospective partner university participates in the Erasmus+ programme in the academic year to which the agreement is to refer,
   • determining the academic field of the exchange, including the ISCED codes of studies/scientific disciplines and subject/research disciplines, which the coordinator’s power of attorney applies to. If the agreement covers the codes of a few coordinators within a given faculty, then all of the coordinators must agree on signing the given agreement before the fact,
   • in the case of an agreement concluded for student exchange for SMS studies:
     • determining the compliance of the educational offer (information on the courses) for international students at the university, which the agreement with the home university’s offer applies to, in order to obtain the highest possible recognition level for the completed mobilities, which is 30 ECTS points per semester;
     • recording, in a form not rising any doubts, for each ISCED: number of mobilities, language/languages of the exchange, level of studies and information whether the agreement is for one or two semesters;
     • concerning ISCED related to the fields: linguistics, literary studies (ISCED: 0231, 0232, 0230) – including information on the language (alternatively philology), which the agreement applies to;
   • determining the number of exchanges for each chosen ISCED academic field/discipline, which the coordinator’s power of attorney applies to (providing the number of planned mobilities in each ISCED code mentioned in the agreement), if the condition is not met the university treats the number of mobilities entered as defined for all fields. In disputable cases arising from the inability to divide the number of mobilities into individual codes, the order of applications will be decisive;
   • if the agreement is signed for numerous ISCEDs and the conditions are different (e.g. for one ISCED code the required language level is different) – clearly recording (e.g. in Dashboard through writing out separate conditions for individual ISCEDs or by adding a comment to the agreement) separate conditions for each ISCED;
   • as long as the foreign institution does not do it, preparing the agreement in accordance with the guidelines of the European Commission applicable on the date of its preparation;
   • if the agreement is drafted on paper because it is a preliminary agreement or the foreign university only begins its operations within the framework of the Erasmus+ programme, a scan of the Erasmus+ inter-institution agreement signed by authorized representatives of both universities must be sent to the international@usz.edu.pl e-mail address for the purpose of registering the agreement.

Approved by the Vice-Rector for Organisation: dr hab. Kinga Flaga-Gieruszyńska, prof. US, on 21/01/2022