An´alisis bivariado

All formerly mobile teachers are convinced that their ERASMUS supported teaching activities had a positive impact on their home institution of higher education. This was stated by

• 67 percent of the respondents from Central and Eastern European countries as compared to

• 47 percent of the teachers from Western European countries.

A positive impact of their ERASMUS supported teaching activity on the home institution was often observed by teachers from

• Agriculture (69%),

• Art & Design (67%),

• Geography (65%) and

• Medicine (64%).

On the other hand, a positive impact was relatively seldom stated by respondents from Mathematics (35%), Law (30%) and Communication Science (29%).

Finally, respondents were asked to state in which way teaching staff mobility has turned out to be beneficial for their home institution of higher education. Among 12 aspects addressed in the questionnaire, a positive impact was reported twice by the respondents. Accordingly, teaching mobility was most helpful for

• Improvement of advice given to mobile students (63%) and

• Providing knowledge on other countries (58%).

In addition, more than 40 percent of the respondents each noted a positive effect on

• the co-ordination of study programs between the home and host institution,

• the range of foreign-language teaching,

• the development of new study concepts and contents,

Table 82 Impacts of ERASMUS Teaching Staff Mobility on the Home Institution in the View of Mobile Teachers by Home Region 2000/01 (percent; responses 1 and 2)

Home Region 2000/01 Total Western Central and Eastern

Europe Europe

Improvement of guidance/advice available to mobile students 62 69 63 Providing knowledge on other countries, Europe etc. 58 57 58 Co-ordination of programmes between home

programme and partner programmes 47 46 47 Provision of courses in a foreign language

(foreign-language teaching) 39 64 44 Development of new concepts and contents for

study programmes 35 64 41 Addressing issues comparatively 40 47 41 Use of publications in a foreign language 33 64 39 Providing knowledge on international

relations or supranational organisations 38 39 38 Addressing disciplinary/theoretical discussions

originating from partner country/from abroad 37 43 38 Setting up double degree programmes 36 28 34 Development of new teaching methods 26 55 32 Integration of language courses into the curriculum 25 42 29 Count (n) (587) (138) (725) Question E6: In general, how would you rate the impact of ERASMUS teaching staff mobility on your home insti- tution regarding the following aspects? 5-point scale from 1 = 'To a very high extent' to 5 = 'Not at all'

Source: University of Kassel, VALERAS Teaching Staff Survey.

In the majority of aspects addressed, responses of formerly mobile teachers from Central and Eastern European countries are similar to those of the colleagues from Western European countries. In some respects, however, respondents from Central and Eastern European institutions of higher education clearly observed a positive effect of ERASMUS teaching staff mobility more frequently than respondents from Western European countries: Increased provision of courses in a foreign language, use of publications in foreign languages, innovation of the concepts and contents of study programmes as well as development of new teaching methods.

6.9 Concluding Remarks

Teaching Staff Mobility serves several purposes. Besides international teaching experiences for non-mobile students at the host institution, it shall also have an impact on the institutional development of the home institution and, of course, on the teachers’ competences as well. The results of this survey show that ERASMUS mobility has an

impact on all of these aspects. Furthermore, it was shown that mobile teachers do not only profit with regard to teaching competences but also with regard to their research work.

With regard to home internationalisation, it can be summarised that students at the home institution can profit by their teachers’ mobility experience. The wide majority of formerly mobile teachers report that they learnt about different teaching contents,

concepts and methods. After return, many applied this knowledge. The results show that they got encouraged to start new educational projects, they are more competent in using a foreign language in teaching, they are more open to comparative approaches and foreign literature and publications in their teaching. For mobile students, teaching staff mobility has a further implication. 63 percent of formerly mobile teachers view that their international experience has improved their advice given to mobile students. Besides teaching skills, the results present that the mobile teachers improved academic and international competences as well. More than half of the respondents reported that they were able to broaden their specialist knowledge and that they also profit by disciplinary and theoretical discussions during their stay abroad. Interestingly, the impact on the research activities seems to be stronger than expected. Even though the main impact still lies on teaching, a majority of the formerly mobile teachers list

improvements of their research contacts and subsequently more research activities abroad as a consequence of their teaching abroad.

The impacts described above also influence the home institution directly and indirectly. Accordingly, the majority of the questioned teaching staff viewed that their experience abroad also had a positive impact on their home institution of higher education. Besides teaching and research networking effects, mobile teachers get to know quality assurance procedures not known at their home institution. The improved contacts may also help to install double degree programmes. Yet, the impacts are in this regard assessed comparatively lower than in the areas of teaching and research.

Institutional support and appreciation for teaching staff mobility has slightly improved over time. Still, in nearly two thirds of included cases, teaching abroad is an additional work load and not an integrated part of the workload. The practises at the institutions have not changed in the last five years in the perspective of the respondents.

The career impact or professional value of their stay abroad is assessed surprisingly positive by the teachers. More than 50 percent of teachers from Western European institutions and 81 percent of institutions in the Central and Eastern Europe viewed a positive impact on their professional development. Narrowing down the positive detailed assessments to those respondents who in fact experienced a career step in the last five years, the percentage of those who affirm that teaching abroad contributed to their career enhancement and the extension of their temporary employment contract is significantly high.

Differentiating analyses underscore differences by home and host country as well as field of study. In general, respondents from Central and Eastern European home institutions assess the impact and the professional values much more positive than their Western colleagues. In reference to host institution, more positive impacts were seen if the teaching stay took place at an institution in Western Europe. Differences by field of study were less clear, but interesting results could also be found.

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The University Leaders’ Views