1. Could you briefly introduce yourself and describe your role at the University of Salerno?
My name is Filomena Ferrara, and I serve as Head of the Office for the Coordination of Teaching, Academic Governance, Higher Education, and Student Careers.
My role involves coordinating the activities of the offices responsible for these areas across the University’s 17 departments, with the aim of promoting greater consistency in processes, improving procedures and supporting the delivery of increasingly effective services for students and teaching staff.
My role therefore also serves as a link between different departments, with the task of facilitating dialogue, identifying shared solutions and contributing to the continuous improvement of the administrative organisation. In a university context characterised by an increasingly diverse student body and constantly evolving needs, I believe it is essential to work on standardising procedures and on the ability to address critical issues in a coordinated manner.
From this perspective, openness to an international dimension also plays an important role: engaging with other universities enables us to acquire new tools and approaches that will help to further improve the services offered by our University
2. What were the main motivations that led you to take part in a mobility period at a university within the NEOLAiA Alliance?
My main reason for taking part in this mobility programme was my desire to engage with different organisational models and gain first-hand insight into how another European university operates.
I found it particularly interesting to observe how the principles of the European Higher Education Area were implemented in the day-to-day running of another university, rather than merely in theory. I was able to see this through the procedures, working methods and organisational solutions adopted to meet the needs of students and staff.
My aim was to gather inspiration, identify best practices, and understand which elements could potentially be adapted and implemented within the context of the University of Salerno. I believe that international exchange is an extraordinary growth opportunity: it enables us to challenge established habits, gain new perspectives and find ideas to improve our daily work.
Participating in the NEOLAiA Alliance also gave me the chance to feel part of a European university community comprising institutions that, although geographically distant, share similar features and challenges. This has reinforced the value of the experience, which I now see not only as a moment of individual development, but also as an opportunity for collaboration and the exchange of ideas between different institutions.
3. What activities did you carry out during your mobility, at which Alliance university, and which aspects of the experience did you find most interesting or useful for your work?
The mobility took place at the University of Jaén in April 2025 and was a job shadowing experience that allowed me to closely observe the organisation and functioning of another European university.
A particularly significant aspect was my partnership with and exchange of ideas with my colleague, Anna De Pascale. This encouraged a direct exchange of perspectives and a deeper understanding of our respective organisational contexts, making the experience even more valuable.
During the mobility, I had the opportunity to become familiar with the facilities, structures and some of the organisational aspects of the University of Jaén. Although I mainly took part as an observer, I was particularly impressed by the quality of the university environment and the attention devoted to services supporting the academic community.
I also found the organisation of the offices most closely linked to quality assurance processes, an area particularly relevant to my work, very interesting. Observing their working methods provided me with food for thought and possible ideas to explore further within the context of the University of Salerno.
4. How has this experience contributed to your professional and personal growth? Do you believe it has also had an impact on your daily work at the University of Salerno?
This experience represented an important opportunity for both professional and personal growth, above all because it enabled me to overcome certain barriers, starting with the language barrier, and to discover just how enriching it is to share one’s day-to-day work with colleagues from different backgrounds.
One of the most significant aspects of the mobility programme was precisely the open-mindedness that comes from exchange: seeing how other universities tackle needs and challenges similar to our own helps to broaden one’s perspective, develop a broader view of processes and identify new ideas for improvement.
This experience has also had a positive impact on my day-to-day work at the University of Salerno, reinforcing my awareness that even within highly structured and standardised processes, such as those related to teaching, it is possible to identify scope for innovation and experiment with different solutions.
This international exchange has given me greater motivation and confidence to tackle organisational challenges with a more open approach, viewing change as an opportunity for growth and for improving the services offered to the university community.
5. Would you recommend this experience to your colleagues? If so, why?
Yes, definitely. I believe it is an extremely valuable opportunity because it allows you to change your perspective and view your work from a different angle.
In particular, spending time in another country allows you to put yourself in the shoes of an international student arriving in a new university environment, who then becomes one of our service users. This change in perspective has had a very positive impact on me, as it has increased my awareness of the needs of incoming and outgoing students and has highlighted more clearly the importance of developing increasingly accessible and efficient services.
On my return from the mobility programme, this greater awareness also led to several concrete initiatives, developed through consultation and coordination with my colleague Rosanna Saggese. These included efforts to improve the management of procedures relating to international students, for example by enabling incoming students to submit their study plans in a way that is more fully integrated with the University’s systems, thereby reducing the time needed to complete Learning Agreements and facilitating a smoother process for approvals and the subsequent recording of exam results, right through to the issue of Transcripts of Records.
Another important aspect was recognising the need to strengthen internal coordination by formally appointing one or more points of contact for internationalisation activities within the departments, thereby making the link between the various units involved more effective.
For this reason, I believe that mobility should not be viewed merely as an individual experience, but as an investment that can generate tangible benefits for the entire university community.
