The UA strengthens the internationalization process and increases by 400% its non-Erasmus foreign students. University News

The UA strengthens the internationalization process and increases by 400% its non-Erasmus foreign students

The Vice President for International Relations, Juan Llopis, welcomed more than 200 newcomers

Alicante, 6th September 2012

"The University of Alicante has gone beyond the Erasmus Programme and now plays in a global category of internationalization”. With these words the Vice President for International Relations, Juan Llopis, has referred to the details of the new academic year 2012/2013 regarding the foreign students who are already in the University. These details certify that the UA will have approximately 1,000 foreign students, 70% Erasmus and 30% non-Erasmus. This is why this fact is revealing, because the number of non-Erasmus foreign students has increased by 400% compared to the last academic year, going from 54 non-Erasmus last year, to more than 200 in the new academic year we are starting now.

“Forecasts predict that the growth of this group in our university will continue increasing during the next years”, assured Vice President Juan Llopis.

The new students come from Brazil, USA, South Korea, Mexico, Chile, China and Ukraine (non-Erasmus). From these countries, Brazil is the largest group with nearly 80 students, thanks to the programme “Borderless Science”. This is the first academic year in which South Korea and Brazil are sending students in groups to the University of Alicante.

In order to welcome the students, the Office of the Vice President for International Relations organized for the first time an official welcome event which took place on the Campus. In the event participated the Vice President Juan Llopis and the Director of the Secretariat for Office, José Ramón Belda. They detailed technical, administrative and operational data of the University to the new students so that they could manage normally in their daily life. Next week, the Mobility Office will organize some on-Campus guided tours by groups to show the students all the UA facilities.

These new students will attend graduate and postgraduate programmes at the UA and Llopis and Belda emphasized that “non-Erasmus students usually enjoy longer stays in our University than Erasmus ones do, as they usually are one-year stays”.

Juan Llopis maintained that “the internationalization policy of the UA is totally active” and, for this reason, some direct contacts with several foreign universities and the attendance to international conferences are taking place “in order to encourage the mobility of the university community (students, academic and research staff, and administrative staff)”. Next week, Llopis and Belda, within this agenda of contacts planning, will go to Dublin to participate in the EAIE Conference of International Mobility to consolidate agreements with European universities and to establish new ways of joint actions.