ISEP is a non-profit organization of over 300 partner universities, including the URV, that facilitates student mobility for studies, internships, and volunteer work around the world

Two members of ISEP Study Abroad, President and CEO John Lucas and Director of Relations with Members from Europe and the United Kingdom Marina Casals, visited the URV on 30 September and met with the rector Josep Pallarès and the Commissioner for International Networks, Joan Miquel Canals. The new director of the URV’s International Center, Rebeca Tomás, also attended the meeting. The visit aimed to introduce the rector to ISEP and the activities it has carried out with the URV since 2013, and to present and assess new proposals for collaboration. ISEP is a non-profit organization of more than 300 partner universities in 50 countries that facilitates student mobility for studies, internships, and volunteer work worldwide.

Over the years, around 60 undergraduate students from the URV have participated in academic exchanges at ISEP network member institutions, mainly American ones. These exchanges have been under the ISEP Exchange program, where the cost of tuition, housing, and meals for the student at the host institution is equivalent to what it would be at the URV. The outgoing student deposits a fee at the URV, which is used to cover the accommodation and meals of incoming students to URV, and then once the outgoing student has arrived at the host university, they too have their accommodation and meals paid for. Now, the aim is to offer students another option through the ISEP Direct program, where any student can choose from various study programmes offered by ISEP members at a fixed price. This would open up the opportunity for the student to study at a wider range of universities, such as ones in New Zealand, Australia, and Fiji, which would otherwise be difficult to access.

A new area of collaboration, this time with the URV Foundation, will be to offer training in internationalisation for administrative and technical staff. Marina Casals, creator of the SUCTI project and training course, has led numerous editions of the SUCTI Train the Trainers course. From now on, ISEP and the FURV will collaborate to offer these courses together.

In 2016, the URV hosted the biannual meeting of partner universities from Spain and Portugal (ISEP Iberia). The next meeting will take place in Madrid in March 2025, where these universities will share common issues and best practices for participating in these exchanges.