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Recognition of staff mobility can be a powerful incentive for individuals to seek out and undertake mobility periods. This can benefit both individuals, via increased experiences, career progression or financial rewards, and their institutions as well by increased profile, exposure to international practices, learning and improvements.

There are many examples of higher education institutions linking internationalisation to their institutional strategies, as well as embedding participation in Erasmus+ staff mobility into human resource development strategies or plans.  JAMK University of Applied Sciences in Finland has been recognised both nationally and at the European level for its investment in staff mobility. The university has put a range of initiatives and incentives in place to increase staff mobility, through connecting mobility activities to staff development and the strategic objectives of the institution. Furthermore there is a large emphasis on sharing the learning and experiences gained during mobility for the benefit both of the individuals and of the institution.

JAMK (Jyvaskylan ammattikorkeakoulu) is a University of Applied Sciences with approximately 6,000 students. Internationalisation is a core element of its institutional strategy, included as one of three focal areas, along with improving the quality of learning and promoting entrepreneurship. The university has long recognised that staff mobility supports on-going improvement of teaching and learning quality. Therefore the university systematically draws upon the learning of staff exchange, and it put in place a set of national and additional institutional key performance indicators to assess progress and impact to do so.

Staff returning from international mobility are required to write a report on their experiences, that is published on the staff Intranet. The information collected through these reports is stored in a central electronic database, which can be analysed and used by anyone. This data collection helps the monitoring of staff mobility, provides input to its further development and the assessment of its impact across many areas of the university. Mobility-related activities and experiences are not only used to support institutional development, but as part of individuals’ personal development programmes through integration of international mobility activities into staff appraisal as well. To ensure maximising the benefits of mobility, a strong emphasis is put on the quality of the experiences undertaken by the individuals.

JAMK’s progress in and approach to internationalisation have been recognised by both the Finnish Centre for International Mobility (CIMO) and the European Commission. CIMO co-ordinate Erasmus funding at the national level in Finland, and JAMK is one of the highest funded higher education institutions in the country under Erasmus.  A visit by CIMO  to JAMK yielded excellent feedback related to the implementation of Erasmus, particularly related to the transparency of JAMK’s mobility processes, the number of students and staff participating in the programme, and the institution’s management of the funding.  In 2013, the European Commission awarded JAMK the Gold Prize of the European Erasmus Awards, for investing in staff exchanges and teaching quality under the last programme period. The Prize recognised JAMK’s achievement of 70% of university staff undertaking different mobility activities every year. This high proportion is due to a successful pan-university advertisement of the benefits and opportunities of Erasmus, a campaign carried out by the university over the past years to foster international mobility. This resulted in university staff now actively seeking out opportunities for international experiences.

Not only is internationalisation a core element of JAMK’s institutional strategy, but the university also works hard to promote international mobility among its staff, making the participation attractive by integrating it into staff members’ personal development. In addition, ensuring that the learning of mobile staff is systematically captured, monitored, made accessible and disseminated means that the value of the experience is multiplied among staff for the benefit of both individuals and the institution.