Staff Mobility

1. Staff Mobility Activities

Erasmus Staff Mobility is realized in two categories.

1. Staff Mobility for Teaching Assignments (STA)

2. Staff Mobility for Staff Training (STT)

2. Definition of Activities

2.1. Staff Mobility for Teaching Assignments (STA)

Staff Mobility for Teaching Assignments (STA) is a field of activity that allows Higher Education Institution’s (HEI) teaching staff of a Turkish HEI (holding ECHE) to teach and carry joint academic/educational activities at a partner HEI (holding ECHE) in the programme countries.

Within the scope of Staff Mobility for Teaching Assignments, staff working at an established institution located in one of the programme countries may be invited to teach at a HEI (holding ECHE) in Turkey. The staff to be invited to teach must be employed at an educational centre, research institution or another institution abroad which meets the definition of enterprise. In this context, what is referred to as an enterprise, regardless of its size, legal status and the economic sector they are active in is an enterprise which carries out all kinds of economic operations, including social economy. However, staff granted a payment cannot be invited from a HEI.

1. Staff Mobility for Staff Training (STT)

STT allows all staff employed in a higher education institution holding ECHE in Turkey to get training in one of the partner countries. Within the scope of this activity, the staff may get training in various activities (such as on-the-job training and observation processes) with the objective of developing their skills based on their current jobs. However, conference attendances are not funded under this activity.

Within the context of STT, it is possible for the staff employed in a higher education institution holding an ECHE to get training at an institution of higher education or an establishment holding ECHE. The enterprises in which the staff can get training may be an educational centre, research institution, HEI or another institution which meets the definition of enterprise located in a different country. In this context, what is referred as an institution, -regardless of their sizes, legal statuses and the economic sectors they are active in is an enterprise which carries out all kinds of economic operations, including social economy. However, staff from a higher. STT is a full time activity and the grant payment is made for the periods in which full-time training is received.

3. Duration of Staff Mobility
4. Activities are carried out in accordance with the minimum and terms set by the European Commission.
5. Staff mobility activities cannot exceed the end date of the contract signed with the centre.

3.1. The Minimum and Maximum Duration of Staff Teaching Mobility

The duration of STA is at least 2 consecutive workdays to 2 months excluding travel time. However, it is obligatory to lecture at least 8 hours in order for the activity to be evaluated as a valid activity. In case where the activity takes longer than 1 week, it is necessary to increase the number of compulsory lectures in proportion to the duration ( for example, it is obligatory to lecture at least 16 hours in a 2-week activity.)

In STA, if it is seen from the participation certificate that the beneficiary has carried out the activity for less than 2 days or lectured less than required, the activity is deemed invalid and the beneficiary cannot receive any grant payment.

3.2. The Minimum and Maximum Duration of Staff Training Mobility

The duration of STT is at least 2 consecutive workdays to 2 months excluding travel time.

In STT, if it is seen from the participation certificate that the beneficiary has carried out the activity for less than 2 days or lectured less than required, the activity is deemed invalid and the beneficiary cannot receive any grant payment.

4. Staff Selection Criteria Staff Mobility

The period of selection is a process that consists of announcement, submission of applications and evaluation.

4.1. Announcement Process

The announcements including information about the staff teaching / training mobility and application process can be reached via websites of high education institutions, various notice boards or e-mails sent to corporate e- mail addressees of target audience.  It must be made sure that the target audience can be reached if the announcement is made using another way.

The announcements are supposed to be kept on the internet page or notice boards at least 20 days for them to achieve their objectives and they are supposed to have the following information:

 - The number of quota for each department at the University for STA / STT Activities (the number of quota if it is planned to invite staff from an institution to lecture)

- Active agreements that the high education institution has in terms of teaching / training activities, numbers of quota as prescribed in agreements and information about which departments / units can apply for each quota

- Information about process of application for a staff training activity which doesn’t require an agreement

- Information about staff who can apply for an activity

- Minimum requirements to benefit from the activity

- Required documents for application

- Application deadline and venue (The staff are given at least 15 days to submit their applications)

- Evaluation criteria and their share in the total

- Information about the grant payment the selected staff

- Information about benefiting from the activity without any grant

4.2. Application Process

The application process within the scope of teaching / training mobility should be completed by the deadline set by the high education institution. For the same agreement period, the high education institution may make more than one announcement and set more than one deadline.

All applications should be recorded and kept in the office of high education institution.

4.3. Application Process

4.3.1. Minimum Requirements

Staff who will benefit from the activity must meet the following minimum requirements:

-Staff who want to perform staff mobility must be a part-time / full-time employee at a high education institution holding ECHE and must function there actively.

4.3.2. Evaluation Criteria

- The HEI is to ensure that the selection of the beneficiaries is made fairly, transparently and in an unbiased way, and is to present the documentation of the process when it is required.

- The HEI is responsible for setting the criteria of electing the beneficiaries equally so that the evaluation process is carried out impartially and consistently.

- The first time applicants are prioritized. (compulsory)

- Knowledge of foreign languages can be prioritized. (arbitrary)

- Administrative staff are prioritized for staff training activity.

(compulsory)

-The evaluation criteria which will be used in this period by the high education institution must registered and announced by the Rectorate or senate before the application period starts.

- The evaluation process must be carried out by a committee which is formally commissioned by the Rectorate. The evaluators must not have any personal connection or interest relationship with the applicants. Transparency and impartiality are a requirement of ECHE and a general rule of the programme. To ensure the transparency and impartiality, the decision report must have the following statement in original form or in another form with the same meaning.

‘There is no personal connection between the evaluating staff and the applicant which may influence the impartiality of the evaluators in the course of evaluation and final decision. The decision has been made in accordance with the rules of transparency and impartiality.’

During the elections, the rules which are set by the Centre must be taken into consideration. Apart from the above mentioned criteria about staff mobility; applications for staff movement activities at high education institutions are prioritized.

-The staff who have not previously benefitted from the staff mobility

- The departments or units which have not been included in the staff mobility before

- The countries which have not been in the programme or have been only few times

In cases where inconsistent practices during the evaluation processes are detected, the principles of impartiality and transparency are violated, the institution will be warned by the Centre. If the institution carries on its misapplications or wrong practices despite the Centre’s warnings, the respective institution will be reported to the EU Committee which will inspect the ECHE and the respective institution.

4.4. Announcement of Selection Results

The HEI must announce the selection results in accordance with the principles of transparency along with the scores from the areas that have been assessed and admit and reserve lists.

4.5. Objection to Selection Results

The HEI must determine and announce an official deadline for the staff to object to the selection results. In cases where there is a dissention between the staff and the HEI about misapplication of the principles of impartiality and transparency during the selection period.

5. Process after the Selections

A grant contract including the calculated maximum amount is signed by the selected staff. An attachment of the contract is the Staff Mobility Contract including the contract form and Staff Mobility Contract Form and it can be seen on the website below.

https://www.ua.gov.tr/anasayfa/icerikler/baglanti-ve-dokumanlar/2020-donemi-ka103-sozlesme-belgeleri/

The institution determines who will be authorized to sign the contract on behalf of the institution. The maximum amount of grant determined in the contract means the highest sum of money a beneficiary can receive. If the duration of the activity is shorter than prescribed, the amount of grant the beneficiary can receive is below the maximum grant. In cases where the activity lasts longer than prescribed, or the amount of grant is higher than in the contract, another an additional contract must be prepared.

For the rate of the payment to the staff, a range of 70% to 100% is to be determined. The HEI must determine, and announce the rate of the payment and the same rate must be used for all university staff.

In cases when a decision has been made that the beneficiary will be paid less than 100% of their grant:

1. Before the beneficiaries go to the partner institution, they are paid the prescribed part of the total sum of the grant calculated according to the duration of the activity and the travel costs calculated using the distance calculator.
2. The second instalment is paid at the end of the activity taking into consideration the duration of the realized activity in the participation certificate.

6. Grant Support

6.1. Basic Information

The grant given to the staff during Training Mobility is a contribution; it is not aimed to cover up all the expenses during the education period abroad.

The alternatives, presented to the HEI about the amount of the grant to be given to the staff, can be found in the standard agreement document which must be signed by both the University and the staff. The application of the codes about the amount of the grant must be announced to the target group and executed equally to the whole staff.

6.2. Daily Grant Amounts according to the Countries

The amount of the daily grant for each staff who will utilize the Staff Mobility is calculated according to the table below. The amounts are in Euro per day.

Groups of Countries	Host Countries in Mobility	Daily Amount of Grant (Euro)
Group Program Countries	Denmark, Ireland, Sweden, United Kingdom, Finland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Luxembourg	153
Group Program Countries	Belgium, Greece, France, Italy, Austria, Germany, South Cyprus, The Netherlands, Spain, Malta, Portugal	136
Group Program Countries	Latvia,Slovakia, Macedonia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Estonia, Croatia, Lithuania,  Hungary, Serbia, Turkey*	119

        *Used only for the staff who received an invitation from abroad for lecturing.

In the staff mobility events that last more than 14 days; 70% of the amounts above must be applied for the 15^th and the following days.

No grant payments are made for the days which do not involve any activity or when there are no documents proving that an activity has been done regarding the actual activity.

6.3. Calculation of Grant

6.3.1 Daily Grant Calculation

The duration and grant of the activities of the staff are calculated approximately before the activity starts. The exact duration and grant must be recalculated after the activity ends.

The activity duration of the staff is granted either partially or thoroughly, or the activity is executed in “zero grant”. In the case that the activity is partially granted, the duration of the activity for staff mobility cannot be less than 2 days.

6.3.2 Calculation of Travel Expenses

The amount of the travel expense for the staff who will utilize staff mobility must be calculated using “Distance Calculator”. The link for the calculator is below:

http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/tools/distance_en.htm

The kilometer value between the two points –from the one that the staff resides to the next place where the activity will be held- must be detected and the grant must be calculated according to the table below. The grant amount of the total kilometer listed below is the round trip amount, and cannot be multiplied by two. The staff travelling indirectly does not affect the distance calculation of the destination.

“Km” Value	The Grant Amount
Between 10-99 km	20 €
Between 100- 499 km	180
Between 500- 1999 km	275
Between 2000- 1999 km	360
Between 3000- 3999 km	530
Between 4000- 7999 km	820
Between 8000 and above	1500

As the travel grant is going to be paid on lump sum basis, the documents indicating the travel expenses to be kept in the file are not required. Besides, in order to detect the departure and arrival dates, some documentation such as flight/bus/train tickets must be kept provided that the HEI has decided to pay grant for the travelling days.

7. Rendering the Payment

Just after the staff hands in the copies of the recorded election lists and the signed staff agreement to the concerned unit (financial affairs, accounting etc.), a thorough consistency within the documents are checked and the concerned unit makes the payment.

When possible, the HEI renders the payment to the Beneficiary before the activity period terminates only if the grant paid by European Union Commission reaches out to the Center and the Center transfers this money to the Beneficiary Institution.

Grant payments are in EURO and free from tax deductions.

In the cases when no activity has been performed, no grant payment is rendered to the Beneficiary.

8. Deductions in the payment

 If the staff have not delivered the required document to the office before the deadline which is determined by the HEI then, 20% of the grant is not rendered. The staff must be pre-informed about the situation before the mobility.

9. Getting Grant for the Second Time

Regarding the national priorities that European Union Commission and the Center determine, for more staff to utilize the activities; each staff is supposed to utilize one teaching and one training mobility in each agreement period. However, in the cases where there are limited applications to utilize the mobility potential, the same staff may participate in the same staff mobility activity during the same agreement period more than once.

10. Staff with “Zero Grant”

The staff can participate in the activity without demanding grant. Even in this case, a proper application must be made and it must be evaluated together with other applications.

The only difference of “Zero grant staff” is that they do not get paid. The fact that a personnel does not ask for a grant does not necessarily mean that they will not be a part of the election process.

11. Travelling to the Country of Citizenship

It is possible for a personnel –who has the citizenship of a participating country- to go to that specific country via mobility action; however, that specific staff is given low priority.

12. The Use of Electronical Documents

The staff is asked to present the recently signed original documents, but in the cases where those documents cannot be obtained, the electronic formats such as photocopy, pdf and jpeg are admissible with the exception of agreements; and the signed original copies must be delivered.

13. Documentation for the Staff Mobility for Teaching

When necessary, the Center demands the documents listed below from the HEI:

• The agreement between the institutions
• Grant agreement signed between the staff and the Higher Education Institution
• Staff mobility agreement for teaching activity (approved by all parties)
• Certificate of participation
• Document that shows the grant has been rendered
• Documents showing the dates of travel (tickets, passports etc.)
• The conclusive report of the staff: The staff who utilizes Mobility for Teaching is also asked for filling out the online EU Survey

 14. Documentation for the Staff Mobility for Learning

The Center demands the documents listed below from the HEI when necessary:

• Grant agreement signed between the staff and the HEI
• Staff mobility agreement for learning activity (approved by both sides)
• Certificate of participation
• The conclusive report of the staff: The staff who utilizes Mobility for Learning is also asked to fill out the online EU Survey
• Document that shows the grant has been rendered
• Documents showing the dates of travel (tickets, passports etc.)