The positive development, which we are sincerely happy about, was foreshadowed in particular by the stabilization of the situation regarding the renewed possibilities to travel after a more than a two-year break, and thus also the growing interest in international mobility on the part of both students and academic staff. While the beginning of the academic year was still to some extent marked by anti-epidemic measures, in the second half of the year we already noticed an increased activity of the academic community, and as part of the development of the faculty's international relations, we managed to establish a number of new partnerships and significantly implement international cooperation projects. The interest of foreign partners in mobility was so significant that we even exceeded the "pre-covid" level in terms of the number of mobility and the implementation of internships.

Most of our international mobilities are covered by the Erasmus+ programme, which this year entered its new programme period (2021-2028), which brought a whole range of changes and innovations to the faculty's international relations, both in form (virtual or blended mobility) and in implementing mobilities (supporting ecological travel options, supporting students with specific needs, etc.). One of the pillars of the new Erasmus+ programme has become the digitization of administrative processes. In this context, we implemented a mobility system for complete and exclusively electronic registration of all types of student and academic mobility (mobility.slu.cz). We believe that simplifying these processes will speed up the preparation and administration of all mobilities and will support and motivate the prospective participants. 

The necessary revision of Erasmus+ inter-institutional agreements, in which the faculty´s institutes participated, supported not only existing long-term cooperation but also the establishment of new partnerships with a number of foreign universities.

• The Institute of Paramedical Health Studies concluded a new inter-institutional agreement with the University of Prešov and established cooperation with the University of Milano.
• The Institute of Special Education, which was established at the end of last academic year, commenced multilateral cooperation with the University of Physical Education in Krakow, University of Lleida, University of Valencia, Kaunas University of Applied Sciences, University of Evora and Comenius University in Bratislava.
• The Institute of Pedagogical and Psychological Sciences also began to cooperate with the Jan Dlugosz University in Czestochowa and recently also with the University of Granada.

In addition to the developing cooperation on the platform of mobility programmes, in all their levels, there is successful cooperation in the framework of international projects, scientific research, and publication activities. As examples of this multilateral cooperation, let's mention above all the ever stronger partnership with the University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava and with Jan Dlugosz University in Czestochowa.

As part of teacher mobility, we were extremely pleased by the fact that the faculty managed to effectively use funds from several development projects, which made it possible to implement both incoming and outgoing mobilities in formats other than those offered by the Erasmus+ programme, and thus contributed to the more progressive development of international relations of individual institutes and the faculty as a whole. Of the implemented projects, the project International Mobility Support at the Silesian University in Opava II has had a significant impact, as part of which three long-term internships of foreign experts were implemented and one of our academics performed a three-month internship in Poland:

- dr hab. Elbieta Napora, prof. UJD. from the Jan Dlugosz University in Czestochowa, who participated in the activities of the Institute of Pedagogical and Psychological Sciences

- dr Piotr Opioła from the University of Opole and Prof. UAM dr hab. Dobronieg Głębocka d. Trawkowska from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, both of whom worked at the Institute of Public Administration and Social Policy

- Mgr. Petr Slováček, Ph.D. from the Institute of Pedagogical and Psychological Sciences, who was accepted at the University of Opole.

As for other projects, we highlight, for example, the Development of R&D capacities of the Silesian University in Opava. Within this project, a total of 10 academic staff members and 4 non-academic staff members were able to complete a professional internship at universities in Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, Poland and Germany. We then accepted for a hosting a total of four workers from universities in Slovakia, Poland, Germany and Croatia.

In the winter semester, we were pleased to welcome doc. Mgr. Tatiana Dubayová, PhD. from the University of Prešov as a visiting professor at the Institute of Special Education.

We were very positively surprised by the number of implemented Erasmus+ pedagogical mobilities, especially in the category of arrivals, where we recorded a significant increase compared to previous years. A total of 29 foreign experts arrived to us from abroad during the entire academic year, 12 workers in the winter semester, and 17 workers in the summer semester, mainly from Polish and Slovak universities, but also from Hungary or Turkey. The outgoing mobility of our employees was carried out in a total number of 13 mobilities, 5 employees carried out training, and 7 pedagogues went on a teaching stay.

On the long-term basis, the faculty has also been involved in the implementation of projects of two networks of the CEEPUS programme, under which we also supported one virtual and one physical mobilities of academics, namely to Poland and Hungary.

We are very happy about our six students who studied within Erasmus+ at the universities in Ljubljana in Slovenia, Riga in Latvia, and Valencia in Spain during the winter semester. In the summer semester, the students again chose Valencia as their destination in two cases, and Coburg in Germany was selected by one student. In the category of incoming students, we accepted at the faculty one student from Trieste and two students from Madrid.

We very positively acknowledge the interest of the students of professional study programs in completing a professional practical traineeship or a short-term professional practice abroad. In the very first months of the academic year, four students of the Public Administration and Social Work program completed a two-week traineeship at the authorities in Daruvar, Croatia. Subsequently, a total of eight students of pedagogical fields implemented a similar practice in the same destination at the J.A. Komenský Czech School in Daruvar, the Ferda Mravenec Czech Kindergarten in Daruvar and the Josef Růžička Czech Primary School in Končenice. At the very end of the academic year, one student travelled to Portugal for a two-month Erasmus+ traineeship.

The trend of increasing student interest in international mobilities was also reflected in the selection process for Erasmus+ student mobility for the following academic year 2022/2023, in which we recorded applications of students across all study programs of the faculty and for the first time also applications of students of part-time study.

For the next academic year, we wish all academics and students of our faculty lot of professional, interesting and beneficial experience with international partners!