The Awards for International Cooperation Culture were Granted

The award granted in 2009 for the first time is not only an acknowledgement of the efforts of the given institution, but it also aims to point to the importance of raising awareness of mobility, international experiences and opportunities.

The conference organised on 28 April within the framework of the Year of Creativity and Innovation introduces calls for proposals offered by the Lifelong Learning program of the European Union for those who are interested. Those who were present were nor only informed about future opportunities, but they also got to know the projects that contributed to the development of creativity and innovation recently. The awards , acknowledging the work of the most high level Comenius, Leonardo and Erasmus projects were also granted at the conference organised with support from the European Commission and the Ministry of Education and Culture.

The award was funded with the aim of unifying the system of former quality awards. This is the first year that it was granted to acknowledge the quality work going on in the project, and also to create an opportunity for the winner institutions to present their results to a professional public, and share their experiences. In the year of founding the award, the three higher education institutions rewarded with the high-esteem acknowledgement were the Budapest College of Technology, the Pázmány Péter University and the Corvinus University of Budapest.

This is not the first time that the Budapest College of Technology has been granted an award in this field. The institution won the EQuality European Quality Award in 2006, and its representatives were handed the „Excellent Erasmus Coordinator" Prize in 2007. This time, the primary consideration in awarding the prize was the significant educational and research success achieved by the college as a result of the program, both in the field of student and instructor mobility. The self-organisation of incoming students at the institution was also considered to be exemplary.

At the award ceremony, the important role that mobility plays in the international strategy of the Corvinus University of Budapest was stressed. The institution's model international activity in building and maintaining parterships was also highlighted, linked to the remarkably high level of programs supporting the adaptation of foreign students. The university does not only find it important to support the work of students arriving to Hungary, but also puts great emphasis on helping Hungarian students studying at foreign universities, and this aspect also played a role in awarding the prize. The jury evaluated positively the institution's outstanding contribution to the international professional practice of Erasmus, and to the international exchange of experinece of the administrative staff participating in the coordination of Erasmus programs.

The leaders of the Pázmány Péter Catholic University intend the institution's activities to have a significant weight beyond the boundaries as well as within Hungary. The jury of the Award respected the highly active role that the university plays in both scientific life and the implementation of mobility projects. The outstanding role that the institution plays in the mobility of persons involved in international mobility, which has a significant impact on the quality of the institution's exchange programs, was also part of the justification for awarding the prize.