Confusion in the staircase, scraps of conversations in English, Dutch, German, French and Turkish – an indicator of the forthcoming Mobility Week, which attracts over 70 students from abroad. Since 2009, the Institute of Occupational Therapy has been organising this international exchange of students and lecturers and has become part of the ZHAW School of Health Sciences' Winter School in 2015. The main goal of Mobility Week is to enable students to meet peers at home and abroad and to exchange ideas about being an occupational therapist in different countries within and outside of Europe. Lectures, workshops and group work offer students the opportunity to strengthen their professional identity and understanding of the various roles of occupational therapists. The question of how to make the profession of occupational therapy known to a wider public is a central thread woven throughout the programme.

What started in 2009 as an exchange between the two Swiss Schools of Occupational Therapy in Winterthur and Lausanne is now open to students and lecturers from different universities of applied sciences from various countries, and the number of participating schools is increasing. Since 2014, Mobility Weeks have also been held at other locations. In November 2014, Hogeschool van Amsterdam launched its Mobility Week on “Primary Care” and in May 2015 Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm hosted a Mobility Week on “Public Health”. Since 2016, Hacettepe University in Ankara has also organised a Mobility Week on “Promoting Occupational Therapy in Mental Health”. The main topic of all four Mobility Weeks was “Professional Identity”. The long-term aim of the organisers is to offer students a programme portfolio from all over Europe.

Institutions participating in Mobility Week:

• Artevelde Hogeschool, Gent (B)
• Alice Salomon Hochschule Berlin (D)
• Curtin University, Perth (AUS)
• Ecole d’études sociales et pédagogiques, Lausanne (CH)
• FH Campus Wien (A)
• FH Gesundheit Tyrol, Innsbruck (A)
• Hochschule für Gesundheit Bochum (D)
• Hogeschool PLX Hasselt (B)
• Hogeschool van Amsterdam (NL)
• Hogeschool van Arnhem en Nijmegen (NL)
• Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm (S)
• Saitama Prefectural University, Koshigaya (JPN)
• Teesside University, Middlesbrough (UK)
• University College South Denmark, Haderslev (DK)
• ZHAW, Institute of Occupational Therapy (CH)

Our partner universities, practice partners and other networks on four continents.