HIBLend

In recent years, especially following the pandemic, higher education institutions have been testing various mobility formats, including blended mobility (an international physical mobility experience combined with a digital international learning component either prior or post physical mobility).

Although the number of Blended Intensive Programmes has proliferated in the past year appearing in numerous proposals of the Erasmus+ 2021 call, various studies and analyses show that many institutions still lack capacity to develop new quality mobility formats, such as blended mobility, which could be instrumental in achieving university missions’ and appealing to students and staff.

From this consideration originated the “Fostering high-quality blended student mobility in higher education” project, in short HIBLend project. Indeed, HIBLend partners recognized the need to investigate and discuss with the higher education sector what high-quality blended mobility approaches mean in practice and how their quality can be assured and guaranteed by institutions.

The overall aim of the project is to raise interest in and enhance higher education institutions’ capacity to develop high-quality blended mobility opportunities for students. This will be achieved through:

1. The identification, mapping, and dissemination of good practice models for blended student mobility adopted by higher education institutions across Europe;
2. An exploration of quality considerations and institutional approaches to quality assessment and assurance from a multi-stakeholder perspective involving key internal and external actors;
3. The design, testing and validation of a comprehensive framework offering guidance on main processes;
4. The establishment of a multidisciplinary community of practitioners involving higher education actors interested in blended student mobility.

Partners: Academic Cooperation Association (ACA), Tampere University of Applied Sciences, Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO), Masaryk University, European University Foundation