Erasmus+ International Staff Training Week 2024 at Politecnico
From May 27th to May 31st Politecnico hosted the Erasmus+ International Staff Training Week 2024, bringing together partner universities from all over the world. The event was organized by the Innovation and Development of Education Unit of the STUDI Department to enhance the participants’ competences in the internationalization of higher education. Core topics of the event were the Erasmus+ 2021-27 programme, its Horizontal Priorities, especially Inclusion and Diversity and Environment and Climate Change.
The event was attended by 24 administrative and academic delegates from 24 PoliTO partner universities coming from 13 non-EU countries: Albania, Australia, Azerbaijan, Chile, China, Colombia, Japan, Kenya, Lebanon, Morocco, South Africa, United States and Uzbekistan.
The delegates participated in three interactive workshops focused on the Erasmus+ Programme, Inclusion and Diversity and on Sustainability, conducted by the University Sustainability Services Division of the CALOS Department and by the STUDI Department: Innovation and Development of Education Unit, International Mobility Unit and LIFE Division. The workshops stressed the transversal nature of the topics discussed and fostered the exchange of best practices among the participating universities.
The week opened with the speeches of Elena Baralis, Deputy Rector of Politecnico, and of Patrizia Lombardi, Vice Rector for Sustainable Campus and Living Lab. Alberto Sapora, Vice Rector for International Affairs, opened the session of presentations of guest institutions.
The workshop on the Inclusion initiatives implemented by PoliTO was attended by Arianna Montorsi, Directress of Gender Studies Centre, while the workshop on Erasmus+ was attended by Marco Sangermano, Director of the Study Centre for the coordination of student and faculty incoming and outgoing internationalization activities.
The presence of the partner universities at PoliTO offered several faculty members a valuable networking opportunity. Also, PoliTO students who will perform an Erasmus+ mobility in the next academic year had the possibility to meet the representatives of their hosting universities. During the week, the training activity was complemented by guided visits of the PoliTO main campus, the historic seat of the Valentino Castle, the city of Torino and the Asian Art Museum.
Participants appreciated the quality and the organization of the training activities and considered them useful for their professional enhancement and for strengthening the relations between institutions. Many of them, on their first visit to the Politecnico, also appreciated the City of Torino and PoliTO as a valuable destination for their exchange students.
The Erasmus+ International Staff Training Week 2024 was made possible thanks to the fundings available in the frame of the Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility (KA171) project financed by the Italian Erasmus+ National Agency INDIRE. Participants were granted an Erasmus+ scholarship for Staff Training mobility.