Partners

Founded in 1888, Sofia University St. Kliment Ohridski (Sofia Uni) is the oldest higher education institution in Bulgaria. It is one of the most renowned centers of science in the Balkan region. While following its academic mission Sofia University makes a significant contribution to the efforts of the national government to take part in the global policies to encourage and promote science and education. Through its scientific expertise, the University plays an active role in preparing and conducting informed policies of national, regional and international significance. In the recent decade Sofia University is the highest ranking Bulgarian HEI and qualifies for the top 300 universities in the World University Rankings of the Times Higher Education (THE) (2017). It is the leading Bulgarian research center in the Humanities and Science. Sofia University is an excelling institution in terms of the number of participants in the students’ and lecturers’ mobility contributing to the implementation of the idea of European space in the domain of university education. There are currently more than 18000 students enrolled in the university’s 16 faculties, covering a wide range studies: natural sciences, humanities and social sciences. About 1500 permanent teaching staff is engaged in training and research activities. Sofia University is currently implementing a number of scientific and educational projects (both as a promoter and partner), spread across its faculties.

Established in 1992, Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University (COMU) is one of the leading universities in Turkey with its nearly 50.000 students and qualified academic and administrative staff. In the diversity of its students, its global outlook, and its outstanding research, the COMU is also a university of compelling change. Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University’s remarkable global appeal continues to grow with 13 faculties, 4 institutes, 8 colleges, 12 vocational high schools, 26 research and application centers and a Research Hospital. Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University is an international university with the values of academic freedom, dynamism, transparency, flexibility and innovation. Our main objective is to increase our impact from a local to a global level. In order to achieve this, the COMU is increasing its academic and social activities by hosting national and international congresses, trying to meet international academic standards and developing high quality international strategic partnerships. One of the major strengths of the COMU is the academic staff, committed to excellence in teaching and research in a dynamic and creative academic environment. In this respect, COMU is trying to prevail in academic freedom for its academicians’ strategic academic development. COMU offers a very wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Teaching is carried out through academic departments and interdisciplinary institutes and in partnership with internationally renowned higher education institutions. The Faculty of Education is one of the oldest teacher-training institutions in Turkey which was established in 1955 as a school to train primary school teachers and provided three years of teacher-training education. Basic components of undergraduate programs consist of courses with a practical focus. Graduate programs focus on advanced theoretical knowledge in the field and on specialized applied research; a well-balanced emphasis on theory and application is maintained throughout the programs. Each program has a wide range of elective courses through which students receive a training program compatible with their interests and abilities. These programs, which have been developed to train tudents as competent teachers, educators and counselors, also cater to students’ physical, sensory andsocial needs. Therefore, students of the Faculty of Education are provided with the opportunity to attend sports, arts and literary events managed by various student clubs. Encouraging students to attend international exchange programs is also one of the basic principles of the Faculty. Undergraduate programs in the Faculty of Education are among the first choice of university candidates. The Faculty meets the needs of supplying the country’s demand for teachers via a total of 24 programs (eighteen of which are daytime programs and six of which are evening programs). In addition to their teaching duties, the Faculty’s lecturers are closely involved in making a contribution to academic activities at both the national and international levels.

University of Latvia (LU) with 13,000 students, 13 faculties and more than 20 research institutes is one of the largest comprehensive research universities in the Baltic States with educational and research potential in humanities, social and natural sciences. The only higher education institution from Latvia ranked in the QS Top Universities ranking. UL is especially proud that its degree of internationalization has been recognized as high in several rankings, such as QS Top Universities, Multirank, Interfax ranking. UL pays great attention to the development of international collaboration and supports different schemes of mobility. At present, the UL has signed 148 bilateral agreements with universities around the world, more than 800 Erasmus+ agreements with universities in program countries and 29 agreements with universities in partner countries. UL is a successful partner in Erasmus Mundus projects JoinEU-SEE, Triple I, Lot 3b, Centauri, MOVER, AURORA and LEADER as well as Erasmus Mundus Joint-Master Program (MISOCO). In accordance with the mission and vision of the UL – most characteristic features of the Faculty of Education, Psychology and Art are continuous development and improvement in all of its aspects: new programs, flexibility, international cooperation, teaching staff and student exchange, wide and many-sided research activities, enrichment of environment. Through international relationships, comparative international studies (IEA ICCS, OECD PISA and TALIS), conferences (for example “Professors’ week”) and many international students, understanding tolerance, human rights and sense of belonging becomes the essence of the internal quality culture of both faculty and the university in general. As an example, the MA degree program “Educational Treatment of Diversity” was created in 2007 by four universities in Spain, the Czech Republic, Germany and Latvia. The program is students’ workplace orientated. Therefore, the target audience is applicants from Latvia, the European Union, and countries worldwide with bachelor’s degrees in Social, Human and Natural sciences. Studies are implemented in the elearning environments, as well as in presence meetings. E-courses have been implemented in all study programs.

Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Romania is a classical university that includes a total of nine faculties with more than 600 teachers in areas such as Educational Science, Economics, Philology and Arts, Social and Human Sciences, Medicine, Law, Theology, Engineering, Agricultural Science and Sciences. The areas of competence of the involved staff are very wide, with more than 100 existing faculty specializations. The team involved in the project, is composed by professors and associate professors from Teachers Education Department. Also, professors have been participated in others Erasmus+ projects, Leonardo, Comenius and Grundtvig projects or Sectoral Operational Programme Human Resources Development (POS DRU, POCU) etc. and they have a wide experience in this filed. Psychologists, pedagogues, educators, managers and HR specialists work in Teacher Education Department. In the Department we are involved in activities as: – designing, organization and coordination of initial training for teaching career at theoretical, methodological and practical level; – designing, organization and coordination of training for teachers in secondary education, in accordance to actual legislation (periodical, specialized in pedagogical and didactical issues, as well as educational leadership; organizing and conducting examinations for professional degree); – promotion of theoretical and applied educational research, based on our own projects or in cooperation with other institutional partners; – development of courses, synthesis, support materials, methodological guides, educational projects, academic programs required in the context of initial and continuous training of teachers; – designing, organization and coordination of training regarding trainers specialized programs (in collaboration with the institutions concerned). As training programs, in our department we develop countinuing education and master programs for teachers from preuniversitary system in Educational Management and Leadership and Inclusive Education. Key persons involved in the project activities: Lecturer PhD. Bologa Lia has a PhD in Psychology and a Master in Deaf Audiology. Her research area was in Educational Psychology and Inclusive Education. Lecturer PhD. Olivia Andrei: Master in Educational Management (2004) and PhD in Educational Science. Current didactic activity: Educational Psychology, Didactics of Religion, Inclusive Education. Lecturer PhD Stefania Kifor. Her degrees include a Master programme in Computer Science and Engineering, and PhD in Management. Current didactic activity – ICT and Didactics.

The Bremen company GedonSoft (GS) was founded in 2002 by Hans Riepe-Gedon in order to develop innovative and professional software solutions. GedonSoft provides state-of-the-art individual programming services in a variety of programming languages to the requirements of their customers. GedonSoft GmbH, with 5 employees in full-time employment, and 1 part-time employee, has specialized in the area of technical, dynamic and 3D acquisition, recognition, tracking and display of objects of all kinds and has thus gained a wide range of experience in the development of intuitive front-ends in the form of 2D or 3D user interface as well as in multi-touchcontrollable form. Through many years of experience, GedonSoft has a high level of expertise in technical know-how, as well as extensive background knowledge in many industries and their special technical areas. GedonSoft has also been involved in European e-learning projects aimed at creating accessible learning software for blind and visually impaired learners. Within the framework of European project MOLLVIS the results of the previously implemented projects ALLVIP and ELLVIS were transferred to the creation of learning apps for mobile Windows, Apple and Android devices.