ERASMUS POLICY STATEMENT 2021-2027
Cukurova University (CU) has been playing an important role in the European mobility projects in Turkey since the first years of Erasmus as one of the universities involved in the Pilot Project in 2003-2004 academic year when Turkey became a programme country. It has appreciated the Bologna Process and European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) and earned ECTS Label and Diploma Supplement Label during the 2014-2020 period. The University has more than 300 Erasmus bilateral agreements with European HEIs and partner country institutions. CU is awarded by the Council of Higher Education in Turkey as Candidate Research University and pilot university in the field of internationalization in Turkey. Intending to foster its regional, national and international relations and enhance its community outreach, CU has placed the Internationalization of the University at the heart of its Strategic Plan for 2019-2023 and published its Internationalization Strategy Paper in 2019.
The Strategy Paper has been developed with a unified perspective based on three pillars: International Student, International Research and International Education. The objectives regarding the internationalization of the University include but not limited to: (1) enhancing the University’s international visibility in the higher education area, (2) promoting collaboration in the international exchange of student and staff and raising the number of beneficiaries in the mobility programs, (3) increasing number of international agreements and strategic partnerships, (4) improving the University’s research potential in the international research environment, (5) developing internationalized curriculum. In this respect, the Erasmus Charter for Higher Education will enable the University to materialize its internationalization objectives and contribute to the modernization of the institution to reach the goals of a European Education Area by 2025.
In line with its internationalization strategies, CU has supported and participated not only in Erasmus mobility programmes including consortia for placement mobility projects but also in Erasmus centralized projects including a strategic partnership for education and research as well as other cooperation opportunities. The University has joined in KA2 Strategic partnership projects for Adult Education, for Higher Education, for Youth in Action as well as KA3 projects, Comenius, TOI and VET projects. In this regard, CU is self-dedicated to continue to take part in all activities under Key Action 1, Key Action 2 and Key Action 3 to boost high-quality staff and student mobility, to double the number of beneficiaries in mobility projects, to cooperate with HEIs and other strategic partners such as enterprises, regional authorities, and civil societies. These activities will provide more opportunities for CU students coming from a programme country and facilitate them to have international study or traineeship experience abroad and recognition of their qualifications across Europe, develop a sense of identity as European, enhance their social and professional skills as well as digital skills in the new period that are important for their employability in the future. Participating in mobility programmes will also enhance the capacity of teaching staff to lecture in a foreign language, share best practices and increase research opportunities in the future and of administrative staff to develop professional skills and gain international experience.
In addition to European partners, developing cooperation with partner country institutions in line with academic interests and strategies for internationalisation and exchanging mobility students and staff will encourage the institution to develop the number of programmes in foreign languages and more internationalized curriculum and to achieve more visibility among HEIs and international students.
International cooperation opportunities with HEIs and non-academic organizations for Erasmus Key Action 2 and Key Action 3 will enable the University to take actions in building strategic partnerships for best-practice sharing, conducting joint projects, innovation and excellence in strategic fields of study. These actions will increase its research and educational capacity and improve research infrastructure and facilities.
For 2014-2020 Erasmus Policy Statement, please click.
