Kelly works at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, where she is involved in the management of Erasmus mobility and international relations activities. Having previously coordinated staff mobility, she joined the Una Europa Live My Life programme to experience first-hand a mobility period herself and to better understand how partner universities organise their services.
She was particularly interested in gaining a broader and more holistic perspective on European programmes and Una Europa initiatives, as well as in strengthening connections with colleagues across partner institutions.
Participating in Live My Life gave Kelly the opportunity to move from managing mobility programmes to directly experiencing one. This shift allowed her to better understand the value of staff mobility from a participant’s perspective and to reflect on how these initiatives can be further promoted within her institution.
The exchange also enabled her to build closer relationships with colleagues from partner universities, gaining insight into their daily work, organisational culture and approaches to programme management.
Kelly’s first impression of the University of Bologna was that of a large, well-structured institution, comparable in scale and complexity to the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Both universities share a strong connection with their cities and a significant student population.
At the same time, she identified some notable differences, particularly in terms of facilities and organisational structure. The International Relations and Una Europa offices in Bologna appeared to benefit from dedicated spaces and a larger team, which supports a wide range of activities.
This contrast offered an interesting perspective on how similar workloads can be managed through different staffing models and organisational setups.
One of the most valuable aspects of the experience was observing how work is distributed within a larger team. Compared to her home institution, where fewer staff members often manage multiple responsibilities, the structure in Bologna allows for a more distributed organisation of tasks.
During her stay, Kelly had the opportunity to follow her host colleague closely, participate in meetings related to Una Europa activities, and attend workshops focused on upcoming developments and new working procedures. She also explored the university environment more broadly, including visits to institutional spaces such as the university museum and the Rectorate.
These experiences provided useful insights into how team composition, internal organisation and daily collaboration can influence efficiency, service delivery and overall coordination, offering ideas for potential improvements.
Kelly’s participation in the Live My Life project was both professionally and personally enriching. The experience allowed her to gather concrete insights into different ways of organising international relations services and to reflect on how these practices could be adapted within her home institution.
She plans to share the knowledge and observations gained during the exchange with her colleagues in Madrid, contributing to internal reflection and continuous improvement. At the same time, the experience reinforced the importance of communication, collaboration and mutual learning within international university networks.