ELEMENTOS FUNDAMENTALES DE LA UEN

9.1 The College is responsible for adhering to any formal, legal and ethical considerations concerning placements within the UK or abroad.

Departments/divisions must make every effort to evaluate individual placement opportunities and practices against a strict internal and external quality assurance process checklist before making available to students. This includes validating each placement closely against relevant government and College policy to help ensure that any student placement is valuable, measurable, safe, non-exploitative, and as closely aligned to a path of academic study and personal/professional career development as possible.

9.2 As part of the monitoring and evaluation of internship placement rationale,

organisation and practice, departments/divisions should use feedback from students and placement providers to make appropriate changes and improvements to quality and best practice.

Guidance on student placements

124

9.3 School Education Committees (or equivalent) should monitor the operation of placement learning and report on such activity in their annual reports to the College Education Committee.

9.4 The College will provide training for staff involved in placement learning so that staff are qualified, resourced and competent in their understanding of student needs, and so they are able to fulfil the relevant requirements of their roles.

9.5 The Study Abroad and Internships Office provide College-wide support and guidance for students who are pursuing placement opportunities, both in the UK and abroad. The key focus is on the development of accredited internships modules which are assessed as part of degree programmes, embedding employability directly into the curriculum via work-based learning. Opportunities for this exist in a growing number of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes across the College. The Head of Study Abroad and Internships authorises placement agreements on behalf of the College; where the agreement departs from established templates, the Head of Study Abroad and Internships shall seek confirmation from the Director of

Governance and Legal Affairs Management and other appropriate staff before doing so.

9.6 Any student completing a placement or participating in any form of work-based learning outside of their home country such as through Erasmus or language programmes will have different visa restrictions concerning the number of weekly hours that they can participate, the length and timing of the placement, and the acceptance of paid employment.

9.7 Whilst the College has an obligation to exercise a level of care to all students under Duty of Care, it is ultimately the responsibility of the student to verify the accuracy of information and requirements regarding placements from the relevant destination country, prior to undertaking an placement abroad. The College must show due diligence and full consideration of the relevant regulations and policy of the host country in which a student is completing a placement. Regularly updated information and guidance is available via the Study Abroad and Internships Office, Student Advice and International Student Support, and Careers and Employability.

Definitions of collaborative activity

125

Definitions of collaborative activity

Collaborative activity – type and definition

Key characteristics

Access/feeder programme: a programme of study offered by another institution/body from which successful students are recognised as having met the admissions criteria for entry to a specified programme of study at the College.

 HEFCE provide advice on how such arrangements should work

http://www.hefce.ac.uk/whatwedo/wp/recentwork/lifelongl earningnetworks/progressionagreements/

 Covered by a formal agreement, see template at

http://www.hefce.ac.uk/whatwedo/wp/recentwork/lifelongl earningnetworks/progressionagreements/

 The partner institution owns the curriculum and the award for its particular programme of study, although College staff may have input into the curriculum content

 The partner institution is responsible for the delivery of its programme of study and its quality

 Access/feeder programmes do not lead to an award or award of credit of the College

Articulation/progression agreement: a partnership arrangement whereby provision delivered by a partner is formally recognised for the purposes of advanced standing towards one of the College’s award. The advanced standing may be awarded through an accreditation of prior learning or experiential learning (AP(E)L) process.

 Covered by a legal agreement

 The partner institution owns the curriculum and the award for its particular programme of study

 The partner institution is responsible for the delivery of its programme of study and its quality

 The College is responsible for ensuring that the provision is suitable for the recognition of credit for advanced standing

 The College does not make an award or award credit to the partner’s programme but will recognise the

achievement by the student for the purposes of entry with advanced standing or AP(E)L

 Requirements for admission with advanced

standing/AP(E)L/credit transfer are governed by College Academic regulations

Dual award: a partnership arrangement under which the College and one or more awarding institutions provide programmes leading to separate awards being granted by both/all partners.

 Covered by a legal agreement

 Each partner is responsible for the content, delivery, quality and standards of its own provision and makes its own award

 Students may be registered concurrently at each partner institution or sequentially

 Credit from each partner is used towards the award from the other partner(s)

 Information about the Erasmus Mundus initiative uses the terminology double award to describe what is, here, understood to be a dual award

Franchised provision: a partnership arrangement under which a partner is

authorised/licensed to provide the whole or part of a programme of study designed by the College and leading to an award or award of credit of the College.

 There are currently no such arrangements within the College

 If there were, such arrangements would be covered by a legal agreement

 The College would own the curriculum and would permit a partner to deliver it, the College would make the award

Definitions of collaborative activity Joint award: a partnership

arrangement under which the College and partner(s) provide a programme leading to a single award made jointly with at least one other partner institution.

 Any potential partner must have the legal ability to award a joint degree

 Covered by a legal agreement

 There is usually shared ownership of the curriculum and related IPR

 Students register with both/all institutions but one normally provides the lead for administrative processes

 Students have the right of access to learning resources at both/all institutions

 The degree programme is subject to both/all institutions quality assurance processes, although there may be a pooling/sharing of processes, the details of which will be specified in the MoA

 There is normally some form of joint committee

overseeing the programme which reports into the relevant structure at both/all institutions

 There is a joint examination board/process which reports into the relevant structure at both/all institutions

Partnership programme:

provision that is designed and delivered by the College and at least one partner but with only one awarding institution.

 Covered by a legal agreement

 The partner can be another HEI or a public or private sector body

 If the College is the awarding institution, the College will own the programme and have overall responsibility for its delivery, quality assurance and standards

 Elements of the programme will be delivered by the partner and often assessed by the partner in collaboration with the College

 Students are registered with the College but may attend the partner for the delivery of particular elements of the programme

Recognition of study or award of credit through off- campus study or placement:

where education provision designed and delivered by a partner of the College, which has demonstrated adherence to the appropriate quality requirements and academic standards, is appropriate for recognition of study leading to an award of the College or to the award of specific College credit.

 Does not include intercollegiate modules or clinical or other professional placements

 Covered by a written agreement

 The partner is responsible for the design and delivery of the provision

 Governed by relevant sections of the Academic regulations

Staff and student exchange.

a mutual arrangement with another HEI whereby the numbers of incoming and outgoing members of staff or students should balance.

 Covered by a legal agreement

 Important to ensure that student exchange numbers balance - failure to balance outgoing student numbers with incoming student numbers can result in a net loss in respect of student fee income

Validated provision: is the process whereby the College judges that a programme of study developed and delivered by another institution or organisation is of an appropriate quality and standard to lead to an award of the College.

 There is currently only one such agreement in the

College, with one pending; future agreements are unlikely

 Covered by a legal agreement

 Separate procedures govern the validation process

http://www.kcl.ac.uk/college/policyzone/index.php?id=328

 The College determines the extent to which it exercises direct control over the quality assurance aspects of the programme’s management

 Students on validated programmes are not students of the College and do not have rights to use College facilities

Guidance on joint awards

127

Guidance on joint awards

1.

Introduction

1.1 This guidance is based on information provided at a number of seminars held over recent years by the QAA and Eversheds and pertains primarily to legal

considerations in the award of joint degrees (see Guidance on the operation of collaborative teaching activity on page 113 for consideration of quality assurance principles).

1.2 The granting of a joint award, where only one award is made by two or more institutions, raises complex legal issues.