Skip to main content

He's been digitizing Erasmus for five years. Now MU is champion

For nearly 17 years programmer Jiří Petrželka has been developing a system for administering exchange programmes for the Information System of the Centre for International Cooperation, and for the past five years he has been working on digitizing Erasmus. For his efforts, he has received the Rector's Award and recognition from the European Union.

Jiří Petrželka.

The European Commission has recognized Masaryk University as an Erasmus Without Paper Champion. This award has also been given to 49 other universities, out of a total 4,000 educational institutions from all 27 EU countries and 6 non-EU countries.

Masaryk University received this special award mainly thanks to Petrželka, who practically single-handedly works on digitizing Erasmus. Despite the limited manpower dedicated to this issue, MU is a technological leader in digitizing mobility.

This is why the European Commission has invited MU to join a special working group to share best practices, test new features, optimize processes, and generally promote digitization. “I am very pleased that we will be part of this close group and will be able to comment on and influence the digitization process from the front lines. This is a great opportunity for us,” says Jiří Petrželka.

Administration will be reduced from four weeks to one week

It was circumstance that brought Petrželka to develop the Centre for International Cooperation’s information system, intended not only for outgoing students, academics, and other employees but also for incoming students and colleagues from partner universities. Back when he was studying computer science, he responded to an advertisement offering a temporary job at the MU Centre for International Cooperation. He still works there today.

“First, I created the website, but later I was tasked with redesigning the electronic application form for incoming international students. And so slowly the information system started to emerge, which at the beginning dealt only with incoming students. Only after a few years did we extend the system to outgoing students as well,” Petrželka says, explaining the system, without which MU would not be able to handle such a large number of mobilities today. In total, more than 33,500 placements have been administered in the system, and three Czech universities have even bought the system from MU.

When the European Commission came up with the idea of digitizing Erasmus, he was looking forward to the multi-year project. “My work took on a new dimension and brought a lot of big challenges. It’s exciting to be part of an international community of developers, to meet at online calls and conferences, and to work together to make the whole administration of Erasmus shorter,” says Petrželka.

He recalls how 17 years ago he went for a year to Coventry for Erasmus and how much paperwork he had to do. Today, everything is different – many of the processes are already digital, and Masaryk University saves over half a tonne of paper per year.

Currently, Erasmus has almost fully digitized the process of signing the study contract, which is signed by the student and coordinators at the home and host universities. The digital signing of inter-institutional contracts is also at an advanced level, where MU is leading the way in Europe in terms of the number of signed contracts. In the coming years, European universities will work on digitizing documents confirming grades obtained abroad and on digitizing other types of mobility, such as internships, non-European trips through Erasmus+ ICM, or teaching and training placements for staff.

“Working on the digitization of Erasmus involves a lot of stress and months of programming, often on weekends, to meet the deadlines. And we’re actually at the beginning of the process. There are still years of hard work to come. But I’m already looking forward to seeing the results,” adds Jiří Petrželka, who is also a great inspiration to partner universities, whom he often helps find bugs in their technical solutions.