Introduction

The main aim of Strategic Partnerships carried out under the Erasmus+ Programme in the 2014-2020 multiannual financial framework was to enable institutions and organisations to develop and implement innovative educational solutions, as well as to strengthen international cooperation and facilitate the exchange of experience. In the field of Higher Education, the most common beneficiaries of such projects were Higher Education Institutions, which – thanks to the projects – modernised their education methods, improved their quality, joined international initiatives and adapted more closely to the needs of the society and economy. Since various types of organisations and institutions from several countries could participate in Strategic Partnerships, extensive exchange of experience was possible and often took place between education providers operating in different fields.

The project outcomes included new programmes of study, courses and teaching materials (especially e-learning ones), innovative teaching methods, textbooks, guides, collections of good practices, videos and educational games. As a rule, all outputs have been made available to the public and widely disseminated on the websites of individual projects and on the Erasmus+ Project Results Platform1. In addition to activities directly related to partnership cooperation, these projects often included joint staff training and intensive courses for students. The majority of the activities were transnational, but some (e.g. smaller seminars to disseminate project results) took place locally.

The examined Erasmus+ Strategic Partnerships in the field of Higher Education were funded in the period 2014-2017. The study included all projects submitted in 2014-2016 and those from the 2017 call for proposals that were completed and settled at the time of the survey. The study was conducted by the Foundation for the Development of the Education System (acting as the National Agency of the Erasmus+ Programme in Poland), and the respondents were both coordinators of Strategic Partnerships projects (quantitative and qualitative part) and persons performing management functions at HEIs involved in these undertakings (qualitative part of the study). In all projects discussed in the report, Polish HEIs and institutions operating in the Higher Education sector acted as the leaders of the partnerships.

This report discusses issues such as: the selection of partners for projects, the course of activities, the analysis of outcomes in terms of their usefulness and sustainability as well as the evaluation of project outcomes and the partnerships themselves by HEI authorities. The study also focused on cooperation with the Erasmus+ National Agency in Poland, which granted funding to projects and supervised their compliance with the Programme

1 Erasmus+ Project Results Platform, bit.ly/3nxHwWG [accessed: 17/11/2020].

principles. Moreover, the respondents evaluated the system for Strategic Partnerships project implementation and presented their recommendations in this regard. The conclusions drawn by the interviewees can be found in the final chapter.

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