FAQs

The framework
1 / What is the BOLOGNA PROCESS about?
The main goal of the Bologna Process is to create a European Higher Education Area. There are three main priorities: The introduction of a three cycle system (bachelor, master, doctorate), quality assurance as well as recognition of qualifications and periods of study. One step towards these priorities was the introduction of the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) leading to a considerable simplification for the higher education mobility. In the year of its ratification in 1999, 29 countries signed the Bologna declaration. Within the last 10 years, this number has grown to 46 participating countries. All universities located in those 46 participating countries can promote themselves in the WISHES mobility portal free of charge. Further information about the Bologna Process can be found under the following websites: European Commission: http://ec.europa.eu/education/highereducation/doc1290_en.htm Bologna Secretariat: http://www.ond.vlaanderen.be/hogeronderwijs/bologna/

2 / What does ERASMUS MUNDUS stand for?

Erasmus Mundus is a worldwide cooperation and mobility programme that aims to enhance quality in higher education and promote intercultural understanding. It offers financial support for institutions and scholarships for individuals. In detail, funding is available for: European joint masters and doctoral programmes (including scholarships): Action 1 Partnerships with non-European higher education institutions and scholarships for mobility of students and academics: Action 2 Projects to promote European higher education worldwide: Action 3

The basics
3 / When will WISHES be launched?
In May 2010, the WISHES mobility portal has been launched for higher education institutions within the WISHES Networking Days 2010 ---- an utmost effective networking

event for European minded higher education institutions (see http://www.euwishes.eu/nwd2010). Thus, since May 2010 the all WISHES supporting institutions had access to the WISHES mobility portal to upload their data to the portal and to optimize their presentations according to the expressed students needs. Since February 2011 the portal is open for students worldwide.

4 / How many universities are a part of WISHES?

The WISHES mobility portal is set up by a consortium consisting of 9 institutions: University of Paderborn (DE) CATT Innovation Management GmbH (AT ) University of Granada (ES) Saint Petersburg State University of Service and Economy (RUS) Tomas Bata University (CZ) Ondokuz Mayis University (TR) Haute Ecole de la Province Lige (BE) European Office of Cyprus (CY) EHSAL (partner In HUB) (BE)

Furthermore, a growing number of supporting institutions (currently about 180) already ensured to benefit from WISHES from its very beginning. For a detailed listing of the exact names, please visit the WISHES website under www.eu-wishes.eu.

5 / How many internships are already presented within WISHES?

As the WISHES mobility portal is not yet launched for enterprises, there is so far no concrete number of internships listed. However, as European exchange and work placement programmes have already been successfully operating for a longer time (such as Leonardo da Vinci and Erasmus), the general interest of enterprises to attract international students is very well established. Additionally, as WISHES will officially be launched for enterprises during the 3rd University-Business Forum of the European Commission, the path has been set to rapidly grow this section of WISHES. Within the given circumstances WISHES provides further benefits: WISHES has a broad network of HEIs, enterprises and students. As of now, enterprises can only be discovered by chance by international students. WISHES now offers a one stop solution for all mobility options and thus, is a central source of information. This will significantly reduce the costs for enterprises to find the best matching intern for their offer. Based on this background, WISHES will launch a promotional campaign to attract further enterprises to join the Network in the first quarter of 2011.

6 / How is WISHES financed --- if it is free of charge for all users? WISHES is a European project and is as such co-financed by the European Commission under the former Action 4 of the Erasmus Mundus Programme. In detail 65% are financed by the Commission, 35% by the Consortium.

7 / How does WISHES help international students to find the right place to work/study abroad?
Via the WISHES mobility portal students have got a central source of information to find interesting study and work offers in Europe. WISHES provides well structured information based on the expressed student need. Therewith, it highly reduces the efforts for students to find the best matching university and/or enterprise for their time spent abroad.

8 / How does WISHES connect international students even before going abroad?
This is realized by the WISHES online community that is included within the WISHES mobility portal. Each student has got the possibility to create his/her own user profile and can then start to communicate with other students. Thats how contacts towards former and/or future international students can be easily established and obstacles to mobility are reduced. Thus, students can already find friends/roommates etc before their first day at the new university which in result strengthens their decision to go abroad.

9 / How does WISHES support the creation of a European higher education area?
WISHES is based on the Bologna Process (see question 1). In detail, this means that: All universities in Bologna countries can take part in WISHES provided they possess a valid Erasmus University Charter (EUC) (European Countries) or are listed in the UESCO-Database for higher education. The presentation of higher education institutions in the WISHES mobility portal is based on European standard documents such as the ECTS course catalogue Bologna Tools such as ECTS are consequently used in WISHES Special Bologna events will be promoted on the WISHES website

10 / Which institutions run WISHES ?

The institutions that run WISHES are the WISHES consortium (University of Paderborn, University of Paderborn (DE), CATT Innovation Management GmbH (AT), University of Granada (ES), Saint Petersburg State University of Service and Economy (RUS), Tomas Bata University (CZ), Ondokuz Mayis University (TR), Haute cole de la Province Lige (BE), European Office of Cyprus (CY), EHSAL (partner In HUB) (BE) - see also question 4).

11 / What are the differences between WISHES and the study-ineurope.org website?
The study-in-europe.org website provides the user with general information about the country one would like to study in. For instance, it provides information about insurance and social

security in Germany, cultural dos and donts or general information on how to find accommodation. WISHES on the other hand offers detailed information about the particular university one is interested in ---- including everything one wants to know about the future place to study/work and to live: where to find suitable accommodation, which courses to participate in etc. Furthermore, WISHES offers the opportunity to start a social network and find friends even before the first day in the new country by the WISHES online community (see also question 8).

12 / Why is WISHES not yet supported by all European HEIs?

The WISHES portal is still a relatively new portal only launched in December 2010. Since then it was presented on several international conferences and the interest attracted is enormous. However, up until now, not all European HEIs know of WISHES and thus, did not yet have any possibility to announce their interest. Therefore, we are very positive that in the near future WISHES will become more and more well-known, and thus the group of supporting European HEIs will steadily grow. In case your own institution is not yet listed in our mobility portal and you would like to change this, please feel free to get request further information under www.eu-wishes.eu/join.

13 / Who is eligible to be listed within WISHES?

All state-approved universities of Bologna countries are eligible to be listed within WISHES provided they do have a Erasmus University Charter (EUC) (European institution) respectively are listed in the UNESCO Database on higher education (non-European institutions).

14 / Do I have to pay any fees after 2011?

The EU funding will last until October 2011. After these first three years WISHES needs to open up new sources of funding. Additional to European follow-up projects enhancing the WISHES vision further, several financial models are currently discussed (most likely a premium membership model will be implemented). However, at any time, WISHES will always offer a basic membership free of charge. Furthermore, the longer an institution already participates in WISHES, the bigger the discount on such a premium membership.

15 / What skills do I need to provide update information on the WISHES mobility portal?
Actually, all you need are basic computer skills and an internet connection. To be a bit more precise, the WISHES mobility portal is based on Typo3 / ZEND combination enriched with a highly usable front end editing system. This means that whoever sets up a university respectively enterprise website does not (!) need to have any skills and/or experience in the IT field!

16 / How much work is involved to become a supporter of WISHES? What does a member have to do?
The process of becoming a supporting institution of the WISHES project is relatively easy: simply fill in our online form, receive the Letter of Intent and send it back to us. A structured website template will then be created for your institution to present your offers. Furthermore, after having uploaded your offers, you surely would like to make them known. Thus, we do also expect you to promote your individual WISHES website within your own networks. However, marketing material for this will be made available by the project (see question 22).

Marketing and Communication

17 / How will WISHES be based on expressed student needs?
Before the launch of WISHES, several studies were carried out including a study targeting students (more than 4,000 students participated in this survey). These students had the chance to state their information needs when going abroad. Based on these result the WISHES mobility portal was implemented. Thus, WISHES is able to provide the needed information for students, who are about to decide for the right place to work or study abroad.

18 / How is WISHES promoted after its launch?

WISHES will be presented on several European and Non-European conferences: ERACON, EAIE, NAFSA, APAIE, QS APPLE and will organize a mainstreaming conference in Germany in 2010 as well as a dissemination conference in Russia 2011. Target-oriented marketing materials will help to get the goals and the spirit of WISHES across ---- in the online and offline world. But the most effective way to promote WISHES is naturally word-of-mouth: Supported by various WISHES networking challenges every participating university will inform its broad network consisting of other universities and/or enterprises about its WISHES website and thus, promotes and expands the general idea of WISHES ---increasing the benefits for everyone involved.

19 / We have got an exchange office that already takes care of all the students who want to go abroad --- what additional benefits does WISHES offer?
The exchange office is a very important institution for every student who wants to go abroad. WISHES supports the office by providing detailed information about universities, its surroundings etc. Students can gather as much information as possible before they are actually going abroad. The huge benefit that WISHES offers is that all the information is presented in the same structure making the offers easily comparable for the student. Additionally, the presented information are based on expressed students needs and are enriched with direct feedback of former exchange students. Thus, the student is given the possibility to make well informed decisions about where to work or study abroad. This in

result increases the probability of a successful stay and raises the satisfaction of the student with his/her stay abroad. Subsequently the student promotes his/her experience abroad among his/her friends. Additionally, WISHES offers a community where the students have the possibility to network with students from all over the world who will also stay in the same city/at the same university even before they are going abroad. This is an additional benefit that the exchange office can not offer.

20 / Do we get automatically informed when somebody publishes news of our university on WISHES?
The technical platform surely allows this possibility. It depends on the wishes of each university how the information process should be defined.

21 / Is there any control authority taking care that no nonsense is published about the universities?
You alone decide who will have the right to update the information on your individual WISHES homepage. Nevertheless, it is always possible that students express their opinions via the community. However, before being able to post a message in the community, students will have to log in and identify themselves. Thus, each message can be traced back to its author making us very positive that students are encouraged to be honest. Furthermore, various feedback loops are foreseen to secure that no harmful and wrong statements will be spread.

22 / Is there any marketing material available to promote WISHES at my university?

All participating institutions will receive promotional material.. The package will include posters, info sheets, postcards and can be distributed via mail or also sent to you by post (for small service charge that will be kept at a minimum).

23 / All necessary information for exchange students can already be found on our university website. Do I also have the chance to simply put a link on WISHES and no further information?
This would not be in line with the general aim of WISHES. Students can only find their perfect match if they are able to retrieve information easily. Furthermore, the WISHES mobility portal structures information according to the expressed needs of students researched in various WISHES surveys. Thus, it is in the best interest for WISHES, the students and for the higher education institutions to have one similar overall structure, the structure the WISHES mobility portal is based on.