"E-Quality 2011" ERASMUS Quality Award

It is the second time that Leuphana University of Lüneburg received the “E-Quality” ERASMUS Quality Label at the German annual ERASMUS conference held in Bonn on 30 June 2011.

The ERASMUS Quality Label is awarded once a year by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) for special accomplishment in the ERASMUS exchange of German and foreign students and teaching staff.

The Quality Label is particularly designed

• to emphasize the programme’s contribution to lifelong learning
• to highlight the quality of decentralized measures
• to provide incentives for project management organizations, mobility project coordinators and decision makers to ensure that quality continues to be a top priority
• to acknowledge the work performed by the project management organizations and to make their services accessible to a wider range of people
• to provide improved access to the programme
• to integrate decision makers into the promotion of the Lifelong Learning Programme both at the national and international level

The International Office of Leuphana submitted the comprehensive application for the Quality Label at the beginning of this year. Sabine Busse, Head of the International Office, received the award from the hands of Dr. Dorothea Rüland, DAAD Secretary General. Before the Awards Ceremony, an independent team of experts had reviewed the applications in terms of various quality features and had chosen the laureates.

Apart from Leuphana University, 13 other universities were awarded for their accomplishments, including the Humboldt University of Berlin and the European University of Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder.

For more than 20 years, ERASMUS, an EU programme designed to promote exchange and collaboration among European universities, has been a great story of success for the European Union since the academic year of 2007-2008 It has been part of the new EU Lifelong Learning Programme (2007-2013) and is given a budget that has markedly increased. ERASMUS still is the strongest driving force in encouraging German students to study abroad and German teaching staff to lecture at a European university for a limited period of time. The new ERASMUS programme also promotes student internships abroad, university staff mobility, and intensive programmes (e.g. Summer University).

You will find more detailed information on the ERASMUS Quality Label on the DAAD website at www.daad.de.