In relation to the total number of students, the Polytechnic in Bjelovar ranks among the top five higher education institutions in Croatia in terms of securing funds from the Erasmus+ program. This relatively young polytechnic, established in 2017, can already boast around forty students on exchange annually, which is a significant number compared to just under eight hundred enrolled students.
– Students are provided with study mobility at foreign higher education institutions, as well as the opportunity to achieve mobility for the purpose of internships. Since we conduct professional study programs, most of our students choose mobility for the purpose of internships because this way they gain valuable experiences from the real sector during their studies, which are extremely useful after graduation when they enter the labor market – emphasizes the Vice Dean for Teaching and Students Zoran Vrhovski adding that they offer support to students through the activities of the Office for International Cooperation, organizing Erasmus+ info days, as well as individual counseling.
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The Polytechnic also offers students other forms of mobility, such as participation in international intensive programs, winter and summer schools, as well as virtual mobilities that students have gladly accepted.
– In the past programming period, the Polytechnic in Bjelovar secured a total of three million kuna for student and staff mobility projects under Erasmus+, and since 2019, we have also participated in two strategic international Erasmus+ projects worth a total of 3.75 million kuna – explains Erasmus coordinator Ivana Jurković, noting that thanks to this funding, they collaborated within the ‘BADGE’ project with renowned foreign universities such as the British Cambridge University, the Swedish KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece, and IMT Mines Albi in France.
– Within this project, 30 virtual student mobilities were realized, a professor exchange was held as invited lecturers within the winter and summer school, students were actively involved in project activities and the development of didactic materials, and in the upcoming period, study trips for students and teachers to Greece are planned, as well as a return visit during which we will host students and teachers in Bjelovar as part of the intensive exchange program – says Jurković, noting that the number of students interested in mobilities increases every year, partly encouraged by incoming mobilities of students and professors.
