A European model for
trans-national student placement : A Network of
Networks
Doru Talaba, EUE-Net
coordinator
Edmund Zirra,
Q-Planet coordinator
The
concept
Supposing the Practical
Placement of Students are solved locally by each University either using the
RCPP model or other equivalent that offers the confidence of a quality
practical placement, it is still difficult to know and check trans-national placements in the host
enterprise in the regions across a wide area such as Europe. Nevertheless, while
there is always a permanent relationship and interaction between the companies
and the actors at universities in the target region, like Technology
Transfer Units, Career Services or directly with departments and lecturers, these
contacts could form a regional network of universities and enterprises, where
the partners involved are well known by each other and can be easily contacted.
Consequently, all the relevant requirements for international student exchanges
could be easily checked locally by a
certification body. It would be also easy to visit the regional companies
with the aim of proving the quality of the placements and supervision of the
international students when necessary by the same certification body. The only
need for such a principle to work is the existence of a clear guidelines or even standard for quality of practical placements of students against
which the certification should be made.
In contrast with the ISO
9000, where the enterprise certification is pushed by the market and undertaken
entirely by the enterprises, in case of the Quality Assurance of Student
Placements (QASP), the certification should be undertaken entirely by the
certification body (RCPP) which will recover its expenses from the fees
perceived for organizing PPS.
The implementation of
the new Erasmus-placement programme gives a good chance to establish a new
and urgent motivation for solid and permanent quality control of
placements, as well as for supporting higher education-industry
cooperation.
To avoid multiple visits
to companies for the same purpose, the regional quality Reference Centre for
Practical Placements (RCPP) for students could act thus as the body
responsible for such quality checks, as well as for providing adequate
information for recruiting a student from abroad, promoting the mobility of
students in the industry and dissemination of results.
A possible procedure is
illustrated in the diagram below and is based on the principle that an
enterprise signs up for taking part in the programme by accepting the
requirements and standards set up for recruiting students from abroad as well
as regular audits carried out by RCPP. If the RCPP issue the certification, the
company will obtain a status of an Erasmus-Enterprise (see diagram) which is eligible
to offer Erasmus-Placements for Erasmus-Students.
For this reason, the
RCPP should have the qualification and capacity to perform a certification task with respect to the
Enterprises. Reversely, in a later stage it could be possible that the RCPP
database develop and maintain a classification of the University courses
portfolio according to standards developed in cooperation with the Erasmus
Enterprises.
IN order to create a European
Quality Reference Network a general standard for integrated practical training
periods needs to be developed, even for those placements, which are not
financially supported by a European programme.
Such a European Quality
Reference Network (callsed hereinafter "Q-Planet") will
be an efficient tool for the improvement of the quality of placements and the
volume of student mobility. This would positively effect the reception of
the Erasmus-Placement programme, improve considerably the employability
of graduates and thus also support the goals of the
In order to create this Network
2
Q-Planet will assembly all these efforts across
In order to establish a
quality assurance model to drive the Network constitution in a sustainable way
for the student placements in
A. First a standard
series need to be developed in a similar manner as for the ISO 9000 series,
including thus the following components:
- Standard 1: "Quality
Assurance of Student Placements (QASP) - Fundamentals and vocabulary"
including the basics of what QASP means and also the core language of the topic.
A guidance document, not used for certification purposes, but important
reference document to understand terms and vocabulary related to quality of
student placements in enterprises.
- Standard 2: "QASP
requirements" is intended for use by any enterprises which want to
prepare in view of hosting student placements. It provides a number of
requirements which the enterprise needs to fulfill
if it is to achieve the necessary quality level of the placement. It
includes a requirement for the continual (i.e. planned) improvement of the
Quality System. This is the only implementation for which the auditors of
third party may grant certification.
- Standard 3: "Quality
systems for management of Student Placements" - Guidelines for
performance improvements. It gives advice on what could be done to enhance
a mature system. This standard is not intended as a guide to
implementation but only to improvement.
These
standards will be undertaken and developed thoroughly within the multi-lateral
project Q-Planet.
B.
Definition of the standards for accreditation at European level of the RCPP and
establishing of EUE-Net as an Accreditation body at European level. For this
reason, the accreditation procedures need also to be established.
Thus
regional Networks of certified enterprises will be established by the RCPP`s while the accreditation body will maintain the
"Network of Networks" (i.e of RCPP`s).
Structured online tools assembling services of these bodies will be set up and
maintained in order to evaluate at European level the capacity of organising
student placements across the various disciplines and facilitating their
organisation as well. The federated information will be certainly useful to all
actors involved into the system:
-
to
the Universities in order to assess realistically the possibility to organise
quality student placement within the planned courses.
-
To the RCPP in order to assess the need to
recruit more enterprises to meet the University needs in student placement
organisation
-
To the enterprises in order to observe the
availability for internship in various areas in case of planned developments
that need recruitments.
Definitions:
Accreditation=Third-party
attestation related to a conformity assessment body conveying formal
demonstration of its competence to carry out specific conformity assessment
tasks.
Certification=Third-party
attestation related to products, processes, systems or persons.
Accreditation procedure
The
candidates body will receive a visit plan, which
provides a proposed timetable for the work to be assessed. Any improvement
actions identified against accreditation requirements will be notified in writing
during or immediately following the assessment visit. The candidate
organisation is then be asked to advise how it intend
to address them. Once the improvement actions have been implemented the accreditation
will be granted.
Maintenance
of accreditation
The
accreditation will be confirmed on an annual basis by surveillance visits, with
a full reassessment every fourth year. The first surveillance visit takes place
6 months after the Grant of Accreditation.
Certification procedure
The
RCPP investigates the potential enterprises of interest and propose them to
implement a quality framework for student placement organisation and its public
certification. Upon the enterprise agreement of the terms and conditions, the
certification procedure starts by submitting the enterprise a visit plan, which
provides a proposed timetable for the conditions to be assessed. Any
improvement actions identified against QASP requirements will be notified in writing
during or immediately following the assessment visit. The candidate enterprise
is then be asked to advise how it intend to address
them. Once the improvement actions have been implemented the QASP certification
will be granted.
Maintenance
of certification
The
certification will be confirmed on an annual basis by surveillance visits, with
a full reassessment every third year. The first surveillance visit takes place
6 months after the Grant of Certification.