Research on interinstitutional partnerships and data gathering
Each Higher Education Institution that cooperates with other international institutions needs to have some practice in place for the management of these international relations. The huge diversity of HEIs across Europe in terms of size, organisational structure, type and aim of institution (being a research university or a school of applied sciences), funding (public, private or a combination), etc…. entails a wide variety of partnerships and practices. In this output we will investigate the existing practices using a comparative analysis methodology in order to take into account the diversity of the Higher Education landscape. It will also take into account the current practices of institutions when it comes to the usage and application of data.

The research is available at the downloads section: http://www.equatic.eu/downloads

Guidelines on data gaterhing and interinstitutional partnerships
Many Higher Education Institutions (HEI) strive for data-based and/or data-informed internationalisation policy, however in the daily practice within institutions there is huge room for improvement in the manner that data is gathered and the way data cleaning is dealt with in order to reuse it for the sake of policy.  Creating awareness about data capability in the whole structure of HEI is crucial for adaptation of better practices.

The outcome of the research will also be reflected in a dedicated chapter on guidelines for interinstitutional partnerships .

Peer-assessment toolbox
One of the most important goals of the project is the use of eQuATIC as a peer assessment tool. When two institutions generate reports about each other based on mutual data input, they can easily address the strengths and weaknesses in bilateral cooperation. The methodology of quality assurance (QA) where institutions evaluate each other through the structural (online) exchange of data, i.e. online peer assessment will help policy makers at institutions to improve the quality in their cooperation and of their own institution. Using data this way is an innovative practice and may lead to a more general practice in QA when it comes to international cooperation. The development of the methodology for online peer assessment offers an alternative to the existing quality assessment methods (peer review site visits, self-evaluation reports) which can be more time consuming and expensive in the case of site visits and less comprehensive in case of only using self-evaluation reports.

The peer-assessment toolbox is available at http://cc.erasmuswithoutpaper.eu

Self-assessment functionality
The self-assessment functionality intends to allow for an analysis of one’s own performance as a partner based on data uploads from all partner institutions using eQuATIC. The analysis will be made possible at country level or at a generic level.

Training scheme
The training scheme is meant to allow the training of practitioners in Higher Education Institutions. The goal of the training is amongst others to create awareness about data capability on a generic level and how to apply eQuATIC from a quality assurance perspective.