The Erasmus Policy Declaration

We are an institution for which international collaboration constitutes an important element of artistic, academic and research work. Our goal is to enable the UMFC students, teachers and administrative employees to gain experience abroad. We also want to help young musicians from our University prepare for finding their place in Europe in the future and establishing new contacts and experiences outside of Poland.

Efforts to win new partner universities and organisation of international cooperation are among key priorities of the UMFC for the nearest years. Students taking part in the programme will have an opportunity to gain valuable experience and expand their knowledge while learning about music culture of different countries. Thanks to visiting partner institutions, academic teachers will be able to acquire knowledge from the experiences of their colleagues, which will contribute to their professional development related to their teaching as well as artistic work.

The activities aiming at the internationalisation of the University  at all education levels are implemented through the mobility of students, academic and administrative Staff and constitute an important element of the strategy of UMFC’s development fitting in with the principles of Erasmus+ Programme included in the Erasmus+ Policy Statement.

Establishing collaboration with partner universities takes place through direct contacts of academic employees who, thanks to their openness and mobility, expand the existing contracts with new areas. One of the main goals of the university is increasing the number of persons going abroad for a scholarship and creating an attractive programme for students who visit us. An important element of our teaching offer for foreign students is an option to study in English, which is offered by two Departments for students specialising in Piano and Solo Singing.

Collaboration as part of international projects and internationalisation of studies belong in the group of the main goals in the university’s development strategy. Participation in international artistic and teaching projects should lead to well-balanced benefits for each party to a contract and an increase of involvement in this type of activity of academic community.

Persons responsible for the implementation of international projects will make every effort to involve the highest possible number of students and lecturers in future international undertakings. The university’s administration provides appropriate organisational, regulatory and legal facilities for the implementation of provisions of multilateral contracts. Progress made during the implementation of a given undertaking is monitored, described in periodic reports and published. A student’s participation in the Erasmus+ programme is always annotated in a Diploma Supplement and confirmed by a certificate. Involvement in international undertakings will be taken into consideration while making periodic evaluation of employees and regarded as a significant aspect of professional development. We hope that the participation in the Erasmus+ programme and other multilateral projects as part of the university will result in a transformation aimed at modernising higher education in Europe in compliance with the guidelines from the European Commission.

The programme Erasmus+ is particularly attractive for young people. The offer to study and have a training abroad is one of important arguments in the process of finding new candidates. The university makes a constant effort to improve its quality of education.

Student and academic staff mobility is in favour of increasing the level of education. Thanks to participation in international projects, the university not only strengthens previous quality of education control mechanisms, but it also improves and modifies them, adjusting the process of education to the highest international standards. Classes taught by teachers from other countries and an opportunity to study in an international environment widen professional, social and inter-cultural competencies of students. A graduate who had a scholarship as part of the Erasmus+ programme is well-prepared for work in an international environment, with people originating from different cultures. Participation in international programmes makes a university more prestigious, attracts good students and academic staff. Administrative employees’ mobility, their participation in international training courses is also an opportunity to exchange experiences and knowledge of good practices, which improves the management of an institution.

The UMFC implements the Lisbon Strategy by participating in the creation of European knowledge-based economy.

In order to equip students with innovative knowledge and artistic skills sought after on the labour market, the UMFC puts an emphasis on the internationalisation of the process of education. The main goals for the period of 2020–2027 are to increase the degree of internationalisation of the process of education by means of exchanging teachers and to increase the number of foreign students studying at the UMFC. To make the offer for foreign students more attractive, the number of subjects taught in English will be expanded, with a special emphasis on creating programmes meant for particular majors of studies. Academic employees will be encouraged to participate and coordinate multilateral projects leading towards the creation of curricula of studies offered in English. The growing and more and more attractive offer of teaching programmes at the UMFC will be presented and promoted during international conferences and meetings.

The activities within the mission and strategy to internationalise UMFC will continue to be implemented by promoting the mobility of students and employees as part of the KA103 project and by organising joint international concerts and artistic events.

The intensification of teachers’ participation in master classes, academic and artistic conferences taking place as part of the Erasmus+ programme both abroad and at our institution will allow for establishing new contacts and promote the knowledge about the programme among a larger group of students. At the same time, such activities will influence the widening of teaching offer and improvement of quality of education and professional qualifications of academic teachers, which is in compliance with the mission and strategy of UMFC.

At our friend institutions abroad, non-teaching employees will have an opportunity to familiarise themselves with the mechanisms of functioning of these universities, their different structures of work orgnisation, good practices and management methods, thus contributing to the modernisation and improving the functioning of UMFC’s administrative units.

Thanks to the exchange of experiences and gaining innovative knowledge about work organisation, employees of publishing or academic units, library or sound library will develop the quality of work in all these areas, which are meant to support the teaching and artistic processes at our institution.

A great platform for the development of activities aimed at the implementation of institutional strategy is the membership at the AEC (Association Européenne des Conservatoires, Academies de Musique et Musikhochschulen), which allows for the exchange of good practices among European and world’s music universities during annual meetings of university authorities and representatives of international offices.

The implementation of the Erasmus+ programme influences the UMFC in a significant way. Its role is appreciated by the university authorities and it constitutes an integral part of the UMFC development strategy and the activities of the office for international cooperation. The strategy, assuming collaboration and internationalisation, is implemented in many aspects – the ones we should stress are the establishing of extensive, long-lasting and  effective foreign contacts increasing the prestige of the university, development of teaching offer by means of supporting international master classes, participation in international conferences abroad, and organising seminars, courses and concerts.

Thanks to many years of functioning of the programme at the institution, dozens of personal international contacts have been established among academic staff of partner universities in numerous European countries. They result in a vivid artistic exchange between academic centres and stimulate the development of new initiatives related to concerts and workshops.

Further participation in the programme will allow the university to continue its previous undertakings and, in the long perspective, will constitute a significant element of improving the attractiveness of the institution’s teaching and artistic offer.

Due to the growing popularity of the Erasmus+ programme at our university, the aim of our efforts is to enable the highest possible number of interested students and employees to go abroad. We would like this number to grow systematically, so that with each year a larger and larger group of people could benefit from the programme, in a way such as an opportunity to gain new experiences, develop artistic skills, widen knowledge and improve professional competencies.

Monitoring and supporting the course of mobility is the everyday work of people involved in the implementation of the project. Apart from the employees of the Erasmus+ office, there are employees of Dean’s offices, finance department, office for teaching affairs, as well as Deans of Departments, Heads of Chairs and teachers who engage themselves in daily management and assistance offered to students and staff members participating in the programme.

The Erasmus+ office is responsible for helping prepare documents necessary for organising a trip abroad, paying special attention to appropriate and thorough way of following the Agreement for Curricula of Studies/Practical Training (in case of students) and Agreement on the Teaching/Training Programme (in case of teaching and administrative employees). We look after the timely payment of subsequent tranches of scholarships, reply to all questions about the rules and procedures of the programme, clear doubts, are in constant email contact with persons from Erasmus+ offices at partner institutions, thanks to which we can on a day-to-day basis react to issues requiring an intervention. We are at the disposal of persons going abroad or interested in going abroad, making sure that the preparation of contracts between beneficiaries and the university is on-time, monitoring the flow of documents and information between applicants (students and employees) and partner institutions and offering assistance in complying with all formalities connected with the closing and recognising the mobility.

The support we try to provide to the employees willing to participate in the programme is taking care of sending the didactic offers to foreign universities, liaising with the schools, offering help in booking air tickets.

Apart from the support resulting from the principles of the programme, we try to help and to advise all students and employees coming to the UMFC from partner universities in regard to issues connected with the organisation of their stay, as well as any life issues, which are often unexpected and difficult to solve due to not knowing local realities.