Erasmus Policy Statement

Erasmus Policy Statement between 2021-2027:

In our modernisation strategy and development plan we lay great emphasis on internationalization, thus the Erasmus Programme is a means for achieving this goal. The Academy is among the top 50 best higher music educational institutions in the field of music (QS Ranking 2020) with a dynamic international life as more than 20% of its students are coming from abroad. Our master’s programme on the Kodály method relishes great international interest and appreciation together with our world-class teaching staff. Maintaining and enhancing the international competitiveness of the Academy is a major objective and the Erasmus Programme is an indispensable factor to achieve the aforementioned targets. It helps us to realize the Exchange of knowledge with partner institutions, sharing the Lisztian musical heritage with other institutions and also benefiting from another country’s musical, educational traditions. The mobility programmes contribute to a deeper understanding of the musical heritage of partner countries providing access to unique teaching styles, approaches and fostering joint projects.

It is an opportunity to expand our professional network helping the Academy to find institutions with common and inspiring vision. As a member of European Heritage Label Network the Academy strives to promote and enhance the visibility of common European values, heritage and identity thus building the pillars of European Education Area.

A significant part of our institutional internationalisation strategy is to provide students with a chance to gain experience studying and performing abroad, as it is incredibly important for our student body and their employability. Since instrumentalists regularly play under the guidance of guest conductors from abroad or they give concerts with international chamber groups all over the world, it is vital to give our students opportunities to experience such collaborations while they are at university. Communication is key when playing music with other people and the Erasmus exchange programme could further enhance our graduates’ ability to work professionally in an international environment. Therefore, the Liszt Academy would like to maintain and expand our Erasmus network by sending and receiving more students to and from European countries.

As international and multicultural environments are the basis of musicianship, we believe that European identity, cultural heritage and diversity are integral parts of Liszt’s legacy thus forming the pillars of our university. We regard the Erasmus programmes (Erasmus +, Erasmus + International Credit Mobility, Erasmus KA2) as a fundamental means to transmit these aforementioned values. In order to realize this we involve students in our Academy’s student orchestra promoting international, multicultural student projects led by students. Furthermore, our objective is to maintain personal tutoring for Erasmus students - both incoming and outgoing - and to organise informal events for prospective exchange students. In addition to this, it is highly essential for us to broaden our horizon by inviting lecturers from other European universities to make our already robust curriculum even more appealing to students.

Our aim is to offer a more comprehensive curriculum in English, and raise the number of courses offered in English and other languages at our institution. This is to facilitate the way in which international students participate in our academic year. Transparency in assessment criteria, making it easier for international students to subscribe to courses, and more online teaching are all among our goals that we would like to have achieved by the end of the next 7-year Erasmus period. Due to the special characteristics of music education virtual and blended mobility is mainly possible in theoretical study programmes such as musicology and music analysis or music pedagogy.

Internationalisation is a key chapter in the 5-year Institutional Development Plan (IDP) of Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music (LFAM). The Erasmus + program was a great success in our institution and played a significant role in achieving our yearly number of incoming and outgoing mobilities set down in the IDP. Our aim in the IDP was to realize a 15% increase in mobility in every category (student, teacher, administrative staff). With some reorganization and thanks to our very talented Erasmus coordinator we have managed to accomplish these goals and sustain them every year,

The presence of students, teachers and staff from other countries is a very important part of everyday university life and it not only gives our students a chance to interact with various cultures and ways of thinking, but also encourages them to go abroad and experience life and studying in a distinctly different environment. These experiences have a life long lasting effect on the students both from a professional and personal standpoint. LFAM values these opportunities very highly and would like to provide these opportunities to our students and to visiting students in the future as well.

Erasmus Policy Statement until 2020:

Our international relations have expanded significantly in the last seven years. It was partly a result of inner structural changes carried out in our Academy: Department of International Affairs and Development has been established.

Furthemore, we gained new partner institutions from countries that recently joined the EU.

The largest scale of the mobility (70%) is still directed towards Western European countries (Germany, Austria), but there is a movement towards ex-communist countries as well. With the enlargement of the EU, a new possibility opened for us to host Hungarians living abroad. The number of these Hungarian students have significantly increased in the last couple of years.

The main appeal for both staff and student mobility is our Academy’s effort to involve staff with high artistic quality, whether it’s a main subject teacher or a visiting professor giving a master class. Due to some administrative problems, we were not able to fully exploit the advantages of the wide ranges of possibilities offered by the EU (Intensive Program, Erasmus Mundus, Expert study-trip).

We intend to change this in the near future by applying Intensive programs, establishing the criteria to launch joint degrees.

The realization of our goal is most likely to happen in the third cycle, because this kind of training allows the most flexibility both in the course syllabus and content.

We have been in negotiations in order to gain experience with other institutions that already launched joint doctoral diplomas. We also examine the possible harmonization of the D.M.A training with our DLA degree in the doctoral program.

As a result of the structural changes of the Academy (1,2, 3 cycles) it had a positive affect on both staff and student mobility. In 2013, our institution has received 50 applications, and 20 of our students have applied to foreign institutions.

There is an intensive linguistic program for outgoing students that is financed by the Erasmus grant, which is offered to the students for free. The early deadline (1st of February) allows us a fast and flexible application procedure, which makes it possible for our students to spend a full academic year in a partner institution. We also intend to increase the number of the outgoing students by prolonging the deadline of the application. During the academic year we frequently send additional applications to Tempus Hungary.Our credit system is flexible, the music courses can be easily followed.

At the Liszt Academy the Erasmus scholarship is granted to those staff members and students that have been invited by partner institutions to join their projects. In 2011 we had the possibility to attend a professional music program organized on the occasion of Liszt Ferenc's 200th anniversary. We support the realization of common European programs with the Erasmus grant. The EU sponsored reconstruction of our main building will be finished by 2013. It gives us the possibility to organize the AEC annual congress in 2014. We will invite all the AEC members, approximately 130 institutions. We hope to build and strengthen more international cooperation in the field of staff and student mobility.The inner structural changes - establish a new department ,"Department of International Affairs and Development"- will provide adequate facilities to realize our modernisation and internationalisation strategy. (joint degree, bilateral agreements with non- EU contries, more IP).

The Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music intends to achieve the most possible improvements and effectiveness for 2014-2020 inall the five highlighted strategic objectives among the tasks of the Higher Education Modernization Agenda (Erasmus Program).

1. In order to gain a higher attainment level it is crucial to promote talented students from lower socio-economic background as well as to provide further quality trainings for the teaching staff in the frame of lifelong learning. These language programs, Erasmus Intensive Programs are carried out through the teaching and administrative staff and student mobility grants.

2. In order to improve the quality level of the trainings, the Liszt Academy of Music strongly supports professional researches, the doctoral program in the aim of a better future possibilities for these students in the labour market. In the planning of the teachers development program it is an elementary goal to strengthen the motivations of the teachers and researchers by developing new training structures (distance learning) and in the third cycle to include the doctoral study abroad period into the Curriculum.

3. We intend to further widen the students mobility, by integrating the study abroad period into the Curriculum, and the harmonization of the ECTS credits according to the European systems. Our aim is to encourage the vertical mobility.

Besides our cooperation with European partner institutions we tend to sign new bilateral agreements with Non-European institutions in order to find hidden talents.

4. In the frame of “Knowledge triangle agenda” we strongly focus on building new regional cooperation between higher education and business partners. It is essential to involve different European and Hungarian concert centres, orchestras into the Academy’s institutional life, because these institutions as the partners of the Academy, they also participate in higher music education as the employers of the musicians. The agreements with the private sector allows more flexibility in the labour market and more effective collaboration between the private and state sector.

5. In the higher education the state support should be slowly decreased by increasing the private and entrepreneurial capital.

a) We establish a concert centre „Knowledge Centre”, which aims to represent the highest possible music level and also sets out the ground of new cooperation activities for institutions.

b) With the enlargement of the institutional autonomy we plan to exploit the alternative non-governmental funds (private sector, private capital, private fund)