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Academic Exchange and Mobility

Working Group

Chair: Chantal Riccardi

Chantal Riccardi works as International Mobility Officer at the University of Pavia and she has over 17 years of experience in the field of international students mobility. She graduated in Political Sciences (master’s degree in African and Asian Studies) at the University of Pavia. She has been recently involved in the Mobility Task Force and a technical Work Package of the European Alliance EC2U. She is taking part actively in the digitization process of the Erasmus Program being a member of the EWP National Working Groups set up by the National Agency.

Vice-Chair: Daniela Sauge

Daniela Sauge is the Head of the Academic Exchange Office of the University of Geneva since 2018. The office actively contributes to the implementation of UNIGE’s international strategy through the setting up of academic exchange, mainly for studying but also for research. It is also responsible for the maintenance and conclusion of collaborations at the European level.

Focus of Working Group 

The AEM Working Group is concerned with staff and student mobility and international exchange with many issues to address, like increasing mobility numbers, more environmentally friendly mobility options, inclusive mobility, virtual exchange, and novel forms of mobility introduced by European University Alliances, difficult political situations,  the planning and implementation of staff and student mobility calls for a collaborative, understanding, and creative approach from all involved institutions. While the WG adheres to national and EU policies, its members view them as a source of inspiration and use their efforts to try to introduce innovative approaches. Due to the variety of activities, the group also organises thematic subgroups to deal with specific topics.

The main tasks of the AEM are:

  • to increase academic exchanges (students, scholars and administrative staff) amongst Coimbra Group universities;
  • to share information on best practices and challenges in the daily work of academic institutions dealing with mobility of students and staff;
  • to develop joint projects aimed at improving quality of mobility, encouraging amongst others sustainable behaviour as well as implementing new schemes and tools supporting mobility;
  • to advise the Coimbra Group Executive Board on possible actions to be taken to influence the development of European educational programmes with mobility components, including through the production of policy documents or recommendations;
  • to strengthen civic engagement and co-creation of good practices with a close collaboration with students associations (Erasmus Student Network (ESN) International and European Student Union (ESU).

Priorities for 2024-2026

  • Grow the SEN network and the number of exchanges by working on:
    • Student exchange challenges.
    • New mobility formats,also virtual exchange.
    • Collaboration with other Coimbra Group WG.
    • Mobility,Diversity and Inclusion
  • Sustainable Mobility – Greener Exchanges and BIP.
  • Joint projects of AEM WG members with students (ESN) and for Civic Engagement.
  • Involvement of International Relations Offices (IROs) into European Universities Alliances.

Recent highlights:

  • Participation as speakers in 3 sessions at the 2023Erasmus Generation Meeting organised by ESN in Bucharest in April 2023:
    • Session on the synergies between CG and ESN sections: Coimbra Group organised this session, with an introduction on how the ESN-CG collaboration started, followed by presentation of good practices from ESN local sections and CG Universities, and a discussion with the audience on future opportunities;
    • Session on student engagement in European Universities Alliances: a session presented and moderated by ESN, where CG presented the results from a short survey to the 8 Alliances with CG members;
    • Session on the implementation of E+ priorities: a session coordinated by ESN to discuss how to improve the implementation of Erasmus+ and its priorities from different perspectives, bringing together Universities, National Agencies, and stakeholders such as ACA and EAIE. CG presented what its members are doing to make mobility more inclusive, make the programme greener, or boost its international dimension – but also what would have to change to take these improvements to the next level.
  • Position Paper “Coimbra Group’s Recommendations for the Erasmus+ Programme 2021-27 Interim Evaluation” published on 8 December 2023.
  • Participation in the European Commission’s DG EAC expert group on the implementation of Erasmus+ in Higher Education in Brussels on 12 October 2023.
  • Participation in the European Commission’s DG EAC workshop on “Key issues for a possible successor programme of Erasmus+” in Brussels on 20 March 2024.

AEM WG Meetings:

  • AEM WG Subgroups’ online meetings (Joint projects and Alliances and Student exchange challenges): September 2023, January 2024, March 2024.
  • Participation as speakers in 3 sessions at the 2024 Erasmus Generation Meeting organised by ESN in Sevilla, 4-7 April 2024:
    • Ensure a smooth Collaboration with your Higher Education Institutions – The Case of the Coimbra GroupThe future of Internationalisation in Higher Education
  • I want a Green Erasmus but Cannot Afford It!

Ongoing/forthcoming activities:

2024 – 2025

  • Participation as speakers in the session on “Digitalising Erasmus+” proposed by ACA at EAIE 2024 in Toulouse (17-20 September 2024).
  • Continuation of the series of activities on CG students and staff sustainable mobility.
  • Continuation of the cooperation and further initiatives in line with ESN – mobility of students among CG universities.
  • Sharing good practices between European Universities Alliances.
  • Giving more visibility to the Coimbra Group Student Exchange Network (CG SEN) by creating a dedicated webpage.

2025 – 2026

  • Reports on CG SEN Student mobility.
  • Continuation of the series of activities on CG students and staff sustainable mobility.
  • Inter-Working Groups activities related to employability.
  • Continuation of the cooperation and further initiatives in line with ESN – mobility of students among CG universities.
  • Training the staff of CG universities.
  • Sharing good practices between European Universities Alliances.

Contact person at the CG Office: Catarina Moleiro (moleiro@coimbra-group.eu)