The founding universities of UNITA, Università degli Studi di Torino (Italy), Universitatea de Vest din Timișoara, Université de Pau et des pays de l’Adour (France), Université Savoie Mont Blanc (France), Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain) and Universidade Beira Interior (Portugal), are welcoming in 2023 four new partner universities, Università degli Studi di Brescia (Italy), Transilvania University of Brașov (Romania), Universidad Pública de Navarra (Spain), Politécnico da Guarda (Portugal), as well as Haute Ecole Spécialisée de Suisse Occidental (Switzerland) and Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University (Ukraine), as associated partners.
Through its long-term strategy and its mission, one of UNITA’s objectives is to build a transnational academic community. Various types of mobilities, dedicated to both students and staff, including unique initiatives such as UNITA Rural Mobility, underpin this mission. One particular new type of mobilities which the current Erasmus+ programme has made available, are blended mobilities organized within the framework of E+ Blended Intensive Programmes.
Between the 13th to the 17th of February 2023, West University of Timișoara hosted the Blended Intensive Programme (BIP) dedicated to mobilities in UNITA. What makes this programme different and special is the fact that it is the first organized at WUT and in UNITA in which learners are administrative and academic staff colleagues working in the area of mobility.
The week started with the presentation of UVT and the vision of seamless mobilities in the next phase of the Alliance, but also with a treasure hunt organized in collaboration with the European Student Network through which our guests discovered Timișoara, European Capital of Culture 2023, not before considerably reducing language barriers through the Intercomprehension and Romanian language course organized by UVT.
The exchange of best practices in order to improve UNITA Rural, Virtual and Green mobility initiatives, as well as more traditional forms of physical mobilities, has led to considerably strengthening the strategy of implementation and dissemination of the aforementioned in a sustainable way in the new stage and form of the alliance. Additionally, workshops meant to improve the organization of BIP's (Blended Intensive Programmes), UCIL (UNITA Collaborative International Learning) and the digitalization of mobility-related processes within the Alliance were organized.
At the end of the programme participants had the opportunity to write down on a paper plate what information and good practices they “take away” to their universities after their week at UVT and, not surprisingly, their lists were considerably long!
