Erasmus Policy Statement

Academy of Applied Preschool Teaching and Health Studies Krusevac is located in central Serbia, in the town of Krusevac, some two-hundred kilometers from the country capital Belgrade. It consists of four departments, two of which are located in Krusevac, and other two in Cuprija and Alkesinac, respectively. Although the Academy departments have a renown tradition in higher education, the education reform in the first decade of the 21st century introduced various challenges ahead of our institution. Thus, immediately upon the introduction of the Bologna Declaration the Academy Departments became focused on building the capacities which would create the foundation for the improvement of the quality of the teaching process and, consequently, learning outcomes. Having managed to build sufficient capacities and respond to the requirements of the aforementioned reform, our goal for the upcoming period is to place emphasis on internationalization. Namely, internationalization constitutes a crucial precondition for increasing the quality of teaching by means of improving the knowledge, skills, competences and experience of both students and teachers alike. Likewise, internationalization is the most authentic manner of modernizing and establishing innovations in the process of education, introducing and maintaining the European dimension of higher vocational education and spreading the idea of a unique educational space intertwined with national, cultural and language differences which are seen as an advantage in cultivating tolerance, understanding and multiculturalism. Hence, the aims of the Academy internationalization strategy would be as follows: to improve teaching/learning processes at the Academy by means of staff/student mobility, to establish, maintain and improve the co-operation between the Academy and related higher educational institutions abroad, thus increasing international visibility of the Academy and its activities, to further improve the capacities of the Academy necessary for increasing the overall quality and becoming more competitive among the ever growing number of related higher education institutions.

Bearing in mind that the Academy has already had some experience in student/staff mobility, one of the basic proposals of this strategy would be to further establish more Erasmus partnerships, i.e. to conclude inter-institutional agreements with related European higher education institutions, as well as institutions from other countries and regions worldwide. In accordance with the Academy education fields and tradition, it is the proposal of this strategy that the Academy should place its focus in terms of mobility on the countries in the EU Programme Countries, both EU and non-EU ones, from the region of Eastern Europe and ex-Yugoslavia (Slovenia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, etc.), partner Countries from Region 1 and Region 14. Furthermore, our Academy has applied for KA131 and KA171 mobility programs with higher education institutions from countries within Region 2 (Neighbourhood East), Region 3 (South Mediterranean), Region 6 (Central Asia) and Region 9 (Sub-Saharan Africa). With respect to other types of Erasmus projects (strategic partnerships, knowledge alliances, capacity building), the Academy places its focus on the Programme Countries in the region of Western Europe.

Regarding its target groups, the Academy internationalization strategy encompasses all Academy employees and students. Therefore, the Academy wishes to focus on staff/student mobility for the purposes of increasing international dimension of the Academy, improving staff/students´ foreign language competences, intercultural skills, professional knowledge, sharing experiences and disseminating the European dimension of education.

As one of our main goals is to modernize our institution and raise the quality of our practice it is essential that we have closer insight into practices of those whose results at an international level cannot be disputed. The Academy is committed to the following priorities of the modernization agenda:

-improving the curricula in terms of responding to the necessities of the labour market thus increasing students´ employability; by enriching the curricula with the examples of good practice provided through mobility and other co-operation projects we have a better chances of devising curricula which would enable further co-operation, lifelong learning, learning transference, better chances of connecting with and informing the labour market.

-improving the relevance and quality of higher vocational education – it is essential that the Academy initiates and gradually increases the number of outgoing students who would attend studies abroad and thus improve their overall skills and knowledge, as well as to widen linguistic and cultural horizons

-linking higher vocational education and respective work fields with the aim of contributing to social and regional development

-improving the management and Academy services which play a significant role in realizing the Academy goals, being the basic structures of organization and functioning.

We focus on providing quality education to our students and continuous improvement of our staff. It is our aim as well as our desire to improve our study programmes, create new ones and improve our practice by looking up to the best practice in our common European space. One of the manners of accomplishing the aforementioned is through participation in various Erasmus + projects.