The European Commission has granted the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Canarias the renewal of its new Erasmus charter for the period 2021-2027 (Erasmus Charter for Higher Education 2021-2027), a document considered not only a prerequisite to participate in the programme but also beards a responsibility of the CSMC to respect the new principles of the Erasmus+ programme.
The positive evaluation of the application for the Erasmus Charter for Higher Education 2021-2027 is a resounding recognition of the CSMC's commitment to internationalization and confirms that the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Canarias has internal capacities, mechanisms, structures and processes that contribute to achieving the goals of the Erasmus + programme. The Erasmus Charter establishes the CSMC's institutional policy and strategy, as well as a general quality framework, for its participation in all the actions and projects of the Erasmus + program, which are managed by the Office of International Relations.
The CSMC received the first Erasmus Charter for Higher Education in 2014, and it referred to the period until 2020. In the new period that begins, the Erasmus + program introduces some novelties, such as a greater emphasis on the support of participants from all socio-economic contexts, the digitization and automation of all processes, the implementation of environmental protection initiatives and, finally, the promotion of social commitment and active citizenship of the participants before, during and after their mobility.
The Music Conservatory of the Canary Islands (CSMC) is located in an insular outermost territory. Therefore, it is important and fundamental to have the development opportunities provided by the Erasmus+ programme. Participation requires, from the educational community, constant updating and modernisation in order to respond to the principles of the programme. This represents the challenge of maintaining the quality standards that the students and teachers (incoming and outgoing) need.
The main achievement for the period 2021-2027 is to continue the previously developed programme (student and teacher mobility). Our objectives are as follows:
• Maintain and improve the motivation of our students who, without the help of the programme, would not be able to travel to the centres with which we have agreements.
• Ensure mobility for studies and practices that provide a competitive advantage in the labour market thanks to the increase of their professional qualification and their linguistic and multicultural competences in an international environment.
• Continue the link with the Europe project, giving visibility to the fact that a united Europe benefits from academic recognition and the exchange of experiences.
• Ensure the continuous updating of our contents and the development of competencies, measuring and comparing our standards with the rest of the centres that share their experience with us.
• Sustain the excellence of the teaching staff, ensuring the enrichment of their methodology and their teaching skills through the programme, which provides motivation to present their ideas and project their field of research in settings that, thanks to the programme, are at their fingertips.
• Exchange experiences with other European institutions, so that teachers are agents of educational change in processes, purposes and methods and that students strengthen their learning and can face a reality where what is different becomes ever closer, and respect for and empathic understanding with the other become necessary conditions for a peaceful and enriching coexistence.
The Erasmus+ programme is adapted to the internationalisation and institutional modernisation strategy. It provides opportunities to improve the quality of learning, teaching, research, transfer and innovation activities. The “internationalisation” goes beyond the mere mobility of students and the signing of international agreements. It aims to consolidate an internationally attractive centre that promotes the mobility of arrival and departure of the best students, teachers and researchers, and administration and services staff; the quality of education; the potential of Spanish; and the internationalisation of training programmes and R+D+i activities; while contributing to the
improvement of international attractiveness and competitiveness, as well as the socio-economic development of our immediate environment based on knowledge. Four strategic axes have been designed for this:
1. Consolidate an educational centre of excellence: the internationalisation of training programmes; the mobility of all academic groups (focused on the mobility of practices and the employability of students); promoting crossborder teaching research; multilingual “internationalisation at home” (using teaching resources in different languages) and multiculturalism (standing out for the palette of nationalities of the teaching staff); and the recognition of degrees and periods of study.
2. Increase the international appeal of the centre: reinforce support services for the arrival, stay and departure of students and visitors through the reception programme; conduct adaptation courses/workshops for foreign students, and tutor students in English or other languages (using the multicultural strength of the teaching staff: German, English, French, Bulgarian, Italian, Romanian, Russian, etc); participate in networks, collaborative projects and international programmes; and promote the centre abroad.
3. Promote the international competitiveness of the environment by: integrating the social and productive fabric of the immediate environment and turning the Centre into a dynamic element of their progress; generating and transferring knowledge to society through the development of talks and international forums/conferences (such as the VII National Congress and V International Congress of Music Higher Education held last November and a Conference on European opportunities to study and work offered by the Institute of Youth in our Centre); renewal of the regional commitment to both participate in and promote the creation of knowledge ecosystems in
interaction with companies (internship programs with a commitment to employability), agents, administrations (collaboration agreements with the Autonomous Government, Councils and Municipalities) and organisations (student participation in the main music festivals in the region; displacement to the non-capital islands (follow the music concerts); and in educational concerts open to the students of the region, concerts in residences and health centres and populations in situations of exclusion (penitentiary centres).
4. Intensify cooperation in Higher Education both locally and with other regions such as the European Union and the European Higher Education Area (through the Erasmus+ programme), with the Ibero-American Knowledge Area (facilitating the incorporation to the Ibero-American student centre), and with the project “African Macaronesian enclave” (as the only Higher Music Education Institution in the Azores, Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Madeira and Wild Islands context), and as an intercontinental strategic centre (Europe-Africa-America).
