Title | Category | Target group |
---|---|---|
Specialised blogs and podcasts | Social Integration & Daily Life Networking Promotion & Visibility | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers Lecturers (incl. Language Teachers) |
Welcome package for international PhDs/scholars | 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) |
Volunteering programme for spouses/international partners | Social Integration & Daily Life Family Matters | Internationals spouses/family members |
Promotion via social media in English | Networking Promotion & Visibility | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers Administrative staff |
International scholar safety guide | Safety, Healthcare & Wellbeing | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers Lecturers (incl. Language Teachers) |
Networking institutional events for support staff | Capacity Building of Support & Management Staff | Administrative staff |
Networking event for PhDs/academics | Social Integration & Daily Life Networking | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers Lecturers (incl. Language Teachers) |
Local language courses for international PhDs/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 |
Dictionary/glossary of common phrases used in academic and institutional life | Social Integration & Daily Life Language Support, Language Policy | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers Lecturers (incl. Language Teachers) |
FAQs for international PhDs/academics/family members | Social Integration & Daily Life Language Support, Language Policy Family Matters Administrative & Legal Support Accommodation Safety, Healthcare & Wellbeing Social security, Health Insurance, Taxation Visa, Residence & Work Permit | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers Lecturers (incl. Language Teachers) Internationals spouses/family members |
FAQs collection for support staff to share cases internally | Institutional Processes Capacity Building of Support & Management Staff | Administrative staff Management staff |
Bilingual internal documents/forms (English and local language) | Language Support, Language Policy Administrative & Legal Support Visa, Residence & Work Permit | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers Lecturers (incl. Language Teachers) |
Bilingual campus signs (English and local language) | Social Integration & Daily Life Safety, Healthcare & Wellbeing Promotion & Visibility | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers Lecturers (incl. Language Teachers) Administrative staff Management staff |
Comprehensive welcome well-structured webpage in English | Institutional Processes Promotion & Visibility | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers Lecturers (incl. Language Teachers) |
Glossary of common phrases used in welcome processes for support staff | Social Integration & Daily Life Language Support, Language Policy Profesional & Academic Development Networking Administrative & Legal Support Institutional Processes | Administrative staff |
Information on recognition of education for international PhDs/staff/family members | Family Matters Administrative & Legal Support | PhD student/Early career researcher |
Welcome event for new international PhDs/academics | Social Integration & Daily Life Profesional & Academic Development Networking Promotion & Visibility | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers Lecturers (incl. Language Teachers) |
Newsletter for international PhDs/academic staff about university life | Networking Institutional Processes Promotion & Visibility Institutional strategy | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers Administrative staff Management staff |
Promotion via collaboration with professional networks (e.g. EURAXESS World Wide, consulates, alumni network) | Promotion & Visibility | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers Management staff |
Open positions promoted publicly in English via well established international platforms (e.g. for free EURAXESS Jobs) | Promotion & Visibility | PhD student/Early career researcher R2 - R4 researchers Lecturers (incl. Language Teachers) |
Title | Description |
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Specialised blogs and podcasts |
Both the specialised blogs and podcasts are a very effective and efficient way how to better connect with the current and potential target audience of international PhD students, academics, and researchers providing an insight into host HEI's institutional life and culture and welcoming environment. Those media allow you not only to keep the members/followers up-to-date with the latest events, but also promote vital topics and new initiatives, inspiring stories, and express opinions. Both activities should bring less formal but still valuable and entertaining content which should be complementary to the content published on the host HEI institutional website and social media. Both activities help encourage their followers/readers/listeners to become host HEI's ambassadors and raise its visibility and global presence. The great benefit of podcast listening opportunities is their mobile nature. Podcast audio content gives listeners the ability to dive into topics without having to set aside time to read or watch a video (e.g.during commuting, jogging, cycling, cooking, etc.). |
Welcome package for international PhDs/scholars |
Well-designed, clearly structured and regularly updated bilingual PDF document that serves for orientation and support of international PhD students and staff. It is also useful to have the Welcome Pack downloadable from the website which international PhDs/visiting scholars use to get informed about their stay and activities at your university. The package should contain:
By providing such a pack the institution ensures that the incoming researcher/PhD student will be able to:
|
Volunteering programme for spouses/international partners |
Volunteering is a great way to meet people, become familiar with the community and develop skills to include on a resume. Volunteer opportunities offered to international partners help spouses connect and feel welcome as international students and scholars embark on a new life in another country. Such opportunities foster the level of satisfaction, social integration and wellbeing of international students and staff and their family members.
|
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. |
International scholar safety guide |
The higher education institution is responsible for ensuring personal safety and security of its employees and students including international ones. International academics might not be familiar with the surroundings and lack awareness of local risks (e.g. related to accomodation, streets at night, use of transport, health safety risks). The objective of the international scholar safety support/guide is to provide concise English-language information about off-campus and on-campus risks and guidelines on how to act in specific situations and where to seek help.
|
Networking institutional events for support staff |
The main aim of institutional events for support staff is to strengthen the professional knowledge of support staff through different types of meetings/events but also optimize information flows and procedures. Via these events, they can share experience and ideas, develop and share contacts within and outside of the organisation and improve internal processes. External experts/partners can be invited to such events or they can be organised jointly with them to expand and deepen collaborations for the sake of a smoother incoming researcher and academic staff mobility. The practice could eventually prepare the ground or even lead towards a broader scope of further professional development activities for support staff, including various focused trainings. |
Networking event for PhDs/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.
|
Local language courses for international PhDs/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. |
Dictionary/glossary of common phrases used in academic and institutional life |
This could be a combination of a dictionary and glossary of the most common phrases and their definitions in English used in the academic and institutional life of the host institution/country. Special attention should be paid to country/region specific terms that have no actual parallel outside the host country/region, for instance, academic ranks and their hierarchy in the region of Central and South-Eastern Europe. It could be also extended by terms related to the administrative duties that need to be done shortly before or fight after arrival to or upon departure from the host country/institution. Such a tool would be of immense help to both international as well as local PhDs and academics struggling with proper vocabulary when talking to their colleagues. |
FAQs for international PhDs/academics/family members |
The FAQ section/page with well-structured quality content organized by relevant topics/categories and easy to navigate is a useful way to organize valuable information that incoming academics often ask. The FAQ page offers a lot of benefits, including:
|
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. |
Bilingual internal documents/forms (English and local language) |
Considering the fact that English is not the native language in countries, many international PhD students and academic staff members face problems when it comes to filling in the forms necessary for the application process or collecting documents that would confirm their mobility/study/research abroad. Therefore, it would be extremely important (and favorable for both parties involved) to create forms in both the national language of the receiving institution's country as well as in English. The aim of this practice is to produce bilingual documents that can be filled in without seeking assistance or causing confusion. |
Bilingual campus signs (English and local language) |
The use of bilingual signage at key university areas creates an internationally welcoming environment by facilitating orientation and access to main university sites and helping international students and staff navigate the campus. |
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.
|
Glossary of common phrases used in welcome processes for support staff |
Preparing and circulating a Glossary of common phrases used in welcome processes for support staff and its regular update will raise support staff's awareness of the institutional processes related to welcoming incoming researchers, academics, and PhDs. It is also likely to increase the level of their confidence in dealing smoothly with the most typical needs and expectations of incoming researchers, academics, and PhD students as well as following the institutional rules at the same time. This practice is best implemented in collaboration with the HEI management structures, the institutional legal matters office and language specialists. It is also a good idea to consider having the Glossary multilingual rather than maintaining it in English only. |
Information on recognition of education for international PhDs/staff/family members |
The practice includes collecting relevant information and providing it to international researchers and PhDs in a structured and user-friendly way. It is important to envisage a regular update of the information in case of changes in the legal framework, national or organisational specifics regarding recognition of diplomas, study periods, educational outcomes, etc. This practice will save the support staff effort and time when providing information and support in view of the above. |
Welcome event for new international PhDs/academics |
This is an opportunity to welcome the international PhD students, academics and researchers, distribute information and meet hosting HEI’s staff in person. It can also be a way to promote HEI research and didactic work among international PhD students and academics. HEI’s external partners can enrich the sessions with their presentations and other events as a way of popularising their work. Social events accompanying the welcome event are an important way of establishing social and professional networks.
|
Newsletter for international PhDs/academic staff about university life |
A regular newsletter can be a nice-to-have instrument for sharing knowledge and improving the visibility of research activities and supporting services, organised at your institution. This newsletter can be a very useful tool especially for doctoral/post-doctoral students and the junior/project engaged research staff, appointed for specific research tasks. The newsletter can also be used to inform the local community and partner institutions about the activities at your university, strenghtening industry-academia links and opportunities for collaboration. Benefits of initiating a regular Research newsletter:
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Promotion via collaboration with professional networks (e.g. EURAXESS World Wide, consulates, alumni network) |
Using professional networks could significantly facilitate promoting the host institution HEI as a study and academic/research destination, promoting its strength areas and funding opportunities, and fostering its global presence. This could substantially lead to attracting more of international talent.
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Open positions promoted publicly in English via well established international platforms (e.g. for free EURAXESS Jobs) |
EURAXESS portal is the unique, single point of access to content and online tools, related to relocation of researchers and their families and career development. It hosts an online marketplace of CVs, jobs, funding, and hosting ads, connecting PhD students, academics, and researchers with their employers. It is one of the top science job platforms in Europe - with over a million visits per month, 80000 job ads published annualy, 65000+ registered organizations, and 18000+ researchers. In this video you will find out all you need to know about registering on the EURAXESS portal and start posting your first job vacancies. Publishing job ads on the EURAXESS portal is FREE. It helps HEIs and R&D organizations get unprecedented visibility and reach at no cost, and thus facilitate access to the best talents for the newly open positions. The ads, submitted by the organisations awarded with HR Excellence in Research logo will be flagged with the logo to highlight the highest standards in HR practices in that organisation. |