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Since the launch of the Bologna Process, UNIME has paid particular attention to integrate and mainstream internationalisation policies within a wider institutional modernization policy, considering relevant guidelines at national and European level. This strategy led to an increase in incoming and outgoing mobile students, academic and administrative staff. A strong investment in terms of policy, human resources and skills was made over the last years on innovation of the academic offer, standardization, and transparency of procedures, both in terms of participation to European funded programmes and their implementation. The UNIME internationalisation strategy for the next years is aimed at further improve its performance across teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook and better position the University on international rankings. The position held in international rankings plays an important role in the internationalization process. It is increasingly used by researchers and students as an indicator of the reputation and quality of a university, as well as a tool to guide choices in the increasingly competitive academic and research sectors. The rankings are also used for project financing decisions, thus a good position guarantees greater chances of being chosen as partner of the best universities, while also benefitting in terms of economic resources. UNIME employs human and economic resources to collect data and monitor its performance in these rankings, to create opportunities and improve its position.

The participation in the Erasmus programme is traditionally one of the main pillars of the UNIME strategy for modernisation and internationalisation. UNIME will continue pursuing and supporting the participation in the programme coherently with its participation policy of the last seven years.

To achieve its long-term goals, UNIME will be engaged to promote cooperation with universities from all over the world by intense networking, participate in European calls for proposals for the internationalization of research and teaching as well as participate in mobility consortia. Promotion of students and staff mobility as well as the participation in European and international cooperation projects are considered of paramount importance to foster the quality of academic offer and to help individuals to increase their professional, social, and intercultural skills and employability.

The development of cooperation initiatives will take place in the framework of UNIME partnerships network and in line with the goal of building up a European Education Area by 2025. Cooperation between partner Universities will be a catalyst for innovative ways to support learners in their personal, educational, and professional development. It brings concrete positive effects for individuals by increasing their skills and competences, including languages, empowering people with more key competences, recognising competences acquired through volunteering and non-formal learning, increasing higher education attainment, and implementing the Bologna reform.

UNIME network of agreements will further evolve with the adoption of new far-reaching initiatives such the possibility of developing double or joint degrees as well as the promotion of exchanges of PhD students and academic and administrative staff. The increase of incoming and outgoing mobilities of students and staff remains a priority of UNIME internationalisation strategy. International mobilities are crucial to build up an inclusive knowledge-based society where cultural differences are an incentive rather than an obstacle to international cooperation. Specific mobility windows will be promoted in each Degree programme to make international mobility for study or traineeship the norm for students. International mobility is also considered to be a training opportunity that enables students to acquire important skills in addition to their chosen field of study (independent judgment, communication skills, independent learning). UNIME is convinced that international mobility provides individuals with the right set of knowledge, skills, and competences, including languages, from a lifelong learning perspective. This will help to make people more resilient and employable as well as foster social cohesion at the local level as well as in the Europe. This will also help to strengthen the sense of European identity (understanding what the European Union is, how it works and what added value it has for its citizens) and the participation of young people in democratic processes. The effort to promote international mobility of UNIME students and staff will be coupled with the commitment to renew and internationalise the academic offer. New degree courses taught in English (of first, second and third cycle level) will be implemented to boost internationalization at home policies with a focus on inclusive international didactic at all degree cycles. This will increase the number of international students enrolled at UNIME. Attracting students and researchers from across the world will help to create a multicultural environment, favour human and institutional development and enhance mutual understanding among cultures. UNIME will continue to develop double degree courses scaling up the cooperation with most reliable partner Institutions within the framework of the Erasmus programme. Structured mobility schemes will help to ease the recognition of Higher education qualifications across the EU. Full recognition of study periods abroad will continue to be ensured as well as recognition of experiences abroad both in terms of university curriculum and professional development. These efforts will go hand in hand with the simplification and decentralisation of the programme management procedures. In particular, the participation in the Erasmus programme will also contribute to implement UNIME modernisation strategy aimed at making better use of digital technology for teaching and learning activities and developing student’s digital competences and skills needed for living and working in an age of digital transformation. Digitalization of Erasmus procedures has started and will be strongly prosecuted over the next seven years, representing a flagship action of our university also in terms of environmental awareness and sustainability, not to mention accessibility for final beneficiaries. In particular, the implementation of the European Student Card Initiative is a key element of the University internationalisation strategy towards the creation of the EEA by 2025. In line with the process of administrative dematerialization, the complete adhesion to the Erasmus Without Papers Initiative will lead to the digitalisation and the streamline of the overall administrative process of student mobility management with benefits for the University performance and better services for mobile students. Furthermore, the implementation of on-line platforms for distance learning, recently boosted to contain the spread of COVID-19 virus, is expected to encourage future blended mobility schemes (as a combination of a short- term physical mobility with a virtual component). This, in turn, will have further positive effects on the implementation of Programme in terms of inclusion and wider accessibility of participants from all backgrounds.

UniMe aims at solving big societal challenges by engaging more transnational cooperation, to create EU degrees, offering students the chance to study in different EU countries.

UniMe has a strong international component with agreements with universities from all over the world. Exchange programmes, double-degree and joint degree programmes are all part of the international opportunities available to students.

The mission of the University of Messina is to promote education and scientific research in all areas of knowledge and to offer lifelong learning to students, companies, and institutions as a basis for society development. Located at the heart of the Mediterranean, UniME has a growing visibility, competitiveness and a strategic focus on innovation and internationalisation.

The efforts of the UniMe governance are concentrated in the adaptation of skills needs due to the global market, to remain competitive on a worldwide scene.

Unime is among the top 15 Universities in Italy (11th) for the sustainability of Degree Courses and for the competitiveness of research (14th place), namely the ability to attract resources on the various projects. In the Italian university quality rankings, Unime ranks second among large Southern Italy universities.

In addition to the traditional missions of Teaching and Research, it consists in the enhancement of research and training to generate a positive impact on society by contributing to the development of the territory through its heritage, proposing new technologies, new knowledge, attracting new talents, stimulating greater cultural vitality. The commitment is aimed at returning a different public model of knowledge, overcoming the idea of a closed academic eco-system. The University is made up 12 departments (Ancient and Modern Civilizations, Economics, Law, Engineering, Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Huma and Paediatric Pathology, Biomedical and Dental Sciences and Morphological and Functional Imaging, Chemical, Biological, Pharmaceutical and Environmental Sciences, Cognitive Science, Psychology, Educational and Cultural Studies, Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics and Earth Science, Political and Juridical Sciences, Veterinary Sciences); 4 Campus allocated in the downtown but also in Peripheral area of the City.  The University of Messina received more than 50 visiting scholars every year, more than 500 students on mobility every year, more than 500 international Freshmen every year; signed more than 550 cooperation agreements with international universities.

The University of Messina offers a growing number of undergraduate and graduate degree courses taught in English in the most requested professional fields for the global market: Business management, STEM, Political Sciences and International Relations, Educational Studies, Life Sciences & Medicine related Studies, Legal Studies. All degree programmes are taught by highly qualified professors with extensive international experience.

The student is at the centre of Unime, thank to different program such as Students Ambassador program which aims to interact in a peer-to-peer way with international students, Student accommodation, Meal Card, Transport, Sports facilities, Disability Services for students. Students, academics, administrative staff, and researchers from disadvantaged backgrounds are the centre of UnimE program.

Additionally, UniMe promote social equality through the ERSU Scholarship and Working as a Student. The first program aims for enrolled students are awarded based on the personal/family income of the applicant. The Regional Agency for the Right to Higher Education publishes a yearly call for applications for scholarship, free accommodation, scholarship for international mobility and awards for high achievement. The second program give the opportunity for students to work part time at the University. All University premises are equipped with free wi-fi connection, UniMe has a well-stocked library with the best scientific and academic publications. The on-line integrated library database and updated information on academic and research activities and services are freely available at the University website.

One of the major objectives of UniMe is to promote international student exchange programmes at the European and international levels. Thanks to the Welcome Office and the Erasmus Student Network provide international students with information that will help in their smooth reception and integration at UniMe.

For the upcoming seven years UNIME, also thanks to the previous internationalization policy that has built solid basis for the upcoming future, will confirm its engagement to contribute to the development of the European Area of Education enlarging the basin of the academic community experiencing a mobility period within their own career, working on recognition of qualifications, promoting multi-linguist and the development of digital skills. UNIME will continuously work to remove socio-economic barriers for the access to high quality education and will contribute to develop in the academic community social awareness and European identity. This commitment will be in line with the UNIME ambition of being a driving force to economic and social advancement of the territory. Participation in the Erasmus programme is an enriching experience at all levels. The unquestionable positive impact of mobility for the whole academic community at European and international level is a driver of economic development and social inclusion and encompasses employability skills development, motivation for further study, intercultural openness, tolerance, and engagement with social and political issues. The increase in quality and quantity of mobility opportunities for UNIME students and staff has been one of the main policy issues over the last years. This has been pursued with a significant success within the E+ KA103 and 107 programmes but also working on overseas programmes promoted and financed by UNIME. For the next future, UNIME will work to make mobility the norm within the academic pathway of our students as well as in the professional development of our staff.

Multilinguism, acquisition of key competences, social awareness and inclusion, digital skills and active citizenship will be the flagship of the programme development for the years to come. Removing the economic and cultural barriers to mobility will be a key issue to contribute to the objective to send abroad 20% of all higher education students.

An envisaged increase of 30% in the number of Inter Institutional Agreements (IIA) with a parallel effort to develop double degrees programmes and a continuous monitoring on the quality of the IIAs will ensure the maximization of the impact of programme activities on mobility opportunities for students and staff boosting the internationalization of education process and strengthening our cooperation network. Full implementation of ECTS as a common tool to guarantee the quality of mobility along with the enforcement of the common roadmap to digitalization set by the Erasmus Without Paper Initiative will vastly impact on transparency of recognition procedures, accessibility of mobility opportunities, modernization of internal procedures. The implementation of the European Student Card Initiative will have a cross-cutting impact on the UNIME strategy allowing a greater use of information, communication and technology tools, on-line services, blended mobility, reduction of administrative paperwork. These efforts are expected to produce an increase of a 40% of exchange students by 2027. International mobility will contribute to develop a strong sense of European identity, social awareness, and active citizenship. International Cooperation will act as a catalyst for innovation at all levels thanks to the exchange of good practices, peer learning, increased skills, and competences, including languages, use of innovative teaching methods, spreading knowledge and innovation between participants. To maximize the achievement from the participation to cooperation programmes, UNIME has centralized the monitoring and administrative support for submission, implementation and monitoring of financed projects setting a dedicated professionalized unit. Through a more focused and successful participation in KA2, in fact, UNIME will strengthen a multidisciplinary approach to higher education as part of its institutional strategy. This will support social and digital innovation, improvement of digital skills of the academic community, experimenting effective measures to overcome social and economic barriers preventing students and staff from benefiting of the international dimension of education. European Universities Initiative finally will be a powerful driver of change and modernization thanks to the sharing of good practices, organizational models, innovative academic offer and new services and standards for students and staff. At local level, in a region that suffers slow economic growth and low level of industrial investment, such as Sicily, high quality education is vital to get more people into decent jobs, promote social awareness and contribute to building up a European identity, disseminating project results but most of all Erasmus programme values. The positive impact will be measured and monitored taking into account measurable indicators (increasing number of mobilities, number of ECTS gained abroad, number of IIAs, number of applications and success rate in the participation to Erasmus calls for proposals, internal monitoring of European and international mobility and cooperation activities to date) but most of all qualitative through participants reports, interviews, internal focus groups, dedicated administrative Units with different skills for each key action in order to maximize the learning by doing, capitalize information, set a resilient approach to critical issues.