Collaborating in Urban SOS Project in Ghent, Belgium

In order for all students, regardless of their background, to be able to take part in international learning opportunities, the opportunities have to be inclusive and comprehensive. What does this mean and how can we enhance students’ equal opportunities to develop multicultural and global competences during their studies? To increase and improve inclusivity of internationalisation activities of students, diversifying international learning opportunities is a must, as this blog post explains. We will introduce two useful ways to do this, along with new ideas for professional development. To increase inclusivity of internationalisation activities of students, diversifying international learning opportunities is a must. Multicultural competence is one of the working life competencies that each degree programme must take into account in their curricula. It refers to a student's ability to work in a multicultural professional community and customer environment, the ability to take into account the effects and opportunities of global developments and phenomena in the field and having necessary language skills. In addition, sustainable development goals related to one’s professional field are more or less international and global in nature and hence also linked to international and multicultural competencies. Internationalisation is for all, or is it? Semester-long student exchanges have traditionally been seen as the main way for students to develop their international competencies, but the world and the students are changing. In the past years, already prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the UAS sector in particular has witnessed a somewhat steady decline in the volume of semester-long student mobilities. Despite the numerous opportunities and travel grants available, not every student finds a long-term mobility period abroad a viable option. We can also see changes in the student body with an increasing number of adult students and students with children, making semester-long absence from home impractical. Not every student finds a long-term mobility period abroad a viable option. Furthermore, there has been discussion about inclusivity in internationalisation activities. Many studies are indicating that participation is, on the one hand, inherited, meaning that students coming from an academic background are more likely to take part in international opportunities. On the other hand, participation in international opportunities tends to accumulate so that students with international experiences are more likely to take part in these activities even more. Barriers preventing participation can vary from institutional factors, such as insufficient funding and lack of information about opportunities, to environmental obstacles, such as low income and society not valuing international experiences. They can also be attitudinal, viewing international activities as something for others, not for everyone, and certainly not for me. (Siekkinen, 2013; Siltala, 2013; Alliens, Gabriels, 2021). Co-creating an international classroom through virtual exchanges Virtual exchange is a form of internationalisation at home. It is a way to internationalise the curriculum and offer teachers and students an opportunity to interact and collaborate online with peers from partner institutions abroad. It also provides a good way to introduce a different language, such as English, into the students’ professional vocabulary. Virtual exchanges can make internationalisation more equal and inclusive for all students, as international learning can now be built and experienced in one’s own classroom without travelling. Virtual exchange can be an instrument for providing highly relevant international and intercultural learning experiences to students. One should, however, understand the distinction between different forms of “international learning on-line”, and when mere online lecturing transforms into a multicultural learning experience for students and teachers involved. Through co-creation with colleagues from partner universities, virtual exchange can be “an instrument for providing highly relevant international and intercultural learning experiences to students, but it also allows these experiences to be integrated in the curriculum through bottom-up implementation”, as Sake Jager from the University of Groningen points out. In order to take the leap from a virtual lecture to a virtual exchange, collaborative teaching and learning should be put in the centre of activities. COIL, short for Collaborative Online International Learning, is a good model to use. Metropolia staff have been offered training on how to develop COIL opportunities for students into already existing courses and modules through the U!REKA network since 2021, and a new set of training sessions are planned for spring 2024. One can start to integrate virtual exchange and COIL into one’s classroom by taking small steps at a time. How about beginning with a short, collaborative segment in an existing course module? There are no set minimums or maximums of what it should be, it can be one assignment or one theme. Start small and build from there. Two basic principles are as follows: students work online under the direction of teacher/-s, together with students and teacher/-s from a partner institution, and the project is planned and taught in collaboration with teacher/-s from the partner institution. At its best, the teachers have a community to design, plan and execute teaching and the end result provides students with an opportunity to interact with peers, so they can develop intercultural competences and digital skills while working together on subject-specific learning activities. For more inspiration, see Niina Huovinen’s blog post on “Creating International Classrooms through Virtual Exchange”. Blended Intensive Programmes (BIP’s) To expand the student and teacher experience one step further, is to engage in an Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Programme, or BIP.  BIP is a more flexible form of mobility where short-term physical mobility abroad is combined with virtual co-learning, hence the term blended. Universities are able to engage in Erasmus+ BIPs in two ways, either as an organiser that hosts a group of teachers and learners from partner universities, or as a partner that sends participating teachers and learners. BIP is a more flexible form of mobility where short-term physical mobility abroad is combined with virtual co-learning. The central idea of a BIP is that it brings learners together to work collectively and simultaneously on specific assignments that are integrated in the blended intensive programme, both counting towards the overall learning outcomes. The physical mobility duration of 5-30 days makes it more accessible to those unable to participate in semester exchanges. A BIP can give students positive experiences in international projects, providing perhaps the first international classroom experience abroad, and encouraging them to seek more, and longer-term exchange options. But it's not just students who benefit from a BIP, as it provides teachers an opportunity to build upon their earlier experiences with virtual exchanges and add on new components. It can also provide fruitful experiences, building their intercultural teaching skills and global networks. In the spring 2023 a survey of 196 academic coordinators of BIP’s studied how BIP’s are being employed in European Higher Education and what the experiences of the coordinators have been to date. (RobertO'Dowd, University of León, Spain and Sina Werner, Ruhr-University Bochum,Germany) The students and staff benefits included: Having the opportunity to work in international teams (33%) Developing a professional network (27%) Developing intercultural skills and an intercultural perspective (23%) Experiencing new ways of teaching and new perspectives on the subject matter (16%) Where to go from here? Diversifying student population and improvement of inclusion in mind, we need to widen the scope of international learning opportunity options available to students. Virtual exchanges and blended international learning opportunities with short-term physical mobilities are some of the new ways for teachers to bring global learning experiences in the classroom. Consider these: Check out your institutional info for any announcements on virtual exchanges and BIPs. Work with your International Relations Adviser to identify options Finding colleagues to collaborate with is a common challenge. Start with your institution’s partner network. At Metropolia, you can start with our Erasmus+ EUI network U!REKA Shift. Don’t forget that semester exchanges are still available to your students as well. Metropolia is currently a partner in Erasmus+ Cooperation Partnership project Inclusive Comprehensive Internationalisation (ICI) that aims to find new solutions as well. ICI staff training will be offered for Metropolia staff in the spring of 2024 aiming to help teachers, degree programmes and other staff to develop inclusive and comprehensive international learning opportunities accessible to all students. The journey towards multicultural competence requires innovation, inclusivity, and a willingness to embrace the ever-expanding landscape of global learning. Education continues to evolve and so should our approaches to internationalisation. As we see it, the journey towards multicultural competence requires innovation, inclusivity, and a willingness to embrace the ever-expanding landscape of global learning. Writers: Tia-Maria Sjöblom works as an International Relations Adviser in the School of Culture and Creative Industries. She has been coordinating many BIP:s as a sending and hosting role and is passionate about facilitating positive impact that BIPs can have on the students and teachers. Tiina Piipponen works as an International Relations Adviser in the field of technology and as a Project Manager for the Inclusive Comprehensive Internationalisation project at Metropolia. All things related to international and intercultural competence, diversity, inclusion and equity inspires her. Terhi Topi works as an Erasmus Institutional Coordinator. She is responsible for Metropolia’s Erasmus mobility funding and reporting. She has been actively involved in developing BIPs at Metropolia.   The ability to unlock doors for international options for students and staff is close to her heart. References: Huovinen, Niina: “Creating International Classrooms through Virtual Exchange”. In Metropolia blog Hiiltä ja timanttia. Rogler, Andreas, Elina Lehtomäki, Johanna Lampinen: Unlocking the potential of online learning in the internationalisation of higher education. Finnish National Agency for Education. Reports and surveys 2023:3. Jager, Sake: “Digitalisation in International Higher Education, Online International Education: The Case for Virtual Exchange”. ACA Think Pieces. Oct 2022. Article 6. European Commission: Blended mobility implementation guide for Erasmus+ higher education mobility KA131. European Commission 18-07-2022. O'Dowd, Robert and Sina Werner: “Blended mobility in European Higher Education: A survey of Blended Intensive Programme. Summary of the main findings (preliminary results). 2023. Allinson, K., Gabriels, W.: Maybe it will be different abroad: Student and staff perspectives on diversity and inclusion in student exchanges. SIEM Research Report. 2021. Siekkinen, Taru: Kansainvälistymismahdollisuuksien tasa-arvo koulutuksessa. Jyväskylän yliopisto. Koulutuksen tutkimuslaitos. Työpapereita 29. 2013. Siltala, Anne: Kuuluuko kansainvälisyys kaikille?: Kansainvälistymismahdollisuuksien tasa-arvo CIMOn ohjelmissa. Taustaselvitys, 08/2013. Kansainvälisen liikkuvuuden ja yhteistyön keskus CIMO.

What do you get when two Social Work lecturers from different countries, involved in developing professionals’ urban social work skills, want to work more closely together, but they're locked in their respective homes? — We Zoom, of course! Virtual exchange supports intercultural competences, research and practice! As a part of a workshop series held by my colleague Dorthe Høvids, we found our first opportunity to collaborate around some of our research and teaching areas by using materials created for the Urban SOS project. Dorthe is a social anthropologist and researcher focusing on using ethnographic methods to explore muslim immigrant’s lived experiences in Europe and Denmark as well as lecturing in the social work degree programme at University College Copenhagen. Our common Erasmus project, Urban SOS, brings together educational institutions and work-place organizations—who work in the cities with social issues caused by processes of migration, urbanization and the unequal accumulation of economic growth in many urban areas. During the project collaborations, we realized that our different curriculums offered Ethnographic writing in Denmark and Qualified Empathy in Finland. Shortly, ethnographic writing uses sensory detail and storytelling techniques to describe and bring a topic closer to a reader. Qualified empathy involves the ability of a responder to engage, identify with, develop an understanding and then to distance oneself from an emotionally charged situation or experience in order to assist without secondary trauma or burnout becoming an issue. Both of these skills are core in our research project so we decided to broaden our student’s exposure through a virtual workshop. After introducing the two skills and doing an immersive listening exercise about a homeless man in Copenhagen, we had a discussion about the relevance and necessity for ethnographic writing and qualified empathy skills in their future careers in the social services sector with about 30 students from Denmark and Finland on Zoom. The conversation was lively as ethnographic writing and qualified empathy were unfamiliar to many of the students. The feedback was positive and the students shared that they were inspired and learned a lot about the topics during the discussion. Phronesis and value based analysis As stated earlier, we based our workshop on the Urban SOS project as well as our research and teaching areas. The project aims to teach educators and professionals a new way of investigating our quickly expanding urban areas. We apply a phronetic analysis model, as developed by Bent Flyvbjerg (2012). Phronetic analysis seeks to clarify values, interests, and power relations as a basis for praxis. Flybjerg (2012) argues that social science should always involve at least episteme (i.e., abstract theory and concepts) and phronesis (analysis of values and concrete practices)—the combination is what makes ‘it’ matter. Social science and it’s practitioners must produce value-based deliberations with clear and relevant references to practice. Only by doing so will we ensure that we push our societies in an ethically articulated direction when making decisions and implementing projects, methods, solutions etc. The alternative is that we blindly follow a societal development that we find unjust or even unethical. Inherent to this argument is an ethical responsibility and a political (or at least normative) motivation of supporting social change through research and education—thus, as phronetic researchers and practitioners, we willingly give up on the idea that our actions, research, and even education, is, or should be, neutral or objective. Instead, it must be transparent, responsible and developed through dialogue. (Rauhala, Høvids & Lehto-Lundén 2020) He uses four value-rational questions when investigating a specific place, system or organization: Where are we going? Who gains and who loses, and by which mechanisms of power? Is this development desirable? What, if anything, should we do about it? In the project, we map and analyse intersections between urbanisation, social issues in Europe, and the lived (human) experiences (Rauhala, Høvids & Lehto-Lundén 2020). We are developing a new transnational and interactive platform and educational materials for educators, students and practitioners. We argue that we cannot Writing reflectively to develop ‘qualified’ empathy As the project partners create, reflect and write together as part of our project work, we keep coming back to the idea that in order to be present in our encounters as professionals with people living and struggling in the urban context we need to be able to empathically understand their situation in context in order to identify ways to support them. One of the ways in which to develop this more targeted type of empathy is to write reflectively. There is no greater example of reflective writing than ethnographic writing due to its depth and detail. Ethnography is a type of writing common in the social sciences, especially anthropology. Ethnographic writing uses narrative immersion to share experiential information, alongside objective description and interview data. When we tell stories, we use our own understanding of other people’s lived experiences. This helps us to move into a more empathic and non-judgemental mind-set; the beginning of a search for meaning but not its end result. Empathy is not the same as understanding, but it is a step on the way to understanding. This brought us back to the issue of empathic understanding. ‘Qualified’ empathy for reducing burnout and stress Qualified Empathy is a concept and model created as part of a NordPlus project called ”Qualified Empathy”. The project took place at Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences, with partners in Norway and Denmark as a way to develop diverse and creative teaching and learning methods to help social work students learn and develop more professional or targeted empathy skills. Qualified Empathy is defined as the ability to reflectively and emotionally separate oneself from another and to understand the context; then in an intentional process, focus on understanding of the other person’s viewpoint both cognitively and emotionally. The three phases of this are: We feel like us, I feel like you (”as if ”) and I know better how you feel, but I am not you. In the first phase we acknowledge that we belong to certain groups, we identify with them in some way. In the second phase we try to move out of our own ‘shared group’ understanding of the world and closer to the other person’s understanding; to see the situation through their eyes. This shift helps us to develop a greater ‘felt’ understanding from their perspective. In the third phase, once we begin to feel this connection, we need to draw back and acknowledge that we are not the other person so that we do not over identify and become emotionally involved. We need to be able to access our own critical thinking skills and our knowledge of the service system and legislation in order to assist them in creating the best path forward for themselves. To these initial three phases, we added the additional dimension of action which we see as a critical part of a Qualified Empathy professional’s process. It is an admirable thing to be regarded as empathic but if it stops there, without action, the benefit may only be felt by the worker and not by the individual, group or community they are working with. For the professional, proper use of empathy has been shown to reduce burnout and protect against secondary traumatic stress, which is a common concern for students or social workers new to the field. Final take-aways The workshop with the Finnish and Danish students was fun and full of discussion. The main take-away’s from the students were: Learning new concepts and discussing with students from a different national context but similar educational path was interesting and helpful as a way to support our understanding of our profession on both a local and a global level. Interacting with other students, listening to a story of a homeless person, and discussing how the story could be viewed through the lens of ethnography and qualified empathy was valuable and instructive. This was a more comprehensive look at skills often overlooked but necessary for professionals when hearing about or encountering traumatic situations. From our perspective as teachers, we received lots of feedback that this kind of exchange between students from different national contexts was fun and helped the students to practice intercultural dialogue in a third language and put faces to others studying the same profession in another country. Based on this experience we will be developing a longer Virtual Exchange which will address the student’s desires for longer interaction time with each other. This also reinforced for us the idea that these skills may be beneficial for more than just social services students and professionals. We invite other interested parties to get acquainted with these methods and to explore how they might be adapted and beneficially applied in their fields. For us, this was an afternoon well spent for a university lecturer! Author Leigh Anne Rauhala is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (FL-USA) turned Social Work Educator living in Finland. Her background is in the Mental Health sector working with severe and persistent mental disorders in the Community Health Care setting prior to moving to Finland.  She has been teaching Bachelor of Social Services students since 2007. She serves as the Mobility Contact for Social Services students and is involved in several international teaching and research projects focusing on Social Work in Urban Contexts (Urban SOS) and Teaching Qualified Empathy. References Austring, B. D. & Sørensen, M. 2006. Æstetik og læring – en grundbog om æstetiske læreprocesser (Aesthetics and learning – a textbook on aesthetic learning processes). Copenhagen, Denmark: Hans Reitzels Forlag, 83–101 Bundgaard, H. Overgaard Mogensen, H. and Rubow, C., (2018). Antropologiske Projekter. En grundbog. Frederiksberg: Samfundslitteratur. Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Grant, 2019. URBAN-SOS: towards a trans-disciplinary, inclusive sustainable future Project nr 2019-1-NL01-KA203-060543 Flyvbjerg, B. (2012). Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and How it Can Succeed Again. UK: Cambridge University Press Geertz, Clifford (1973). "Thick Description: Toward an Interpretative Theory of Culture." In: The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books”Qualified Empathy” (2015–2017, NORDPLUS) Raatikainen, E., Rauhala, L., & Mäenpää, S. (2017) Qualified Empathy : A key element for an empowerment professional. Sosiaalipedagoginen aikakauskirja. Rauhala, L., Høvids, D. J. & Lehto-Lundén, T. (2020). Urban-SOS: Notes on a Framework for Phronetic Analysis. Unpublished paper. Wagman, M. A., Geiger, J. M., Shockley C. & Segal, E. A. 2014. The Role of Empathy in Burnout, Compassion Satisfaction, and Secondary Traumatic Stress among Social Workers. Social Work 60 (3), 201–209. Williams, C., 2016. Social Work And The City: Urban Themes In 21St-Century Social Work. UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Oletko kuullut Euroopan unionin päättäjien lausuvan usein: ”Kaksinkertaistetaan budjetti”? En minäkään. Näin kuitenkin Euroopan komissio linjasi tavoitteeksi EU:n koulutus-, nuoriso- ja urheilusektoreille suunnatun Erasmus-ohjelman uudelle kaudelle 2021-2027. Erasmus-ohjelma edistää eri koulutusasteiden, nuorisotoiminnan ja urheilusektorin kansainvälistymistä Euroopassa. Ohjelmaa pidetään tärkeänä panostuksena eurooppalaiseen nuorisoon ja koulutusalueeseen. Erasmus tukee merkittävästi EU:lle tärkeitä poliittisia tavoitteita: nuorten työllistymistä, osallistavuutta, vahvaa eurooppalaista koulutusaluetta ja Euroopan integraatiota (1). Komissio pitääkin vuonna 1987 käynnistynyttä ohjelmaa yhtenä unionin näkyvimmistä menestystarinoista (2). Toukokuussa 2018 Euroopan komissio julisti tavoitteekseen kaksinkertaistaa Erasmus-ohjelman budjetin. Käytännössä tämä tarkoittaisi budjetin nostamista 30 miljoonaan euroon, jolloin Erasmus mahdollistaisi 12 miljoonan ihmisen työhön, opiskeluun tai urheiluun liittyvän vaihtojakson toisessa maassa (3).   Vaikutus myös Suomen työvoimaan ja yhteiskuntaan Myös Suomen hallitus kannattaa vahvasti Erasmus-ohjelman budjetin kaksinkertaistamista. Erasmus onkin tähän mennessä mahdollistanut yli 235 000 suomalaisen opiskelijan, nuoren ja ammattilaisen kansainvälisen vaihdon (4). Erasmuksen merkitys myös suomalaisille korkeakouluille on valtava. Esimerkiksi vuonna 2018 eurooppalaisten ja Euroopan ulkopuolisten korkeakoulujen kanssa toteutettavaan liikkuvuusyhteistyöhön myönnettiin yhteensä 16,1 miljoonaa euroa. EU:n keräämien palauteraporttien mukaan Erasmus-vaihto vahvistaa merkittävästi suomalaisten nuorten osaamista ja identiteettiä. Esimerkiksi Metropolia Ammattikorkeakoulun kautta lukuvuonna 2017-2018 opiskelijavaihdossa olleista 283 opiskelijasta 88% sanoo Erasmus-kokemuksen kehittäneen joustavuutta uusissa tilanteissa ja 86% tunnistaa paremmin taitonsa ja osaamisensa. 90% sanoo näkevänsä eri kulttuurien arvon vahvemmin.   Valmistelu etenee vaalien ja Brexitin keväässä Uuden ohjelmakauden valmistelu etenee Euroopan nykytilanteen armoilla. Neuvottelut komission esittämistä Erasmuksen budjetista ja raameista jatkuvat Euroopan parlamentissa ja neuvostossa. Euroopan parlamentin vaalit saattavat kuitenkin tuoda muutoksia poliittisiin painopisteisiin. Brexit puolestaan voi aiheuttaa suuren loven unionin budjettiin. Poliittisen ilmapiirin kiristyessä on hyvä muistaa, että Erasmus-ohjelma tuo merkittävää lisäarvoa niin yksilölle ja hänen organisaatiolleen kuin myös työelämälle ja yhteiskunnalle. EU:n vahva viesti kulttuurienvälisestä ymmärryksestä ja eurooppalaisesta identiteetistä tuntuukin ajassamme entistä tärkeämmältä.   Erasmus - Metropolian kansainvälisyyden merkittävä rahoittaja Kansainvälisyys on olennainen osa Metropolian toimintaa ja strategisia tavoitteita. Näin ollen myös Erasmus-ohjelma on erittäin tärkeä. Metropolia onkin viime vuosina ollut ammattikorkeakoulusektorin suurimpia Erasmus-rahoituksen saajia Suomessa. Rahoitus mahdollistaa vaihtojakson Euroopassa yhteensä noin 450 Metropolian opiskelijalle ja henkilöstön jäsenelle. Viime vuosina esimerkiksi opiskelijavaihdoista keskimäärin 65% on ollut Erasmus-rahoitteisia. Lisäksi Metropolia on mukana lukuisissa Erasmus-hankkeissa, joissa muun muassa kehitetään nuorten urheilijoiden tukea ja osallistavia valmennuskäytäntöjä sekä valmistellaan Kosovoon monialaista terveydenhoidon keskusta. Erasmus-ohjelman globaalin liikkuvuuden toiminnolla rahoitetaan myös yhteistyötä 16 Euroopan ulkopuolisen yhteistyökorkeakoulun kanssa. Metropolia pitää näin ollen myös vaikuttamista Erasmus-ohjelman tulevaisuuteen tärkeänä. Uskomme yhteistyön kautta kasvavaan vaikuttavuuteen ja laatuun. Metropolian kansainvälisten palveluiden edustajia onkin mukana useissa kansainvälisissä ja kansallisissa työryhmissä ja verkostoissa, muun muassa Euroopan komission Erasmus-ohjelmaa valmistelevassa työryhmässä, Opetushallituksen Erasmuksen digitaalisia työkaluja kehittävässä työryhmässä ja kansallisessa Erasmus-kehittämistiimissä.   Viesti käytännön toimijoilta: Erasmus kuuluu kaikille Osana vaikuttamistyötä osallistuin FuturE+ & FuturESC -seminaariin 13.-15.3.2019 Bukarestissa, Romaniassa, jossa eri sektoreiden asiantuntijat kokoontuivat EU:n puheenjohtajamaahan laatimaan kehitysehdotuksia uudelle Erasmus-ohjelmakaudelle 2021-2027. Ohjelman syvä merkitys Euroopalle konkretisoitui osallistujien käytännön kokemusten kautta oppilaitosten, maaseutukylien ja kaupunkien, järjestöjen, yritysten ja yksilöiden tasolle. Osallistujien yhteinen vaatimus oli yhä vahvempi osallistavuus, matalan kynnyksen osallistumismahdollisuudet ja ohjelman hallinnoinnin keventäminen digitalisaation avulla. Korkeakoulusektori vaati tehokkaiden digityökalujen lisäksi myös rahoituksen parempaa kohdentamista,  muun muassa tukemaan vahvemmin globaalin liikkuvuuden ja strategisten kumppanuuksien toimintoja. Erasmukseen haluttiin myös lisätä lyhytkestoisia opiskelijavaihtoja mahdollistavat intensiiviohjelmat, jotta yhä laajempi joukko opiskelijoita ja korkeakouluja voisi osallistua. Myös hanke- ja harjoitteluyhteistyön sekä osaavan työvoiman tuottamaa lisäarvoa työelämälle korostettiin.   Vaikuttaminen ja panostus kansainväliseen osaamiseen tärkeää Uuden Erasmus-ohjelmakauden tavoitteet ovat Metropolian näkökulmasta erittäin hyviä. Esimerkiksi ohjelman digitalisointi on ehdottoman tarpeen. Metropoliassa liikkuvuus- ja hankeprosesseja on jo digitalisoitu pitkälle ja olemme olleetkin aktiivisesti myös kehittämässä Erasmuksen uusia digitaalisia työkaluja. EU-tason järjestelmien integroiminen jo käytössä oleviin liikkuvuudenhallintajärjestelmiin sekä vastaaminen muun muassa kansallisiin raportointitarpeisiin ovat kuitenkin haaste ja vaativat suurta panostusta korkeakoulujen kansainvälisiltä toimistoilta. Metropolia on vahvasti sitoutunut kouluttamaan kansainvälisiä osaajia, jotka tarttuvat rohkeasti globaaleihin yhteistyömahdollisuuksiin ja myös haasteisiin. Tätä myös EU peräänkuuluttaa korkeakouluilta. Erasmus-budjetin kaksinkertaistaminen mahdollistaa kansainvälisen kokemuksen yhä useammalle. Samalla se haastaa kuitenkin eri sektoreiden toimijat panostamaan yhä vahvemmin kansainvälistymiseen. Haaste on Metropoliassa hyväksytty.   Kirjoittaja Marika Antikainen työskentelee Erasmus-koordinaattorina Metropolia Ammattikorkeakoulun kansainvälisissä palveluissa. Hän vastaa eurooppalaisen ja globaalin Erasmus-liikkuvuuden hallinnoinnista sekä Erasmus-hankkeiden ohjauksesta Metropoliassa.   Lähteet: (1) Ehdotus: Euroopan Parlamentin ja Neuvoston asetus unionin koulutus-, nuoriso- ja urheiluohjelman ”Erasmus” perustamisesta ja asetuksen (EU) N:0 1288/2013 kumoamisesta. Bryssel 30.5.2018. COM(2018) 367 final. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/FI/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52018PC0367&from=EN (2) Komission tiedonanto Euroopan parlamentille, Eurooppa-neuvostolle, Neuvostolle, Euroopan talous- ja sosiaalikomitealle ja alueiden komitealle. Nykyaikainen talousarvio unionille, joka suojelee, puolustaa ja tarjoaa mahdollisuuksia. Monivuotinen rahoituskehys vuosiksi 2021-2027. Bryssel 2.5.2018. COM(208) 321 final. https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/FI/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52018DC0321&from=EN (3) European Commission Press Release. EU budget: Commission proposes to double funding for Erasmus programme. Brussels 30 May 2018. http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-18-3948_en.htm (4) Opetus- ja kulttuuriministeriö.EU:n opetusministerit: Erasmus-ohjelma laajenee, opintojen tunnustamisesta suositus. Tiedote 26.11.2018. https://minedu.fi/artikkeli/-/asset_publisher/eu-n-opetusministerit-erasmus-ohjelma-laajenee-opintojen-tunnustamisesta-suositus