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Inter-Institutional Agreements (IIAs) make the cooperation between higher education institutions official, and form the basis of mobility activities in Erasmus+. By signing an inter-institutional agreement, the institutions involved agree to cooperate for the exchange of students and / or staff in the context of Erasmus+. They commit themselves to respecting the quality requirements of the Erasmus Charter for Higher Education in all aspects of the organisation and management of mobility and agree on a series of quantitative and qualitative measures to ensure mobility of high quality and impact.

The choice of partners for international cooperation should be based on areas of mutual interest to improve the quality of learning and teaching in common areas, by using the experience and involvement of academics. The selection can also be based on sound complementarities, and on input from academic staff when identifying and agreeing those areas.

IIAs set out their partnerships’ key shared elements in advance, including: the area of co-operation, the length of the agreement, a named coordinator for the agreement, activities and quality criteria, and shared commitments. Moreover, they contain useful information on academic or organisational aspects, such as measures for preparing, receiving and integrating mobile students and/or staff, what kind of infrastructure is available to support students and staff with disabilities, etc.

Institutions should regularly monitor their IIAs to ensure that they are up to date.

While this practice is evident in all participating institutions, this case study selects three inspirational examples of practice from three countries. The Danish example demonstrates how faculty involvement can be undertaken in identifying and agreeing new IIAs, while the examples from Estonia and Belgium show how the framework of IIAs in place with other institutions shapes the students’ and staff members’ options for mobility placements, and how these can be presented to interested parties when they make choices.

The universities featured are each different, but all are highly active in internationalisation. The University of Copenhagen is a large and traditional institution, with a student body of almost 40,000 that contains more than 5,000 international students. Tallinn University is newer and smaller, with approximately 9,000 students currently enrolled, including 500 international students. The Université Libre de Bruxelles has 24,000 enrolled students, with almost 8,000 from abroad.

The University of Copenhagen commits to a high degree of staff involvement in establishing all Inter-Institutional Agreements. A Faculty-level approach is taken to establish new agreements, whereby at least three out of the eight faculties in the University must agree to the decision in order to establish a new IIA.

IIAs create the framework within which all exchanges take place. This is particularly apparent where universities visually demonstrate their array of agreements. The Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), for example, has created a browsable map of their framework of 330 bilateral and multilateral agreements between ULB and other institutions around the world. A link is provided to display details of each agreement, including contact details of the university staff member responsible for each country or region. The system makes it easy for interested parties to find information and make informed choices about their mobility destination.

Tallinn University’s IIA database is hosted on a webpage supported by Google Maps. Each of the 400 IIAs is represented by a pin on the map, and each pin can be clicked on to find out more information about the partner university, an existing memorandum of understanding or activity. The examples below show how the database of the IIAs across Europe is displayed, and an example of the information content of an Agreement with a partner abroad.

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Tallinn University also uses this information in their special “Touch the Exchange” booth, an interactive facility created by a project team from the University’s  Designed for students, lecturers and support personnel of the University, this booth displays Tallinn University’s partner universities abroad and, based on the user’s profile (e.g. student/teacher/support personnel, level of study), lists options for scholarships and grants. The user can then browse geographically which suitable agreements exist and where, learn basic information and even directly contact the responsible co-ordinator at Tallinn University. It also includes features for international students, providing them with information about degree studies in English and details of the Summer and Winter Schools.

IIAs are the foundation of all mobility and co-operation activities. They should be based on input from academics around important areas for co-operation and complementarities. The first example shows that even in a very large university, it is possible to foster a collaborative approach for the establishment of IIAs through the engagement of faculties. The approach taken in Copenhagen ensures broader buy-in to the selection of IIAs. The other two examples, from Brussels and Tallinn, showcase how the framework of IIAs displayed can help students and staff understand what is possible and where, including information on Erasmus+ exchanges and grant. The visual approaches allow interested individuals to explore their options with all information easily in reach to make informed choices more easily.