A. The international strategy of the Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I”

a) The Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” strategy for opening new partnerships

The Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” is a military polytechnic higher education university which trains engineers necessary to the Romanian Armed Forces and to other beneficiaries. The international partners of Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” are from civilian and military technical universities or scientific research institutions. The Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” encourages the students and staff to interact and cooperate with students and staff from international institutes and universities, opening new possibilities of international partnerships. For each scientific field existing in the Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” we are looking for partner universities and research institutes in order to realize an active scientific international cooperation pole for each topic.

b) The geographical area of the Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” international partners

Currently Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” has many traditional relationships with universities from France and from other European countries: Spain, Portugal, Italy, Holland, Belgium, United Kingdom, Ireland, Croatia and Poland. The strategy of the Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” is to develop these partnerships and to open new partnerships with the neighbor countries: Bulgaria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Greece and Turkey. Another strategy is to open new partnership with the universities and research institutes from North Europe: Sweden and Denmark. An important direction of international relationship development is to open Erasmus partnership with universities from non-EU countries: Norway, Iceland.

c) The most important objectives and target groups of the MTA mobility activities (with regard to staff and students)

The objectives of the Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” joining the Erasmus Program refer mainly to continuing developing international co-operation in educational and research activities aiming at creating integrated programs, developing multidisciplinary and multilingualism, and setting up knowledge sharing schemes and upgrading educational policies. Such program creates awareness of the European culture supporting integration.

Our priorities regard mobility for students, teaching staff, researchers as well as administrative staff. Secondly we intend to further develop multilateral projects such as international Master Programs, as well as cooperative research programs.

We think that our objectives and priorities are in compliance with the ERASMUS objectives. Our interest and activity in this field was recognized by the award of the Erasmus University Charter in 2003 and of the Extended Erasmus University Charter in 2007, containing the rules governing all academic activities, certified by the ATM Senate. Under its provisions, equal opportunities for all students regardless of race, nationality, religion or sex are guaranteed.

Staff mobility basically concerns teaching or training activities at the partner universities in technical fields mutually agreed upon.

In the frame of the European co-operation program, we develop study and placement mobilities , staff teaching and training mobilities : student’s mobility for graduation projects; substitution mobility for attending a semester or one year of course; post-graduate student’s mobility for master diploma; mobility for jointly coordinated thesis; teaching staff mobility for short teaching and training activities.

These are integrated programs aimed at developing curricula, updating knowledge at undergraduate or postgraduate level and disseminating knowledge in the fields of interest. The studies carried out at the partner universities are recognized automatically and integrally in the Diploma Supplement, as stipulated in the “Learning agreement” or in “Training agreement”.

The evaluation system for the students and staff mobility selection is transparent and in compliance with the standards of selection quality assurance.

The Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” recognizes the importance of the results achieved by their staff members and by students engaged in individual mobility or in cooperation projects with international partners. The Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” is connected to the National Data Network for Higher Education and has developed a Local Area Network linking all the educational and research facilities. The visibility to ERASMUS activities is promoted by information on our university website and by printed materials, booklets, leaflets, posters, other forms of direct advertisements.

For developing education and integrating the scientific activities into civil society, for modernizing parts of the institution with the latest generation technology and for creating new opportunities as regards the professional preparation of students/course participants/doctoral students and of the staff, the public-private partnerships will be diversified by connection with the international private institutional sector, so that the educational product should be apt of being used and integrated with the newest accomplishments from the field of applied engineering.

B. The Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” strategy for the organization and implementation of international cooperation projects and training in relation to projects implemented under Erasmus program

The Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” encourages the students and the staff to develop the international cooperation projects with universities from EU and non-EU countries in order to enable students and teachers to work together in multinational groups and so benefit from special learning and teaching conditions not available in a single institution, and to gain new perspectives on the topic being studied.

The international cooperation projects made in modern scientific topics are supported by Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” in order to obtain the curriculum development, to support the process of innovation and to upgrade higher education teaching.

The Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” intends to strategic cooperation poles in domains of interest aiming at developing new cooperation projects in teaching and training in areas of interest for Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” .

Implementing the international cooperation projects enable members of the teaching staff to exchange views on teaching content and new curricula approaches and to test teaching methods in an international classroom environment.

Taking into account the institutional focus in the field of higher education and research, the development of national and European programs with wide expertise, the efficient use of material resources, financial and human, the reduction of costs by using a common didactic and research infrastructure through a unitary

development policy, the promotion of common academic programs (courses/ specializations), as well as the possibility offered to students for enrolling upon mobility stages, on the basis of credit transfer and accumulation, ATM agrees to forming consortium both with higher education military institutions, as well as with higher education civilian institutions.

C. The expected impact of the Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” participation in the Erasmus program on the modernization of the institution in terms of the policy objectives

a) By participating in the international mobilities the students acquire new and modern competences and knowledge, increasing the level of the graduates and researchers from Romania and from Europe. The engineers graduated in the Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” having international experiences gained in the Erasmus mobilities are more competitive and have new competences and they contribute to the development of the Romanian and of the European economy. The main strategy of the Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” is to increase the number of higher education graduates with international experience.

b) The experiences acquired by the staff from the Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” during the training or teaching mobilities is used to improve the quality and the relevance of higher education in the Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” . The teachers and the administrative staff with international experiences are implied in the structural reform of the university. One strategy of the Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” is to improve the quality and relevance of teaching and researcher training, to give graduates the knowledge and core transferable competences they need to succeed in high-skill occupations.

c) The main impact of the student and staff mobilities and of the cooperation projects is increasing the quality of the student training and the staff competences and cultural span. The strategy of the Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” is to provide more opportunities for students to gain additional skills through study or training abroad, and to encourage the development of cooperation programs to boost higher education performance and development.

d) The Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” encourages the international mobilities and project cooperation with the abroad partner universities and institutions in order to obtain the excellence in the higher education, in the research and in the economical fields. The Erasmus mobilities develop the “knowledge triangle” formed by research, education and innovation, opening new directions in the regional developments. The international recognition of the Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I” , as a higher education institution that meets the European performance criteria, constitutes a priority objective of institutional management.

e) The Erasmus mobilities provide knowledge, competences and new ideas in order to improve the governance and funding mechanisms in support of excellence in education and in scientific research. The strategy of the Military Technical Academy  “Ferdinand I” is to obtain new funding mechanisms in order to improve the quality of the education and of the scientific research. It also aims at achieving governance compatible at European level increasing so its visibility and becoming an active member of the European academic community.

The Military Technical Academy “Ferdinand I”  plays an active role in international inter-university cooperation, working with over 50 higher education, military and civilian institutions from France, Great Britain, Portugal, Italy, Spain, Holland, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, and so on. The Erasmus program is the main pillar of international relations. MTA has a very good experience in implementing the Erasmus Program, participating in all European Commission funded student mobility programs, starting with the Tempus program and continuing with the Erasmus-Socrates (2000-2007), Erasmus-LLP Lifelong Learning Program (2007- 2014) and Erasmus + (2014-2020)