Authors: Mgr. Kateřina Janků, Ph.D. & Mgr. Jana Bortlíková

The past academic year was a challenge for us and perhaps a certain turning point in the sense that during this period, on the one hand, the faculty completed the implementation of several important long-term projects, but at the same time we established a number of new partnerships on completely new platforms and, above all, became more significantly involved in cooperation within the alliance of European universities STARS EU and started closer cooperation with its members. As part of this multilaterally developing partnership, we would like to highlight in particular the initiative of the Institute of Paramedical Health Studies, whose departmental coordinator, dr. Skalná, actively participates in one of the thematic interest groups of the alliance and was involved in the submission of the Erasmus+ strategic partnership project together with the University of West and Polytechnic in Bragança, which was supported by the European Union and will be implemented in the following period 2023-2025. In cooperation with the Swedish partner and Hanze University of Applied Sciences, they also started the preparation of the Blended Intensive Programme Erasmus+. Cooperation within STARS EU was also supported by the meeting of representatives on the occasion of the International week organized by SBA SU in April, and we hope it will be deepened by the visit of Mrs. Rima Dijkstra, the project leader, to SU at the end of the academic year. In the future, the development of cooperation with partners within the framework of STARS EU will be our main priority, and we see it as key to the possibilities of internationalization and the innovative format of the faculty's international cooperation.

Throughout the period, we registered new partnerships and new Erasmus+ inter-institutional agreements, of which a total of ten were concluded, across all the institutes:

• The Institute of Paramedical Health Studies established cooperation with the already mentioned members of STARS EU in Sweden, Portugal and the Netherlands and concluded new Erasmus+ agreements with the State University of Applied Sciences in Wloclawek and the University of Milano.

• The Institute of Pedagogical and Psychological Sciences concluded an inter-institutional agreement with Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences and the University of Prešov and started negotiations on cooperation with The Academy of Zamość. Employees and students of the institute successfully developed multilateral cooperation with Jan Dlugosz University in Czestochowa.

• The Institute of Special Education was by far the most active in establishing contacts, concluding five new inter-institutional agreements with University of Physical Education in Krakow, University of Lleida, Comenius University in Bratislava, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences and University of Roma Tre. Moreover, the cooperation with most of these institutions is also multilateral, they are our partners in projects and in joint publishing activities, or we implement teacher exchanges and other forms of cooperation with them.

• The Institute of Public Administration and Social Policy expanded cooperation with the University of Prešov by a new field and concluded an inter-institutional agreement with Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek.

At the end of 2022, the implementation of the five-year ESF project "Development of Education at SU" was completed, in which, as in its key activity of internationalization, we gradually held several international conferences, the last of which took place in November 2022. In addition, several informational and motivational workshops on foreign mobilities were held and we supported a number of students' internships abroad. With the end of the summer semester, we also concluded the implementation of the project "Development of R&D capacities of the Silesian University in Opava" (2020-2023), within the framework of which, almost two dozens of internships of our employees took place abroad, and at the same time we accepted a number of foreign experts as guests. In this academic year, let's remember the hosting of prof. PaedDr. Alena Kačmárová, PhD., vice-dean for development and foreign relations of the Faculty of Arts of the University of Prešov or the internship of the dean and secretary of the FPP at the University of Roma Tre. The most significant mobility, however, was the visit of three faculty' s staff members and the SU rector to the Catholic University of America, which brought a number of other opportunities for the development of cooperation and mobilities. We then followed up this visit with our representation at the summer school organized by the Rome branch of this American university.

Thanks to funds from the Strategic Management Support Program, two associate professors from the Comenius University in Bratislava were accepted for the long-term internship at the Institute of Special Education in the winter and summer semesters. In addition to it, three short-term mobilities of foreign experts from Poland and Slovakia were also financed from the same source in the winter semester. In the summer semester, we implemented activities aimed at removing mobility barriers, when two common visits of students and teachers took place to Slovakia and Poland with the aim of getting to know the mobility destination. At the end of the semester, five mobilities of faculty staff were implemented to the institutions in Slovakia, Italy and Belgium.

Among the main goals of international cooperation has traditionally been the support of student participation in international mobility programmes, where we use the Erasmus+ programme to the greatest extent. A total of five students took advantage of the opportunity to travel for a semester-long study stay to universities in Spain, Croatia and Slovakia in the winter semester, in most cases they were students from the Institute of Paramedical Health Studies, in one case it was for the first time student of the combined form of study from the Institute of Public Administration and Social Policy. We are very pleased with the continued growing interest of our students in practical traineeships, of which a total of six have been completed. Two thirds of these participants were students of the special pedagogy study program who completed their traineeship in schools in Croatia and in one case in Slovakia. In the summer, two students of the follow-up master's program in Public Administration and Social Policy also completed a professional practical traineeship at the local authority in Bratislava.

Excellent results were achieved especially in the category of incoming students, when the faculty recorded the highest number of accepted international students in its history since its establishment in 2008, when we hosted a total of twelve students at the faculty during the year. The largest number of students came from Slovakia (University of Prešov, University of St. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava), a total of three students came from Spanish universities in Madrid or Valencia, two students each came from Turkey (Cankiri Karatekin University) and Italy (University of Roma Tre), one student came from the University of Opole.

The favourable development of our students' interest in international mobility was reflected in the selection process for Erasmus+ student mobility for the following academic year 2023/2024, when we noticed a record number of applications and expect a total of 15 students to go for a study stay and 10 students for a traineeship. We also register similar numbers from foreign students, currently there are 10 applications.

In the category of other mobilities, a doctoral student originally from Georgia completed her two-month research stay at FPP as part of the scholarship program "Scholarships of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports to support the study of foreigners at public universities in the Czech Republic".

We were pleased to record results comparable to the previous year for pedagogical mobilities. In a total of 15 journeys, our pedagogues went in six cases for a teaching assignment, in other cases for training, mostly to institutions in Slovakia, then to Croatia, unusually third in the order, together with Slovenia, was Poland, and a newly also Sweden. A total of five workers came to us from abroad in the winter semester, and in the summer semester there were 17 workers from partner universities in Poland, Slovakia and in one case in Turkey.

We positively acknowledge the faculty's more active involvement in the CEEPUS programme, which has expanded the possibility of foreign mobilities for teachers and students. The faculty's partnership in the "Regional Development Network (REDENE)" project continued, and new network "Border and Regional Studies Network" was joined. Within this network, two academics completed short-term mobility at universities in Poland, and one teacher completed a one-month internship at the University of St. Cyril and Methodius in Trnava, from where a total of two academics and two students came to the FPP. In the summer semester, two our students went to Slovakia and one to Poland for a month's stay, and we achieved the same results reciprocally.

For the next academic year, we wish lots of professional, interesting and beneficial experiences with foreign partners to all academics and students of our faculty!