The Erasmus+ Programme

As an important component in the overall internationalisation strategy, the Erasmus Programme has complemented the efforts to build up cooperation with European educational institutions.

European Policy Statement

Purpose

Our primary reason for participating in the Erasmus Program is to gain access to all Key Actions. The Program is now an important venue for the establishment of development and cooperation in an easy-accessible framework. Obviously, the availability of funds adds to the relevance of participating. The possibility of creating Projects both big and small in size, but in a familiar framework, is another. The Program has created a common language and a common mind-set which allows us to communicate easily, creating agile processes.

Implementation

The implementation of the ECHE will be done in the same manner as it has always been done, throughout our participation in the Erasmus Program:

Student grants for whatever purpose will be awarded to students participating in those Mobility Windows created in both the BA Program and the MA Program.

Staff Grants will be awarded pending approval by the Managerial levels for either Academic Staff or Administrative Staff. Since PhD students is a category of employees, the Managerial Level governing the PhD education will be responsible for approval of grants.

In case the Recent Graduate category continues, the awarding of funds will be administrative carried out under the precondition of availability of funds. The same policy is in place for study-related work.

The daily Management of Grants is carried out at the Administrative level, just as application and reporting is done at this level with Managerial approval and control. Achievements

The ECHE therefore is a very important support to activities we are already undertaking. No doubt, there are students whose participation is depending on the Erasmus Support and in light of this, the Erasmus Program is a keystone in our internationalization efforts.

For those of our students who contemplate working in The EU after graduation, the Erasmus Program has been a support not to be underestimated. With a growing influx of EU citizens in our Programs, it has become apparent that many wish to use their newly added competencies in other European countries. The Erasmus Program is in this perspective a highly valuable vehicle for job competencies and a vehicle we aim to exploit to the fullest.

For the staff members, especially the academic staff, funds have been used to gain valuable knowledge by working with many parts of Europe. With this knowledge, they return and improve or adds perspectives on the research and/or teaching carried out at the Aarhus School of Architecture. This transfer of knowledge is a two-way love affair, where we use the Erasmus Program also to fund knowledge transfer from us to our foreign partners. This mutual exchange of skills, knowledge and competencies establish a hub for keeping our Institution relevant and modern – to both prospective students, teachers and staff. It is at the same time our modest hope, that we as an Institution are able to motivate and inspire our European partners, both educational and industrial, to be as relevant and modern as possible.

This will, we hope, also contribute to a stronger Europe academically.

Objectives

Participation is the key objective! Participation will manifest our intentions as manifested in our strategy – offering to engage through Architecture in all aspect of our activities. The engagement comprises of students, staff and academic resources whether it is from Academia or Industry. The funds made available via the Erasmus Program has been a tremendous benefit for the students and staff involved in the previous years’ projects. We have had the resources to establish projects and mobility that we would not have had sufficient resources for earlier.

As the Erasmus Program is growing, adding new initiatives to the Key Actions, the ECHE is also a way to keep an open door to new and unforeseen possibilities. Therefore, the objective of creating an agile framework, and participating in it, is an important objective also.

Relevance vs. Strategy

As explained further down, the overall motto of the Aarhus School of Architecture is “Engaging through Architecture”. The motto is our commitment to offer students and staff an opportunity to develop the World around them and meet the challenges of Modern Society; a greater call for a sustainable future, through in-depth knowledge of Habitational issues, Transformative questions and Sustainable challenges.

For this, we need to communicate, and educate in close cooperation with the outside World. The Erasmus Program offers an important venue to initiate, coordinate and execute Programs, Mobility and Development – in both Research and Education. We can only contribute to a European Education Area with our industry, hopes and aspirations and in this aspect, we intend to use the Erasmus Program in the fullest scope. Obviously, as a very small institution, we need others to work with us, we do however expect to find the Erasmus Program as a Launchpad for lifting the sector to a higher level