UNITA – Universitas Montium

As part of the UNITA Alliance, the Universities of Turin and Savoie Mont Blanc have developed a new model to promote and facilitate the internationalization processes of teaching among member universities.

The model, based on periodic and recurring matching events titled "Internationalization of Curricula Through UNITA (ICTU)", is based on face-to-face meetings of faculty coordinators of curricula in the Alliance Universities who, grouped by scientific field into working groups, engage in co-design of international curricula, with the support of the administrative staff of all the Universities involved.

The macrophases of the ICTU model are as follows:

1. expression of interest: in all Alliance Universities, faculty members who hold courses of study are invited to express their interest in participating in the internationalization process (activity reporting period: beginning of the calendar year)
2. matching and creation of the working groups: the ICTU organizing committee collects expressions of interest and creates the working groups by associating related courses of study by level (first or second Cycle) and scientific area (activity reference period: Spring)
3. first "Internationalization of curricula through UNITA" event: working groups are invited to one of the Alliance Universities where they have the opportunity to meet in separate tables and design international study paths together: Erasmus BIP, virtual mobility, COIL, teacher mobility, double degrees or joint degrees (activity target period: between Spring and early Summer)
4. follow-up event: working groups that, following the first event, continue to maintain contact at a distance and continue to make progress in planning the internationalization project are invited for an in-person follow-up event at the UNITA University that hosted the first event. The working groups have the opportunity to meet again to finalize the planning and decide on a project start-up date (activity reporting period: Fall)
5. activity monitoring and administrative support: at the end of the two events and in between, working groups are invited to respond to online surveys aimed at collecting data on the type of internationalization project being discussed and any administrative and logistical concerns or issues. During the events, a team of administrative staff from all Alliance universities assists the working groups by providing informational support.

Each year one university in the UNITA Alliance hosts the two "Internationalization of curricula through UNITA" events and manages the macro-phases of the ICTU model.

During the events, participants also attend plenary sessions presenting innovative tools and models for internationalization of study paths, in accordance with the strategic lines developed by UNITA in this area:

• mobility window, which allows students to enter Erasmus mobility with an already agreed ex ante package of courses and activities to be taken at the host university
• UNITA à la carte, the integration of shared courses and activities into the career plans of the Alliance Universities
• UNITA Degree, a joint study pathway model that, according to national regulations and the European degree label, leads to the award of a double, multiple or joint degree.

In the framework of the Erasmus+ European Universities initiative, European Universities are required to test and facilitate the issuing of a unified common European degree label, to consolidate the European Higher Education Area (EHEA).

The European Degree label is a certificate for students who have graduated from joint programmes of higher education institutions, such as European Universities, set according to European criteria.

To such an extent, the Alliance UNITA aims at developing and implementing shared actions, labels and tools to build personalised, multilingual and international study paths, with the aim of enhancing the internationalisation of curricula and developing a UNITA offer in lifelong learning, open to a large public.

In particular, UNITA aims at:

• transforming learning through programme innovation, reaching out to a varied set of learner profiles, providing them with the unique and labelled UNITA multilingual learning experience through personalised international learning paths, thus contributing to the definition of a European degree label
• developing the UNITA lifelong learning strategy based, in particular, on UNITA micro-credentials as key training tools for lifelong learners, including students, in order to upskill and reskill their competencies
• innovating teaching and learning in a European context through teacher and educational support, with a focus on challenge based and STEAM approach
• creating a UNITA inter-university digital campus as multi-lingual, multi-site and multi-modal integrated lifelong learning environment serving learners, staff and stakeholders from registration to certification with online access to materials, connected classrooms, comprehensive course cartography, catalogues of UNITA opportunities.