Educational Cooperation: Bilateral Agreements

Source: https://www.ugent.be/en/ghentuniv/mission/internationalisation/eu-funding/bilateral.htm Parent: https://www.ugent.be/en/ghentuniv/mission/internationalisation/eu-funding

Apart from international cooperation coordinated by specific externally funded programmes, Ghent University also cooperates on a bilateral basis with about 250 higher education institutions outside of Europe.

Ghent University considers a bilateral agreement as an international cooperation agreement between two universities, concluded in order to start up joint initiatives or to intensify existing contacts. The main purpose is to create opportunities for student and staff mobility outside Europe.

Funds are provided to donate incentives to guarantee the continuity and to activate new initiatives to facilitate mobility of staff & students.

The existing partnerships are subject to a continuous evaluation and quality check in order to optimise the collaboration and rationalize the use of the available funds.

Map

Types of Agreements

• Memorandum of Understanding: an institutional, general and formal agreement, concluded for a maximum period of 3 years.
• Student/Staff Exchange Agreement (SEA): when one or more Ghent University programma committees decide upon exchanging students/staff with a university outside of Europe, an SEA can be concluded. This document describes the concrete and detailed commitments on the exchange of students. An SEA always contains a tuition fee waiver in both directions.

Activities and financial support

Possible activities within the framework of a bilateral agreement are

• development of mutually beneficial academic programmes and courses
• exchange of academic staff and research assistants for main purpose of teaching
• exchange of students for study (courses), internship or research in the framework of a master thesis reciprocal assistance for visiting academic staff and studentexchange of documentation, pedagogical information and research materials

For the current Student/Staff Exchange Agreement (SEA), there is limited financial support for mobile students and/or staff. The budget is divided between the faculties, with management at central level. It is the decision of the faculty, in accordance with central guidelines which activities within the framework of the SEA can be supported. In that way, Ghent University tries to create maximum opportunities for the whole university community.

More info & Contact

Mr. Nick Provoost\ Global.ExchangeAgreements@UGent.be