Η European The Commission today announced the three higher education institutions receiving funding through the program Erasmus, who will receive a prize for 2013.
The first winner emerged University of Applied Sciences JAMK in Jyväskylä, Finland, where each year 70% of staff take part in training Erasmus abroad. Second winner Technological Educational Institute of Crete, and third Universitat Politècnica of Valencia, Spain.
"Quality teaching is vital if we want to create creative and adaptive graduates that we need," said Androulla Vassiliou, Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth, who congratulated the three institutions that won the awards, because they demonstrated the value of Erasmus in terms of opportunities for teaching and training abroad.
"The three winning institutions involved in partnerships in various European countries are brilliant examples of what can be achieved if staff mobility is used strategically to support and continuously improve the quality of teaching and learning," the Commissioner said.
The European Commission has also called on 4.500 higher education institutions that have an Erasmus University Charter to show successful success stories about staff mobility and short-term intensive programs such as international summer schools. Independent experts included 20 in the final list of best examples from which the three awarded institutions were selected.
In addition to the scholarships granted to students for study or training abroad, Erasmus funded more than 300.000 staff exchanges for teaching and training and more than 3.200 intensive programs from 1997. Overall, these activities account for about 9% of the Erasmus budget.
For the Technological Educational Institute of Crete, the Commission notes that it has more than 15.000 students, attending courses in six different cities of Crete. Since 2005, the technology institute's 22 intensive programs have formed the basis for internationalization, forging links with local industry as well as with world-leading institutions such as the University of Oxford and the UK's Imperial College. This resulted in the study programs gaining an international dimension and university students from all over Europe getting to know the work of the technological institute and its staff members.
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