Title | Category | Target group |
---|---|---|
Induction trainíng program for new support staff | Institutional Processes Capacity Building of Support & Management Staff | Administrative staff |
Checklists for internal support processes | Administrative & Legal Support Institutional Processes | Administrative staff |
Top management leadership development and induction scheme | Capacity Building of Support & Management Staff | Management staff |
International scientific committee | Profesional & Academic Development | R2 - R4 researchers |
Workshop on career planning for international PhD students | Profesional & Academic Development | PhD student/Early career researcher |
Cultural orientation courses for international PhD students/academics/spouses | Social Integration & Daily Life Family Matters | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers Lecturers (incl. Language Teachers) |
Soft skills trainings for support staff | Institutional Processes Capacity Building of Support & Management Staff | Administrative staff Management staff |
Soft skills trainings for PhDs/academics | Social Integration & Daily Life Profesional & Academic Development Networking | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers Lecturers (incl. Language Teachers) |
Promotion via social media in English | Networking Promotion & Visibility | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers Administrative staff |
Networking events for PhD students and academics | Social Integration & Daily Life Profesional & Academic Development Networking | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers Lecturers (incl. Language Teachers) |
Mobility data collection and management | Administrative & Legal Support Institutional Processes Institutional strategy | Administrative staff Management staff |
Academic mentoring programme for international PhD students | Profesional & Academic Development | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers |
Mentoring scheme for support staff | Capacity Building of Support & Management Staff | Administrative staff |
Local language courses for international PhDs and academics | Social Integration & Daily Life Language Support, Language Policy Family Matters Profesional & Academic Development Networking | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers Lecturers (incl. Language Teachers) Internationals spouses/family members |
Free legal advice for international PhDs/academics | Administrative & Legal Support | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers |
FAQs collection for support staff to share cases internally | Institutional Processes Capacity Building of Support & Management Staff | Administrative staff Management staff |
Promotion of talent recruitment schemes at international fairs | Promotion & Visibility | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers Lecturers (incl. Language Teachers) Administrative staff Management staff |
Collaboration with alumni | Profesional & Academic Development Networking Promotion & Visibility | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers Lecturers (incl. Language Teachers) |
Mental health support for international PhD students and staff | Social Integration & Daily Life Safety, Healthcare & Wellbeing | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers Lecturers (incl. Language Teachers) Administrative staff |
Comprehensive welcome well-structured webpage in English | Institutional Processes Promotion & Visibility | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers Lecturers (incl. Language Teachers) |
Title | Description |
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Induction trainíng program for new support staff |
The main benefit of this practice is that this kind of training improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the support staff work. It also increases the levels of satisfaction of the end-users such as researchers in mobility, international PhD students and academic staff. This training should be offered to all newcomer staff. It will enhance the procces of introduction to the newcomers and shorter the time for their integration. As a result the newcomers will be able to engage in the process faster and deliver high-quality service, improving their capacity for the job. |
Checklists for internal support processes |
The goal of preparing a check-lists of internal support processes is to collect and describe information in a user-centered manner.
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Top management leadership development and induction scheme |
Leadership development schemes vary from induction workshops for newly recruited academic staff to mentoring schemes for doctoral candidates, courses in project management, MBAs, job shadowing, general leadership development programmes to more established programmes in higher education. Prior research revealed that offering leadership development opportunities is closely linked to a wider culture of continuous professional development and to existing national legislative frameworks on work environment (Louisa Bunescu & Thomas Estermann, EUA). The reasons for setting up leadership development and induction schemes can be diverse. First, such professional development opportunities increase the level of preparedness of executive leaders at universities. Institutional induction schemes ensure continuity and a smooth handover of responsibilities. Second, they help acquire specific managerial (e.g. financial, legal, entrepreneurial, intercultural, international) competences while on the job and build confidence. Third, leadership development schemes are also an opportunity for higher education leaders to learn how to better tackle crisis management situations, like the Covid-19 pandemic or influx of refugee students. Training programmes on leadership skills are also offered to emerging leaders in higher education, including doctoral candidates in order to prepare them for the challenging roles that they might take up in the higher education sector (Louisa Bunescu & Thomas Estermann, EUA). |
International scientific committee |
Transparency and reliability are one of the key factors of a successful scientific activity. The transparency can be achieved by establishing an international scientific committee responsible for supervision and verification of scientific work. Such committees can be established for the HEI’s projects or units. The committee’s work will improve the HEI’s scientific staff competencies and will be an opportunity for exchange of experiences and knowledge between the engaged institutions. Working with experts from various countries and institutions will be a way to improve communication and cooperation between the engaged institutions and will also increase the HEI’s visibility. The committee members can also be engaged in scientific staff selection and evaluation processes. The experts selection can be based on the HEI’s international partnerships and HEI’s staff personal networks. However, the existence of such committee(s) shall respect the relevant institutional regulations and project funding agreement requirements. Nevertheless, although similar bodies might exist as part of the instututional structures, the practice might provide some inspiration about the mandates it can have. |
Workshop on career planning for international PhD students |
Short interactive workshop to familiarise PhD researchers with basic career planning methods and tools and introduce them into the job search strategies and tools for researchers (in both local and international labour market). By the end of the workshop participants should:
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Cultural orientation courses for international PhD students/academics/spouses |
Short course/series of courses on local cultural specifics. These include both specifics of everyday life and of organisational culture. The trainees will be able to deal better in everyday communication and to act more efficiently as a member of your ourganisation. Their spouses will find it easier to adapt to local cultural specifics.. Intercultural differences, sometime invisible, may destroy any team. The best way to:
Is to integrate them as much as possible into the local and organisational culture. The easiest and most effective way is to offer a series of short (preferrably 1-hour-long) courses on different themes from your local and your organisational culture. It is even more efficient if each of them is combined with a relevant informal event involving local researchers or visiting an external event, museum or exhibition. This way the international PhD students/academics and their spouses will be able to combine theory and practice, which in turn will facilitate their integration in the local/organisational culture providing them with opportunities to further socialise and with (hopefully) nice memories. |
Soft skills trainings for support staff |
The main benefit of this practice is that this kind of training improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the support staff work. It also increases the satisfaction levels of international PhD students and academic staff. As a result, the atmosphere in both administrative and academic teams becomes much better since a lot of conflicts and misunderstandings would be avoided and communication will run more smoothly. The most important thing for this practice is that to achieve sustainable results such courses need to be offered on a regular basis. |
Soft skills trainings for PhDs/academics |
The main benefit of this practice is that such training improves the efficiency and effectiveness of the international PhD students and academic staff and increases their satisfaction and social integration. Soft skills are at the core of making any mobility programme successful. Soft skills related to intercultural communication can facilitate researchers' and PhDs' adaptation and social integration. Researchers and PhDs need to receive regular training in the full range of soft skills to perform best in their jobs/academic and research tasks. As a result of that training, it is expected that the atmosphere in the academic teams will improve substantially since a lot of conflicts and misunderstandings will be avoided and communication will run more smoothly. The most important thing for this practice is that to have sustainable results such courses need to be offered on a regular basis.
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Promotion via social media in English |
In the era of technology, it is a great idea to use social media for promotional purposes. Welcoming institutions should set up a page where they can promote the incoming academics and staff members, and do so in English so that other institutions could have access to it. It might significantly contribute to greater visibility and new possibilities for cooperation. |
Networking events for PhD students and academics |
Networking events, be it live or virtual, could help connect PhDs and academics with similar interests, and they could also help them discover different ways of approaching certain aspects of academia life. They could be organized in the form of conferences, seminars, lab meetings, various social events as well as online social networks, where social media profiles of academics can be used for a rather useful purpose. Such events bring people from different fields of academia together, creating opportunities for them to hear about other people's research, and also allowing them to discover different institutions they could visit in order to gain new knowledge.
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Mobility data collection and management |
Collecting and managing data about mobility could significantly affect the quality of the institutional process related to assisting mobile researchers and internationalization in general. It produces a body of evidence for strategic decision-making, facilitates smooth and effective communication with mobile researchers, provides a framework for a flow of activities related to assistance, and improves the efficiency and productivity of the service center.
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Academic mentoring programme for international PhD students |
Mentoring is to support and encourage people to manage their own learning in order that they may maximise their potential, develop their skills, improve their performance and become the person they want to be (Eric Pasloe). A dedicated mentoring programme for PhD students allows institutions to encourage students to progress with their thesis, connect PhD candidates with alumni and local peers, support academics in their professional development, and build a vibrant academic community at the institution. International PhD students can particularly benefit from their engagement in an institutional mentoring programme by expanding their professional network in the host country, gaining knowledge about local academic culture and traditions, gain tangible academic/professional experience (e.g. workplace visits, shadowing, interview experience, placements, a graduate job), develop written and verbal communication in the local language. Academic mentoring programmes therefore greatly contribute to the professional and social integration of early-stage international scholars. |
Mentoring scheme for support staff |
The aim of this activity is to pair employees involved in providing services to international academics in a mentoring relationship to foster professional development and career growth while building an inclusive culture and diverse networks.
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Local language courses for international PhDs and academics |
This is a key service for effective social integration of international PhD students, academics, and researchers, especially in everyday life outside the academic context. It is an advantage if the hosting HEI can provide the service within its own resources (by Language Department/ Language Centre) with experts trained in teaching the national language as a foreign language. Moreover, the language department could also offer other foreign language courses. If the hosting HEI does not have sufficient capacity, partnerships with other HEIs in the city could be formed or HEI should create a database of language schools in the city/region. The starting point could be the existing practice of providing language courses for incoming Erasmus+ students. A complementary option is to explore whether there are any already existing e-learning national language courses and offer them to internationals as an opportunity to get acquainted with the basics of the language even before their arrival in the host country. |
Free legal advice for international PhDs/academics |
International students and researchers often face a broad variety of legal issues during their stay in a host country. Professional legal advice can be rather costly and therefore not accessible to all scholars, particularly for early stage ones. Free legal advice offered to international scholars can help resolve and prevent difficult situations that could require more time and resources, compormise their security or cause reputational damage to the institution.
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FAQs collection for support staff to share cases internally |
The FAQs platform is a practical tool for storage of practical information and good practices for processing the agenda of incoming PhD students and academics. It´s a database of standardized responses/solutions to recurring questions helping thus the support staff members efficiently navigate through administrative processes/issues they typically encounter. It is particularly useful for newcomer support staff as well as for situations occurring just sporadically. It could be part of an internal knowledge-sharing platform or any other type of intranet. |
Promotion of talent recruitment schemes at international fairs |
Using physical and online exhibit marketing can be powerful for higher education institutions to foster their visibility and attract new students and early-stage researchers through the promotion of national and institutional opportunities for study and research. Higher education institutions can use this channel to communicate externally about their institution and possibilities to engage with it, including existing scholarships, grants and other forms of support to collaboration. |
Collaboration with alumni |
Database of PhD students/academics and a structured programme how to engage alumni in the academic and public life of the HEI. Various forms of collaboration engaging alumni are possible e.g.: information sharing/distribution, organising events, alumni as academic and cultural ambassadors, alumni as academic and intercultural mentors Active alumni networks of international PhDs and academics play an important role in strengthening the HEI reputation at the international level. Their knowledge and working and life experience represent a valuable resource from which potential/future Ph.D. students and visiting academics can greatly benefit. Active alumni are valuable assets for the HEI, their experience of living in a host country and the knowledge of how they incorporated their study or research/academic activity at the particular HEI into their further professional career can help the HEI optimize their study/research programmes, academic or research conditions, and external cooperations. Alumni can help in achieving higher visibility of the HEI nationally and internationally, they can create bridges among different cultures and reach out to broader academic and public audience. On the other hand, the alumni can benefit from a variety of professionals and workplaces and continue their lifelong learning and develop rewarding collaborations.
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Mental health support for international PhD students and staff |
The aim of this service is to provide mental health and wellbeing support to all interested international PhD students and members of staff in order to ensure they feel psychologically safe and to enable them to focus more effectively on their professional/academic goals. |
Comprehensive welcome well-structured webpage in English |
The institutional welcome website is usually the first source of information about the HEI, typically containing information on the most important aspects related to smooth preparation and actual onboarding. It is important that the information is structured in a way that reflects the logic of end-users perspective. The webpage should be easy to navigate and high-quality SEOs should be used. The information on the website has to be regularly updated including the FAQ section which typically draws the highest traffic.
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