Most departmental agreements are signed under the Erasmus+ programme. On this page you will find information on what you should think about before you sign a departmental agreement and how to draw up the agreement.
To consider during the planning phase
- Why do we choose to collaborate with the proposed university?
- Is the university innovative/well ranked?
- Is the university equivalent to us?
- Are there other universities in the country in question that suits our department better?
- Is the country/city/university in requested by our students, and vice versa?
- Are there good prospects for achieving reciprocity (balance between incoming and outgoing students)?
- Will the collaboration contribute to internationalisation at home?
- Is there potential to widen the collaboration? (E.g joint-courses/programmes, double/joint degree, teacher/staff exchanges or research collaborations.)
- Does the proposed collaboration fit well with the goals in our operational plan?
- Is the collaboration anchored at our department?
Outgoing students
To consider:
- Subject areas/level/extent/pre-requisites.
- Language of instruction/language skills requirements/course offering in English.
- Clear and comprehensible information on the institution's website.
- Academic system/term dates/exams.
- Nomination and application process.
- Introduction/reception/mentor programme.
- Student unions/social activities.
- Language courses.
Incoming students
To consider:
- Can we offer what are counterpart requests in regards to course offering/level/extent?
- Do we have sufficient knowledge of the country's educational system (and vice versa)?
- Can the counterpart guarantee that their students have sufficient English language skills?
- For studies on advanced level: can sufficient prior knowledge of the subject be guaranteed?
- Other expectations from the counterpart?
To draw up the agreement
Your department or the foreign higher education institution prepares an agreement proposal. If an agreement within Erasmus + is to be signed, use Umeå University's template for Erasmus agreements, or the partner university's equivalent.
The duration specified in the agreement may be one year or longer. If you feel confident in the collaboration, you can sign the agreement for a longer period.
The contact person(s) (administrative and possibly academic) specified in the agreement shall be the department's contact person(s).
The agreement must be signed by the head of department or the department's international contact person (via delegation from the head of department) and the other party in accordance with the partner university's regulations.
At the Faculty of Medicine, all agreements must be processed by the Council for Internationalisation of Education (RIU) before being signed by the head of department or program council chair. Faculty-wide agreements are signed by the dean after being processed in the council.
The agreement shall be drawn up in two originals: one for Umeå University and one for the contracting party.
The department's international contact person enters the information from the agreement in Solemove.
For questions about archiving, contact the Registry and archives.