Abstract:

The professional development of university professors and researchers has been affected by the lack of mobility. Universities need to promote and (re)think academic mobility as an indispensable means of internationalisation. The objective of this study was to analyse the thoughts and beliefs of thirty-four novice university professors regarding the conditioning factors of researcher and teacher mobility in the current pandemic context. To this end, a qualitative interview was designed, and the collected data was analysed using the AQUAD software. The results showed that virtuality has allowed to maintain networks of contacts with other international institutions. The virtual stays, however, were not considered to present the same quality as the face-to-face modality. The reason was that the resources and materials available in a physical context are different. This was a cause for concern, as new university teachers felt the need to perform academic stays in order to meet administrative demands or to compete on equal terms with colleagues who have undertaken in-person stays in their professional career. To conclude, it is worth highlighting on the one hand, that the quality and availability of resources for virtual exchanges—research, teaching and professional relations—are not equitable, and on the other, that teaching and research staff training deficiencies exist regarding these issues.

Keywords:

COVID, Academic Mobility, Teacher Professional Development, Virtual Mobility.