Online mobility management App
A simple online mobility management app enabling an inviting person/department to enter all the parameters on incoming PhDs/academics prior to his/her stay, sending out an auto-generated welcoming email (s) with information and access to all university services (online library, pass/card, other electronic services before their coming to the receiving institution.) easing thus the whole pre-arrival process immensely.
This should be done in cases of incoming PhDs/academics who already know that their mobility/ job position has been approved/confirmed.
Goals
Improved quality of service
Basic information
| Categories | Administrative & Legal Support |
|---|---|
| Mobility stages | Pre-arrival phase |
| Delivery schedule | Continuous |
| Importance | Important to have |
| Scale of organizational change |  |
| Target groups | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers Lecturers (incl. Language Teachers) |
|---|---|
| Types of contracts of researchers | Employee in training (interns, research fellows, postdocs) Exchange student |
| Career stages of researchers | 6-12-months of experience 1-3-years of experience 3-10 years of experience |
| Lengths of stays of researchers | 3-6 months 6-12 months |
Practice setup
The setting up activities should include the following:
- consider whether such an app would help your institution/welcome office to ease their workload
- define functions/priorities and outline core features the mobility management app is expected to have (you can create a persona (s) to better understand your target group). This could be done by the IRO/Welcome centre staff in collaboration with HR Department and Study Department (esp. in case of international PhD students)
- determine whether the development of the app should be outsourced or developed in-house (e.g. by HEI's Faculty of Informatics (if applicable))
- ensure interoperability with the faculties and departments' administrative management systems, if relevant.
- prepare an email template (s) for different target groups (international full degree PhD students, exchange PhD students, academics, visiting scholars, etc) to be sent out via the App to respective target group members.
The App has to have a user-friendly interface, consider data protection features and privacy settings. In the testing phase, multiple tests need to be performed. Before the App's official launch, the focus group members' feedback needs to be gathered.
Challenges (factors to consider): General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) should be kept in mind at all times, as data has to be protected, considering the fact that these are private details about the incoming PhDs/academics and academic staff.
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Practice delivery
The delivery activities are the following:
- promote the app among HEi academic and support staff
- encourage IRO office members/inviting department/persons to use the app end enter the parameters on the incoming PhD students/academics.
- set the timeframes for the welcome emails to be sent out to the respective target group (e.g., 1 month before their arrival prior to their arrival)
- continuously track and monitor the use of the app
- periodically assess the satisfaction of the users with the app and collect new requirements and change requests.
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@Embassy and @Immigration office should provide the welcoming institutions with lists of documents necessary to be obtained from the incoming researchers, so that the welcoming institutions can put those lists to be seen when applying online.
Examples of practice
FAMNIT application
One of the good practices from our uniwelis interview, specifically, with our EURAXESS colleague Ales Oven from the University of Primorska. It is a simple application developed by their FAMNIT allowing a hosting person/department to enter all the parameters on an incoming researcher prior to his/her stay (2 weeks prior to researcher's visit the system sends out an auto-generated welcome email with information regarding access to all university services (online library, pass/card, other electronic services).