Abstract:

The way towards active citizenship, professional growth and intercultural skills of students driven by the European Union within the Erasmus+ programme together with the official state educational policy in the Czech Republic have resulted in a situation that higher education institutions (HEIs) must reflect upon to keep up with the latest development in international relations. Therefore, internationalization of degree programmes and curricula at the Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, Czech Republic, represents the core of this article. In general, the article will deal with policies and reasons for their implementation that the Faculty of Science has adopted with respect to internationalization. In particular, individual sections of this article will focus on outgoing students and changes necessary to be done with respect to the internationalization of their studies (mobility, courses in a foreign language, etc.) as well as the impact on the financial side of such internationalization from the faculty point of view. Last but not least, we will also tackle a topic of university alliances, which is closely related to internationalization of university studies at the Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, since the university is part of a relatively newly created and financially supported alliance entitled NEOLAiA. The final part will be devoted to a questionnaire survey carried out among students of the Faculty of Science who participated in at least a 5-month Erasmus+ study mobility in the academic year 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 aiming at getting feedback from students about the way their study mobility impacts on their studies as well as professional/personal growth.

Keywords:

HEIs, internationalization, degree programmes, Erasmus+.