Tutorial

The Inter-Institutional Agreement Manager system for Higher Education Institutions

This tutorial aims to explain the usage of Inter-Institutional Agreement Manager (IIAM) that allows creating, negotiating and updating Inter-Institutional
Agreements in a machine-readable form. A video version of this tutorial will follow shortly.

Abbreviations

IIA - Inter-Institutional Agreement

IIAM - Inter-Institutional Agreement Manager
HEI – Higher Education Institution

1. Inter-Institutional Agreement Manager in short

The IIAM has been developed with the financial support of the European Commission and corresponds to the official templates and processes as per Inter-
institutional Agreement documentation requirements and official data standards of the European Student Card Initiative for the programme period of 2021-
2027. More information is available here.

Functionalities

The IIAM allows for digitising Inter-institutional Agreements as the key part of the mobility documentation and offers the following features:

Indicate and upload all the key elements in the IIAs.

Stipulate the cooperation conditions per Higher Education Institution or smaller organisational units.
Communicate with the partner on the necessary updates in the IIA before signing.
Use the multiuser system to grant different levels of access to the staff involved in IIA administration.
Sign the IIA online and have a clear overview of the status of all the IIAs.
Specify and update the general profile information about the Higher Education Institution stable for all the IIAs (previously known as Factsheets)
that will allow this useful information for incoming students be put at their fingertips via the Erasmus+ App.

Upcoming Functionalities

In the upcoming months, more features will be added to the tool in line with the feedback gathered during the testing phase. However, the following
features are already foreseen:

More advanced ways of determining the distinction between the signee and other staff members who interact with the Inter-institutional
Agreement.
An open comment field to indicate additional aspects that are key to the Inter-institutional Agreement between the partners.
The possibility to upload lists of Inter-institutional Agreements, via Excel or CSV files.
Additional features to determine a more user-friendly interaction with the tool - allowing to save and pre-fill certain values automatically, filter,
search and sort as well as remove the Inter-institutional Agreements, etc.
Full connection to the EWP Network.

2. Inter-Institutional Agreement Manager - First Steps

Registration

The IIAM is accessible in the Erasmus Dashboard, which is an administration panel for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) for managing Inter-Institutional
Agreements (IIAs) as well as Learning Agreements (LAs) online.

It offers a simple-to-use yet sophisticated platform to ease the mobility administration for HEIs. Furthermore, as the Erasmus Dashboard and the Inter-
Institutional Agreement are being developed with EU funding, their usage is and will always be free of charge for all HEIs interested in using them.

One main account needs to be created per university/higher education institution (HEI). This account will be manually validated by the EUF (important: don’
t forget to use your institutional email address – requests indicating private addresses will not be considered). After the validation of the main institutional
account, the HEI can create as many individual accounts for their internal use as necessary, according to their specific management structures.

The holder of the main institutional account needs to register here: https://www.erasmus-dashboard.eu/institution/registration indicating the contact details
and selecting the HEI from the list of Erasmus Charter for Higher Education holders.
Inter-Institutional Manager in the Menu

The functionalities relevant for the management of Inter-Institutional Agreements are located in the section under the name “IIA manager” allowing for the
creation of the Agreements, as well as editing and negotiation of the cooperation conditions that the partners have put forward. It also allows for stipulating
the general info about the HEI.

Relevant functionalities are also residing under “Accounts and Access” where permissions for staff members interacting with the Inter-Institutional
Agreements can be set and edited as well as under “Organisational Units” where HEIs can re-create the internal structure of Faculties/Departments
/Schools to be able to negotiate the Inter-Institutional Agreements per Organisational units.

To sum up, the following features are available via the different menu sections:

Accounts and Access: invite/remove colleagues and determine sets of permissions when interacting with Inter-Institutional Agreements.
Organisational Units: add/remove lists of Faculties/Departments/Schools, as per the structure of organisational units at your HEI.
IIA List: View and manage all Inter-Institutional Agreements. See all the details in the IIAs signed by all parties, review the cooperation conditions
in the draft IIAs and communicate the needed changes to the partner as well as sign when the negotiation process is finalised.
New Digital IIA: create a new IIA stipulating all the cooperation conditions as per the official template for the Erasmus Programme and according
to the data standard of the European Student Card Initiative.
Default IIA Data: stipulate the general information about the HEI (previously know as the Factsheet section) that can be updated at any time
without re-signing the IIA to make sure the partner and the student can always have the most up-to-date information at their fingertips.
FAQs: read the basic information about the Inter-Institutional Agreement Manager.
Access and Accounts

The Erasmus Dashboard is designed to respect and be adaptable to a wide diversity of internal institutional workflows. In many instances several people
are involved in the administration of mobility processes, therefore the platform supports a multiuser system that allows different levels of access, to
conveniently use the Erasmus Dashboard.

To match the specific working patterns in each institution, different levels of access to the Dashboard can be determined and associated to the roles — e.
g. a specific role may exist which allows the creation of Inter-Institutional Agreements as well as editing and negotiation with the partner institutions.

When accounts are created for the new colleagues to access the Erasmus Dashboard, they will receive an automatic notification to set their own
password, which means they will have their own login credentials.

Organisational Units

In the menu section Organisational Units each HEI can set-up their internal structure indicating the units that would be key to distinguish in the Inter-
Institutional Agreement process.
3. Default Inter-Institutional Agreement Data
The Inter-Institutional Agreement Manager allows for easy editing of the values of the general data on the higher education institutions that apply to all
Inter-Institutional Agreements.

Such profile information then can be updated as necessary without re-signing the Inter-Institutional Agreements, and making sure the data is easily
accessible to the partner HEI as well as the student.

The general information about the institution is accessible to students via the Erasmus+ App as per European Student Card Initiative attempts to make
sure students have the key information available to them.
4. Managing Inter-Institutional Agreements
New Digital IIA: Creating Inter-Institutional Agreement

A new Inter-Institutional Agreement can be initiated in the section “New Digital IIA” clicking through the steps and indicating the cooperation conditions as
per the official template.

1. The first step illustrates the scope of the Inter-Institutional Agreement

2. In the second step the specific partner institution needs to be indicated searching by the PIC code. The indication of the partner will automatically fetch
all the other basic information about the institution.
After the time frame of the Agreement has been indicated – you can go to the next page.

3. The overview of the general information about the HEI is illustrated. Staff members with respective rights can always edit and update it in the “Default
IIA” section.
4. In the next steps, the partners can indicate the cooperation conditions for all types of mobilities.

5. The next step allows for the final review of all the data in the IIA before signing and sending off to the partner.

Signing triggers a notification system and an email invitation to review the IIA is sent to the person indicated as the contact point in the agreement.
6. The email notification is sent to the partner inviting them to log in Erasmus Dashboard and review the Inter-Institutional Agreement.

The partner can then review the Inter-Institutional Agreements and either confirm them or further edit and communicate the needed updates to the partner
that will trigger a notification.
5. Further Guidance
More informative materials will be added shortly in the Erasmus Without Paper Competence Centre.