ELT Students Participated in Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Mobility Program in Serbia
Within the scope of the protocol signed between Afyon Kocatepe University (AKU), Bulgaria Veliko Tarnovo University, Romania Pitesti University and Serbia Nis University in 2022; AKU Faculty of Education students attended the face-to-face meeting of the course on “Intercultural Competence and Balkan Culture”.
Within the scope of the project, in which AKU is one of the partners, 7 students from AKU Faculty of Education participated in the meeting hosted by Serbia Nis University Faculty of Education and coordinated by Bulgaria Veliko Tarnovo University.
With the project, AKU students and students from all partner universities took online courses for a semester. The last phase of the project was the face-to-face program in Serbia. Within the scope of the mobility organized with the theme of “Intercultural Competence and Balkan Culture”, AKU students informed other students and lecturers from Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria about Turkish folk dances, Turkish motifs, local music and Turkish culture.
AKU also has a leading role in the Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Mobility Program
As in all Erasmus+ programs, AKU was among the leading universities in Turkey in Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Program. AKU International Relations Application and Research Center (IARC) Deputy Director and Foreign Languages Education Department Chair Assoc. Prof. Dr. Fatih Güngör stated that Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Mobility involves short-term physical mobility integrated with a mandatory virtual component that enables collaborative online learning and teamwork. “This virtual component brings together participants from different countries online to do certain tasks/assignments simultaneously and together that are integrated into the blended intensive program and will contribute to the learning outcomes of the program,” Güngör said.
Visits from UIM
AKU UIM Deputy Director and Foreign Languages Education Department Chair Assoc. Prof. Dr. Fatih Güngör and Erasmus+ KA131 project coordinator Assoc. Assist. Turan Ulaş visited Prof. Dr. Dragana Stanojević, Dean of the Faculty of Education at Nis University in Serbia to follow the activities in which the students of the Faculty of Education participated, to provide guidance to students and to develop cooperation with institutions about new Erasmus+ opportunities. During the visit, Güngör stated that the current staff and student exchange mobility was evaluated and mutual ideas were exchanged about future mobility in order to realize joint activities such as learning and internship mobility between the two universities and to expand bilateral cooperation with Nis University within the scope of Erasmus+ KA131. Güngör stated that as AKU UIM, they visited Nis University Vice Rector Prof. Dr. Vesna Lopicic and said, “During this visit, we gave information about the importance of Erasmus+ Blended Intensive Mobility Program in developing cooperation.” Güngör said, “Within the scope of our visits, we agreed with our interlocutors on expanding the existing bilateral agreement between Nis University and the Faculty of Education by adding all partner faculties / departments and realizing staff and student mobility in different fields. Again during this visit, we informed about the internship activities carried out by AKU within the scope of Erasmus + KA131 Internship mobility. We also informed that AKU has the highest budget in internship consortia compared to other universities in Turkey. In this context, we reached an agreement to accept internship students.”