Academic Recognition Matters: Why to recognize ? The importance of full academic recognition in EU and LA

The Rec-Mat Project is funded by the European Commission, with the support of the Erasmus+ programme, within the action Capacity Building in the field of Higher Education. Coordinated by the University of Porto (Portugal), it involves HEIs from six different countries: São Paulo State University, Rio de Janeiro Federal University and Rio Grande do Sul Federal University (Brazil), Universidad Nacional del Sur and Universidad Nacional del Litoral (Argentina), Universidad de Valladolid (Spain), Université de Lille (France) and Ghent University (Belgium).
In the FAUBAI 2019 Conference, partners of the Erasmus+ RecMat project will share the preliminary results of the project, aiming at expanding discussion with HE Institutions and other relevant stakeholders from Europe, LA and other regions of the world interested in the topic of academic recognition of international mobility periods, undertaken by Higher Education students. Unlike previous initiatives, the Rec-Mat project targets not only International Officers, but professors who are the main decision makers in LA HEIs, in what recognition is concerned and who might still show some resistances to recognition of international activities. The project involves professors in blended-training on the theme and in piloting case studies of student mobility, to evidence practical successful recognition processes. Investing in an innovative peer-to-peer approach, matching professors of 5 broad study areas, Rec-Mat is raising teaching staff’s awareness about the importance of ensuring full post-mobility recognition and stimulating fair grade conversion.
Rec-Mat activities can be replicated by other institutions to improve institutional capacities to formally frame recognition. It also builds a key linkage with IT teams, by providing training to IT staff and enabling LA HEIs to outline concrete technical solutions (mobility management IT systems/platforms) to ease recognition.
This session aims to bring the topic to wide discussion, encouraging a high number of HEIs to adopt similar processes and sharing the project's innovative outcomes – an innovative approach peer-to-peer training MOOC, a Digital Compendium and a Conclusions Paper - towards the improvement and transparency of academic recognition processes. Through this session it would be possible to evaluate the usability potential of RecMat's results and public activities, to assess the state-of-the-art in LA institutions in regards to academic recognition; to analyse the reasons causing the currently constraints in LA-EU cooperation and to identify internationalisation policies EU/LA HE.
Moreover it would stimulate and provoke discussion, captivating the audience and delivering best practices using approaches for different HEIs and educational systems.