This year on February 1st, the Education Exchange Support Foundation announced the results of the Erasmus+ 2020 Strategic Partnerships Additional Call for Proposals.

A total of 15 applicants from Lithuania were submitted for the Erasmus+ 2020 Key Action 2 Strategic Partnerships for Higher Education Call. Funding is provided for 3 projects. Kaunas University of Applied Sciences is the only Lithuanian University of Applied Sciences to receive funding for a project under this programme. According to Irma Servaitė, Senior Specialist of KUAS, this is a huge achievement of international project activities for the institution. The implementation of the project “Quality of Virtual Studies” will begin in June this year at KUAS.

The topic of the project is especially relevant in the current context of the pandemic. According to Inga Stravinskienė, Head of the Management and Quality Unit, during the preparation of this application, the focus was not only on the quality assurance of distance learning, but also on its development. A group of employees of KUAS was gathered for the preparation of the application, which, after analysing the most relevant aspects of the quality of distance learning, refined the idea and formed the ways of its implementation.

According to the Head of Studies and Applied Research Unit of KUAS Dr. Kristina Bespalova, the winning international project “Quality of Virtual Studies” activities are relevant for both students and lecturers. “For us it is important that a teacher working in a virtual learning environment is able to select the most appropriate study and assessment methods that ensure academic integrity, create opportunities for meaningful participation of the learner and provide the necessary support system,” says Dr. K. Bespalova.

The aim of the project is to develop the internationalization of higher education institutions (virtual mobility of students and teachers, inter-institutional studies, mobility windows) and improve the quality of studies by implementing technological and pedagogical innovations (teachers’ didactic, digital competences, teaching process gamification).

Project partners:

  • Savonia University of Applied Sciences (Finland)
  • Universidad Internacional de La Rioja (Spain)
  • School of Coding (England)
  • Poslovno Veleučilište Zagreb School of Business (Croatia)

Project duration – 2 years: from 2021-06-01 to 2023-05-31.