Making Erasmus Without Paper a reality: EWP Champion VSB - Technical University of Ostrava

VSB - Technical University of Ostrava in Czechia is connected to the Erasmus Without Paper network for both inter-institutional agreements and online learning agreements via their own in-house system. This is an interview with Ing. Mgr. Maňáková Monika, who is the Institutional Coordinator for Erasmus+ Programme at the institution.

State of play

How do you see the state of Erasmus Without Paper evolving at your institution?

Ostrava has a rather decentralised structure, which is common throughout the Czech Republic. Although I am the institutional coordinator, each faculty has a dedicated coordinator who can effectively negotiate exchange agreements. We work with Erasmus and are now dealing with the "without paper" component, so it's important to us. Naturally, we have a lot of knowledge.

Thanks to the efforts of our IT staff and coordinators, we are getting better and better outcomes when generating agreements on the system. When we encounter problems, we discovered that contacting the helpdesk, as well as directly the third-party provider, can be beneficial.

How well informed do you feel the staff of your institution is about Erasmus Without Paper today? How smoothly are things running today in your university?

We make an effort to visit events and keep up with the latest developments. I must admit, we appreciate the effort that has been done lately. Additionally, our IT crew is making an attempt to attend all major online infrastructure forums.

Every month, we meet with the faculty coordinators to assist them in understanding how the exchanges will go, what each status implies, and what new developments have occurred in Erasmus Without Paper. I've also produced a full manual for them.

Success factors and experiences

What was the biggest challenge for establishing your Erasmus Without Paper-connection? How did you overcome it?

It was introduced straight from the start because we were among the first to join the network. We started first with the inter-institutional agreements as it seem a logical beginning of the exchange process.

The most difficult element was deciding whether to utilise the dashboard or a third-party system, or whether to modify our system to link to the Erasmus Without Paper network. This decision was made at the highest decision-making levels, and we decided to use our internal system to join the Erasmus Without Paper network. That also meant that our IT group had to programme everything.

There were several ambiguities at first, including minor aspects that the European Commission and the institutions might have misinterpreted. This resulted in early situations in which we realised that what seemed completely clear to our programmers was understood slightly differently in other countries and organisations. So, we had to make a lot of changes to make it fully work.

What were some of the success factors that supported the implementation at your institution?

Our IT department worked really hard to deliver the upgraded version with the API on time while adhering carefully to the deadline, and they succeeded. Unfortunately, not everyone did. Naturally, there are some recurring and unforeseen issues with the upgraded version.

And I recall how thrilled we were when we finally concluded our first agreement. It was a real "Oh, my God, it actually works" moment for us. And then, we gradually reached to more than 400 agreements, and we understood exactly what we needed to do to effectively complete them. This is more than two-thirds of what we typically have for the period.

Also, I am pleased to announce that we have finalised our first agreement with the new API. And I'm delighted to see that it is working.

Do you have tips for your colleagues on how they can benefit more from their Erasmus Without Paper network connection?

Persevere, don't give up hope, and things will improve. Everyone is currently at a different level, thus various components of the system are functioning or failing, making our lives extremely tough. But once we're on the same page and everyone's doing the same thing, things will be fantastic.

Vision on digitisation

Why do you think it is important to connect to the Erasmus Without Paper network for your university?

I believe it will ultimately make our lives easier. And I believe that sharing data, rather than just PDF documents, will be far more beneficial in the future. Yes, this is the way to go.

Where do you want to see Erasmus Without Paper in the next five years?

What I would want to see is EWP integrated with the Beneficiary Module. Participants' data and learning agreement content are just data, and they should be easily exchanged between systems. Now it appears that a bridge is still needed. That would make the lives of faculty coordinators and students both considerably easier.

I'm hoping that within a few years, nominations will be working for everyone, and so will transcripts of records. That would be quite useful.

What could make Erasmus Without Paper more beneficial for HEIs and students in your view?

I believe that a course catalogue should be on the table. It should be available because we have digital learning agreements. Students should choose their courses from an online course catalogue. They simply click on the courses they want to study, rather than browsing elsewhere on the partner's website.