The spring meeting of the so-called Alliance of IROs, that is, representatives of international offices from Czech, Moravian, and Silesian universities, took place at Charles University. This is a regular initiative whose main goal is to share good practices in the implementation of internationalization activities from an administrative, organizational, and strategic perspective. This meeting is held twice a year, each time hosted by one of the domestic universities. In the autumn of 2024, the Alliance met at the University of Ostrava, and this spring, for the first time, it was hosted by Charles University. A total of 20 participants from 17 universities, including JU, attended the meeting.
The topics discussed were closely related, among others, to the upcoming new Erasmus+ programme period (2028–2034), the shape of which is currently a frequent subject of discussion at both national and international levels. The main topic was the financing of internationalization activities, during which participants shared good practices in estimating and planning the financial framework for the coming period.
They also discussed how to ensure international experience for every student and employee. Another equally important topic was the recognition of the results of foreign stays as an integral part of studies at the home university: the participants agreed that the degree of recognition of courses and credits still shows potential for improvement. At the same time, due to its complexity, it requires systematic long-term effort at the central, faculty, and individual levels.
For the first time, the number of applicants for Erasmus+ teaching stays or training at universities currently exceeds the allocated budget. Therefore, sharing best practices in introducing criteria to streamline selection procedures for these activities proved to be particularly beneficial.
The meeting also focused mainly on the priorities and values of the Erasmus+ programme. One of them is digitalization, which is being implemented mainly through the ambitious Erasmus Without Paper project and also in Blended Intensive Programmes, which represent an innovative combination of virtual and physical mobility. The creation of guidelines for coordinators and recipients of BIPs on the part of foreign partners proved to be a very topical issue. Attention during the meeting was also devoted to the priority of inclusion, which has a firm place at all participating universities, and options are still being sought to inspire as many students with specific needs as possible to participate in Erasmus+ and to ensure that they feel comfortable in their new environment.
A major issue at the end was support for outgoing and incoming students in terms of accommodation. Charles University shared news in the field of fraud prevention, which is becoming an increasing risk. In cooperation with the Legal Advisory Office of UK Point, the university has created a model accommodation contract with explanations of what to look out for and a general manual "How Not to Become a Victim of Rental Fraud Abroad."
