NA-DAAD Conference European Conference of Placement Consortia within the ERASMUS Programme

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1 1 NA-DAAD Conference European Conference of Placement Consortia within the ERASMUS Programme on 27 October 2010 Brussels Representation of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia Plenary discussion: am The Role of Placement Consortia in the ERASMUS Programme Dr. Werner von Trützschler, Ministerialdirigent in Thuringia Ministry of Education, Science and Culture Contribution Plenary discussion : Thuringian Consortium Participation in EU mobility projects 18-year experience with Thuringian Approach LEONARDO-OFFICE Thuringia - University-Enterprise-Training Partnership I would like to thank you for the opportunity to participate in this experts conference about the role of consortia within the ERASMUS Programme and I would like to take advantage of the situation to outline the very positive experience for almost 20 years gained with the Thuringian Consortium Participation in EU mobility projects and the LEONARDO OFFICE Thuringia in the Free State of Thuringia. Creating the consortium: In 1992 the Thuringian Consortium was set up as University-Enterprise-Training- Partnership, in short UETP.

2 2 Members of the Thuringian Consortium for cooperation in the European programme field Mobility aiming at highly efficient participation of the Thuringian Universities and Universities of Applied Sciences in EU projects are: Bauhaus University, Weimar Friedrich Schiller University of Jena Erfurt University Ilmenau University of Technology The Liszt School of Music, Weimar and the Universities of Applied Sciences in Erfurt, Jena, Nordhausen and Schmalkalden. The former training partnership fast developed into a modern and efficient service office. In 1995 Thuringian universities and universities of applied sciences decided to continue this central cooperation, first of all with regard to the international offices and a way of significantly relieving them from a part of their workload. In 1995 the programme LEONARDO DA VINCI - this training partnership - was renamed as LEONARDO-Office Thuringia ( University-Enterprise-Training- Partnership ) and is still operating under this name. The central office for coordinating all activities of LEONARDO-Office Thuringia is located on the campus of Ilmenau University of Technology. In the following, I will refer to the office using the abbreviation LOT. On behalf of the Thuringian Ministry for Education, Science and Culture and the participating Thuringian universities, LOT is operating in the field of the European programme for lifelong learning as service provider for all state-run, public universities of the Free State of Thuringia. LOT is both professionally and financially supported by the Thuringian Ministry of Education, Science and Culture. Further support is additionally granted to subsidies provided by EU mobility programmes for scholarships. The precise amount of subsidies differs from year to year depending on the given opportunities of the Ministry and might range between two and ten thousand Euro. The core business of LOT is characterized by supporting internships in companies abroad and the development of various mobility projects for different target groups. These target groups are: Students who would like to do an internship, Graduates who would like to do a training course abroad, University staff members who would like to gain experience at foreign universities. The preferred destinations are in Europe.

3 3 Further projects are: Training courses for apprentices at Thuringian universities and for those working with regional partners, Creation of a topical network, Supporting interns coming from abroad. LOT also raises considerable third-party funds for financing individual mobility programmes of the mentioned target groups, especially from different EUprogramms. First, the required financial support was granted by initial funding of the COMETT- Programme which then was expanded by co-financing through the Thuringian government resulting in extended activities and further offers. These funds allowed, on the one hand, further outgoings, i.e. more students were able to do an internship abroad, and on the other hand, they offered more opportunities for incomings, supporting small and medium-sized companies in Thuringia. With the enlarged scope of offers of the LOT, these subsidies were reduced without reducing the quality and quantity of offers and activities. The current Thuringian Consortium has always been adopted to the changing programmes of the European Union and has always met the appropriate requirements with sustainable offers for students and graduates. Since 2007 the activities of LOT have been continued very successfully in the framework of the new structures of the EU programme for lifelong learning LOT has got an annual budget of about 600,000 euro for mobility measures at its disposal. Please, allow me to refer to the internal structure of the LOT: When in 1995 Thuringian universities decided, as already mentioned, to continue the fairly centralized cooperation, a full-time position, financed by the Thuringian Ministry of Science, was created together with a second job position financed by the participating universities. Ilmenau University of Technology as hosting university offered the required infrastructure for the LOT and its administrative work. The LOT manager is Dr. Frank March, who is also in charge of further tasks in the academic life of Ilmenau University of Technology. All running costs in project management have been met by LOT, based on its funds and overhead shares in projects.

4 4 In this context one should not miss the important key words transparency and communication which significantly characterize the approach and course of action of the LOT. The mentioned transparency in the work and activities of the LEONARDO-Office has been granted and based on the close collaboration of partners in the working group LEONARDO Thuringia. Representatives of the involved Thuringian universities, the Thuringian Ministry of Education, Science and Culture and of Thuringian companies participate in the regular meetings of the working group. All partners discuss basic principles of their activities and decide about further offers and new approaches. The participating Thuringian universities regularly receive updated information and statistics on LOT activities, respective formalities for participation in EU mobility programmes and any changes that have been introduced. The LOT offers, in the sense of an enlarged service offer, informative meetings on the spot and individual consulting service and advice for members of the consortium. The office also publishes annual reports on projects and results and submits them to the Thuringian Ministry of Education, Science and Culture and to a larger group of experts. Moreover, LOT also advises regional Thuringian initiative groups in their efforts to establish European projects and participates in several networks, for example in the annual exchange of experience of coordinators in Germany. Referring to the European level, LOT presents the very specific Thuringian experience in workshops and offers assistance for creating new structures, e.g. in the new EU member states. so far my explanations have shown the very many positive effects of the wellfunctioning structure of the consortium as it has been established in Thuringia. I am convinced that a consortium in comparison with a university acting on its own offers clearly defined advantages. The German consortiums responses to a very interesting questionnaire for the current - Charming Offensive for Consortiums in present a similarly positive picture. I would like to describe the essential advantages of such a consortium, based upon the model in Thuringia.

5 5 Essential Advantages of such a Consortium: The partners of the consortium profit by clearly reducing the bureaucratic and administrative workload to a minimum in their institutions. The consortium takes over the entire financial and administrative management as well as the complete execution of project assignments starting with establishing first contacts to guiding projects up to post-assessment. This results in a noticeable savings in costs and time, making the initial participation of some universities in the programmes possible for the first time. By concentrating organization, performance and know-how into one hand, numerous synergy effects occur. A functional national and international network of project partners can be efficiently built up all over Europe through intensive cooperation with all academic foreign offices. The results are fast information pathways and success in acquiring funds. While professors and granting institutions retain the function of guiding the content, the management lies with a team of experts with extensive experience. Since the guiding work principle in the Thuringia Consortium, as an example, is the equal treatment of all participating universities in Thuringia, all of them can use the service of the LOT and profit from its experience. This equal treatment ensures comparable processes and standards and a constantly high quality of practices. Fluctuating numbers of applications can be better compensated within such a consortium. Students of smaller partner institutions have a special profit here: with equal chances they have access to a larger pool of internships and business contacts and a larger portfolio of experience. In addition, they also have access to a considerable supply of offers (seminars, information material, etc.) of other consortium partners. Centralization not only enables individual and very flexible service; it also bolsters the important cooperative efforts between universities and businesses in specific individual and goal-oriented ways. Academic foreign offices and international offices of participating universities normally cannot bring about such a dialogue with businesses on their own. Lacking personnel resources is a main reason for this. A consortium that speaks with one voice carries more weight in dialogue with other institutions, such as with European institutions. Last but not least, successful common European projects also promote international marketing of all participating universities in the consortium. Please allow me to mention the following concerning the much discussed incomings in the subject area Dialogue and Cooperation with Business :

6 6 Guidance of Incomings: A special service of the LOT for the region always consisted of guiding incomings to help small and medium size businesses in Thuringia to participate in international efforts. Here it is worth noting that Thuringia was able to realize a special type of cooperation with the Thuringia Ministry of Economics. Thuringian businesses that were not strong enough to take on foreign interns could count on financial support from the Thuringian Ministry of Economics. In that time the LOT accomplished very intensive and individual guidance of these incomings through individual visits and intern meetings in the same way as it guided the outgoings motivating them in all phases of their internships. Once again, the tight Thuringian network between state and local government, consortium and LOT proved to be sustainable and effective. Above all other things, in the 1990s the incoming rules for many businesses in the new (eastern) German states during the new formation of business and economy were an important component for creating international contacts and networks. It seems very desirable to re-introduce the incoming rules to enable foreign students to be helped in international projects and in recommending them for German companies. This would strengthen and renew these valuable contacts to the regional economy while securing the internationalizing effect for local businesses (financing from consortiums is possible). The re-introduction of the incoming rules is on the wish list of the experts for the new programme generation starting in 2013/2014. Desirable is also a stronger participation in the new programme generation as well as a stronger institutional support of the cooperation between universities and businesses. Conclusion: I would like to conclude by praising the structured cooperation mentioned here in the context of the consortium. The highly motivated team in the LOT has created a wide regional, national, and international partnership network in the past eighteen years. This assures high quality when preparing, executing, and analysing internships abroad very carefully, such as are seen in the attractive reports of their experiences prepared by outgoings after their internships. I would like to highlight again that this has made possible competent and flexible extremely individualized internships valuable for all participants. Universities make intensive use of this service opportunity. Numerous projects have documented the lasting effect of the work of the LOT at the Technical University of Ilmenau. This professional competency has found recognition in Germany and across Europe:

7 7 So the European Quality in Mobility Award 2006 (European Quality Seal for Mobility Projects in the Professional Education Programme LEONARDO DA VINCI) was awarded by the European Commission for the LOT. LOT was honoured for successful concepts that enable young people to complete a portion of their education in a European partner country and thereby acquire international qualification. This designation established the Thuringia LEONARDO Office as one of the best projects in Europe. For several similar offices primarily in the new German states, this office was the model when solving new structural tasks in international academic areas. This concept of forming consortiums has passed the test. We all know that businesses put more and more emphasis on foreign experience as a job requirement. This needs to be combined with the international character of science.for this combination mobility is essential. Mobility is both a financial question and a question of successful organization, planning, and execution. Lasting and proven structures and networks like the Thuringia University Consortium are decisive for this success. The Thuringia Consortium can thus be recommended for other European countries. Thank you for your attention.