For international academic mobility 2020 brought unexpected restrictions, as well as opened up new opportunities. The basis for the development of new forms of international cooperation were both IT-technologies and significant international experience of Lviv Polytechnic and acquaintances of its employees.
Last year, the global educational community faced an unexpected challenge posed by the COVID-19 pandemic and quarantine restrictions in all areas of human activity. Of course, this also affected international academic cooperation. The closure of borders changed academic mobility in the classical sense, and some types of mobility were suspended altogether. Restrictions on live communication between educators from different countries appeared, scheduled conferences, trips and meetings were canceled.
Adverse conditions did not reduce the desire of students to participate in such programs, but only postponed the study dates to the spring semester with the hope the epidemiological situation will improve. Nataliya Chukhray, Vice-Rector for Education and International Relations, Lviv Polytechnic National University, says that there have never been problems with recruiting the right number of students to participate in academic mobility programs due to the fact that the main financial burden is borne by foreign partners. It is also worth mentioning that the majority of applicants meet the high requirements set for participants. Of course, this in its own way requires the selection and search for the best among the best.
IT-technologies helped Polytechnicians to overcome geographical distance, synchronize work in different time zones, and quickly respond to different requests. This allowed expanding the number of acquaintances of Polytechnicians with educators not only in Europe but also in other continents. Respectively, the number of international cooperation agreements in 2020 increased to 270 - Polytechnic became a partner with universities in 29 countries.
New realities of communication via the Internet made it possible to engage in the educational process highly qualified foreign academic staff and researchers, whom we could not involve in offline events. Mainly, this is part of the Visiting Professors program, which is still evolving and continuing to expand, attracting more and more Ukrainian and foreign academics each year.
It was IT technologies that contributed to the existence of this program, as they made it possible to continue lecturing on different video platforms. This year we have several foreign academics employed under this program, they will conduct 60 hours of lectures or practical classes each at Polytechnic, said Nataliya Chukhray, Vice-Rector for Education and International Relations, Lviv Polytechnic National University.
Despite the negative predictions on the eve of 2020, Lviv Polytechnic in the same 2020 developed new forms of international cooperation and academic mobility, which gave good results. Distance learning programs for students with double diplomas have been implemented remotely; students listened to lectures online and worked at seminars. Lviv Polytechnic University accepted foreign professors for distance internships, and Polytechnicians at their PC were able to upskill at foreign universities online.
The situation with academic mobility in Europe and the world in the future is not yet fully understood, but one thing can be said – international cooperation is taking new forms. However, the academic mobility program for 2021 in the European Union is planned to be somewhat reduced, although some programs under the ERASMUS+ project will not reduce the pace of implementation. For example, Jean Monnet program, which specializes in integrating foreign experience with our educational process, has started its campaign and anyone can apply for the project in 2021.
The European Union understands that this is not just about learning, it is also about exchange, meetings, learning about culture and many other aspects of academic mobility, as the example of ERASMUS+ shows. Therefore, this issue is much more complicated than Internet technologies, because not everything can be transmitted and taught over the Internet. But it is possible to predict with high probability that hybrid forms of student education will remain in the future, emphasized Nataliya Chukhray.
Thus, the closure of borders during the pandemic did not stop the international cooperation of Lviv Polytechnic, but contributed to its expansion through reformatting and introduction of new methods, which diversified international relations and opened new opportunities for international cooperation.