Promising Progress in staff and student incoming mobilities from outside EU

In 2015, the European Commission introduced the Erasmus+ Key Action 107 – International Credit Mobility (ICM) – which enabled staff and student mobilities to and from Partner Countries – locations outside the EU/EEA.    The action is managed by the higher education institutions in Ireland in partnership with the National Agency.

In the first year, Ireland received 86 incoming staff mobilities from 22 countries and 60 students from 16 countries – a total of 146.

Projects are normally of 26 months duration.

Final figures for 2017 show that the sector has increased its support welcoming 123 staff and 54 students for an overall total of 177 mobilities, a 21% increase.

The ICM action has opened the higher education sector to partnerships on all continents.

A number of Institutions have been particularly successful in what is a competitive call.

In 2015 three HEIs were responsible for 58% of staff mobilities – University College Dublin (18), University of Limerick (17) and Trinity College Dublin (15).  Two years later, three HEIs accounted for 69% of staff mobilities – University of Limerick (50), Mary Immaculate College Limerick (23) and Trinity College Dublin (12).

Incoming student numbers in 2015 were 60 with 31 on mobilities to University College Dublin, the University of Limerick on 16 with Limerick Institute of Technology on 7 – a total of 90%.  In 2017, the incoming numbers fell marginally to 54 with 24 students attending University College Dublin and the University of Limerick and 3 each at Mary Immaculate College Limerick and University College Cork.

The largest incoming numbers in 2015 came from Russia (29), China (24) and Georgia (15).  In 2017, the corresponding figures were Russia (38), Georgia (18) and Ukraine (10).

The next call for mobilities under this action to be known in the new programme as KA171 will be in 2022.

Staff and Student Flows under Erasmus+ KA107 International Credit Mobility 2015-2017