Stella for Staff programme

The professional mobility programme for services staff of the Compostela Group of Universities, Stella for Staff, fosters intercontinental exchanges for the workforce of the CGU and CONAHEC members. A connection to learn how they work in the different departments of the organisations participating in the programme and to live a multicultural experience, through short stays in other higher education institutions from our network and CONAHEC.

In 2002, the programme was born as an initiative to offer administrative staff the same opportunities available to students and teaching staff at that time. Since its launch, more than 400 administrative staff from the CGU and CONAHEC networks have participated in the professional exchanges.

Once a year, our network disseminates a call for applications for grants and mobility under the Stella for Staff programme. Only services staff from CGU members can apply and receive a grant.

Objectives

Supporting the upskilling of the CGU member institutions

Facilitating professional intercontinental mobility

2024 call

Target group and requirements

The CGU and CONAHEC members and their services staff can participate in this mobility and training programme. Only staff from institutions that have offered at least one placement for the current call will be eligible for mobility.

Services staff must have an employment relationship with their home organisation at the time of the mobility.

Grants and funding

The economic allocation of the call is 16,000 euros, which will be distributed through individual grants until the budget is exhausted.

Grants have an economic allocation of 1,000 euros each. This amount is subject to withholding taxes in accordance with Spanish Law.

Mobility period and area

Mobility must last a minimum of seven and a maximum of 15 working days, and start in 2024.

Some institutions would allow those who participate to choose a mobility period, while others would detail a specific one. They will also define the areas in which they offer the placements.

All this information will be available to applicants in the placement offers.

Guidelines

Services staff and member institutions interested in taking part in the programme must read the guidelines for the call carefully.

Guidelines for the call 2024 of Stella for Staff programme.

Timeline

Before 22 January 2024. Deadline for the submission of the communication of coordinator form.
22 January 2024 (12:00 PM – noon. Peninsular Spanish time). Deadline for the submission of the placement offers.
Before February 2024. Publication of the placement offers.
19 March 2024 (12:00 PM – noon. Peninsular Spanish time). Deadline for the submission of applications.
April-May 2024. Publication of the resolution.
June-December 2024. Eligible for the mobility period.
December 2024. Justification and end of the activity.

Phases

Phase 1. Endorsement of the programme by the institution and submission of applications by the staff.

Phase 2. Selection of candidatures and carrying out mobility.

Phase 3. Submission of the supporting documentation by the institutions and candidates.

Further information on all the phases can be found in the guidelines. Besides, in 2024, we created a Stella for Staff programme phases page summarising the key facts about each of them.

Placement offers

Find here the placement offers submitted by CGU and CONAHEC members.

Selection Committee

The selection committee is chaired by the coordinator of Stella for Staff and include a minimum of two representatives from the CGU member universities. These representatives are designated by the executive committee.

Composition of the selection committee of the call 2024.

Notification on the resolution of the 2024 call.

Preliminary resolution of the 2024 call.

Experiences of participants and universities

Quotes from participating universities and staff

It can sometimes be difficult to condense the experience of the professional exchange days into a few words. However, the higher education institutions and their staff accepted the challenge, to sum up, their memories in one sentence.

“The Stella for Staff programme helped me to improve my professional technical skills”

Bruno Raimondo of University Kore di Enna (Italy)

“I’d like to repeat the experience since I think that it is the best way to promote the understanding among universities”

Vera Redrupova of Masaryk University, Brno (Czech Republic)

“It’s a really enriching experience. Apart from learning how universities of far away countries manage departments similar than yours, the cultural exchange contributes to find new links for collaborations and relationships…I’m very happy to participate in this programme”

Rosa Ana Rojas of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (Peru)

“An excellent way to exchange information and establish new links”

Fredik Carlén, Karlstad University (Sweden)

“I believe the mobility programme to be highly positive, as it allows service staff to get to know the reality of management in other universities and exchange professional experiences by providing know-how on our work areas”

Francisco Colomer of University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain)

“These training opportunities help our staff to improve their professional and also personal skills”

University of Malta (Malta)

“Number of grants should be even more!”

University of Hamburg (Germany)

“Stella for Staff is the best pilot programme that the Erasmus non-academic staff mobility project has ever had’”

University of Cadiz (Spain)

“Stella for Staff enriches our staff culture and opens up new points of view and opportunities to improve our daily work”

University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain)

Experiences on video

In these videos, service staff from the member universities of the Compostela Group of Universities share their experiences in our network’s Stella for Staff programme. These people are the best ambassadors of the programme, as they can testify to the personal and professional enrichment that their intercontinental experience has brought them.