The Integrated Business Institute is a holder of Erasmus Charter for Higher Education (ECHE) for the program period 2014-2020, which provides the possibility of participation in Erasmus+ program and mobility of students and staff at higher education institutions and companies across Europe. The program Erasmus+ provides a great number of opportunities for education, training, international cooperation and mobility. The Integrated Business Institute organizes the following forms of motilities’ under the Erasmus + program:
The Integrated Business Institute provides studying and teaching mobility with the following partner institutions:
| Higher education Institution | Erasmus code | Location | No of student mobility | No of staff mobility |
| University College of Economics and Culture (Ekonomikas un kulturas augstskola) | LV RIGA33 | Riga, Latvia | 1 | 1 |
| University of Economics in Bratislava | SK BRATISL03 | Bratislava, Slovakia | 3 | 1 |
| Universita di Foggia (University of Foggia) | I FОGGIA03 | Foggia, Italy | 2 | 0 |
| University of Maribor | SI MARIBOR01 | Maribor, Slovenia | 1 | 1 |
| University of Ferrara | I FERRARA01 | Ferrara, Italy | 2 | 1 |
| University of Ljubljana | SI LJUBLJA01 | Ljubljana, Slovenia | 0 | 1 |
*Implementation and organisation of Erasmus mobility Contact person for all mobility programs at the Integrated Business Institute is Ljupco Vangelski, MSc (ljupco@fbe.edu.mk)
Institut za biznis ekonomija (Integrated Business Institute – IBI) has appointed an Erasmus Coordinator responsible for the organization and implementation of the mobility.
The other parties involved for the organization and implementation of the mobility are the following: Students’ Affairs that will prepare some of the documents for mobility; professors will help the students in selection of the subjects quoted in the Learning Agreement to assure that the subjects are recognized at the end of the stay; a Selection body will rank the candidates according to the criteria in the Announcement and the Coordinator will notify students. After the students submit the transcript of records and final report for the stay, the Secretary at the Institute and the ECTS Coordinator prepare a document of the recognized courses the student has taken abroad.
*Credit Transfer System
The academic credit system is being fully implemented at Institut za biznis ekonomija. The number of credits that a course brings depends on the length of the studies that is 15 EC’s for the courses at the two year Master studies, i.e. 6-10 credits for the one year Master studies. The successful defend of the Master Thesis brings 30 credits.
All of the courses followed by our students that are included into the Learning Agreement or the Changes to the Learning Agreement are appointed credits. If the course that has been followed by a student is fully compatible to a course in his/her study curricula, the full number of credits the course brings at IBI are being appointed, regardless of the number of credits that the course brings abroad. If a student chooses to follow a course abroad that is not included into the Learning agreement or the Changes to it, and it is not compatible with our study curricula, then this subject is included into the Diploma Supplement.
At the moment, the courses are thought only in Macedonian language. However, we have started a procedure for accreditation of the curricula in English language and when there will be an approval for incoming students in Republic of Macedonia, we will organize the courses in English language. As a matter of fact, at the moment, most of the study materials for the students are also in English. Exchange students within this mobility program will be mentored in English language and engaged in different project activities in order to prepare their papers for the studies’ courses they have elected.
The inter-institutional Agreements (Grant agreement and Learning agreement) are prepared by the Erasmus Coordinator and signed by the Director, i.e. the Erasmus coordinator for the Learning agreement. For the selection of the courses quoted in the Learning Agreement, the professors will help the students in order to assure that the courses are recognized at the end of the stay. As for the Grant agreement, most usually 80% of the funds are going to be paid to the student at the beginning of the mobility. The remaining 20% are going to be paid after submission of the Transcript of records and the Final report when the student comes back to the home institution. As for the teaching staff mobility, staff is supposed to submit a report to ensure that the activities he/she has performed abroad are in line with the Grant agreement stipulated between the institution and the employee.
*Institution’s language policy
Integrated Business Institute at the moment does not provide language courses for preparing for participation the mobility. However, most of the study materials for the students are in English. Also, one of the criteria for ranking the students will be certificates they have received when participated some language courses outside the formal educational process. But if it is necessary, the Institute will organize subsidized English language courses for the students that participate Erasmus mobility.
*Mentoring and support arrangements for incoming and outgoing students
Integrated Business Institute (IBI) will stay in contact with all the students during their mobility abroad in order to follow their progress at the host institution and will be available to students regarding Changes in the Learning Agreement. One of the instruments to monitor the students and make sure that they have completed their obligations stipulated in the Learning Agreement will be the payment of the grant in two installments, where the last one will be paid once the students submit the transcript of records and final report.
The incoming students will be monitored in a way that they will all get a supervisor from the students or the staff that will be at their disposal for any difficulties they may face during the mobility period.
*Recognition of mobility achievements
For the selection of the subjects quoted in the Learning Agreement, professors help the students in order to assure that the undertaken courses are recognized at the end of the stay. All the courses that are stipulated in the Learning will be recognized after submission of the Transcript of records. If a student independently makes changes to the Learning agreement adding courses that can not be recognized, these courses are included in the Diploma Supplement that the Institute issues together with the Diploma for completed Graduate studies.
ERASMUS POLICY STATEMENT
All IBI staff is internationally oriented, weather through finding partner institutions, writing applications for international projects or participating international projects and attendance of international conferences.
We will choose our Erasmus partners according to the compatibility of the study curricula with the European institutions. In addition, we will take into account the students’ preferences and strive to make partnership agreements with the institutions in countries they prefer. However, their courses will also have to be compatible with the courses in our institution.
The target group students for the mobility are all the students regardless of their background, gender, race, religion or certain disabilities. IBI will pursue the non-discriminatory policy when choosing between the students to go on mobility. The same will be applied with the staff. Our objective is to promote the mobility in order that we modernize our educational process and become more integrated within the EU education process.
Integrated Business Institute supports the participation of the staff and students in international projects. IBI applies for participation in international projects and has signed several Memorandums of Understanding and Agreements with institutions from abroad. The international projects that IBI staff participates in are promoted on the web page and the social media. The participation in international projects is recognized with the awarding of higher titles. IBI will also promote participation of graduate students in perspective international projects under the Erasmus program that will be recognized as part if their formal education process.
We are particularly interested in establishing long term cooperation between the Western Balkan institutions and the EU institutions and herewith apply in different European projects. Our institution is small, but our staff has participated many projects, including European projects. (LINK to projects)
The Erasmus program enables funding students mobility that is very important for promoting students. Staff mobility for a small institution as ours will have valuable impact on the modernization of IBI.
First of all, with the mobility, students obtain skills and knowledge that will add to their innovativeness. In addition, trough mobility, the teaching staff directly adds to the modernization process by obtaining new teaching techniques that will be implemented in our institution. The program enables establishing new partnerships with higher education institutions (HEIs) from Europe that can be our perspective partners in different project, especially EU projects that can contribute greatly to the research process in our institution which is one of the priorities for our institution. The program also supports the cooperation between education, research and business as a precondition for creating more effective education process that will be compatible with the needs of the business sector.
You can download documents related to the Erasmus + program here
Further information on Erasmus + program can be found at:
