A road map to establish a learning agreement before the student mobility begins: Differences for horizontal mobility, double degrees and joint degrees

Learning agreements are legal documents binding the home and the host institutions, and the student. They have been introduced by and are a pillar of the ECTS (European Credit Transfer System). The purpose of the document is to give the student the certainty that if she/he passes the exams listed there, there will be total academic recognition and transfer of the relevant credits.
Now a day in Europe this instrument is common practice. However, when used in a cooperation where the two parties come from different continents and use different credit systems careful negotiations are needed.
Here some of the main issues at stake, that have to be agreed upon before preparing any agreement, will be discussed. What has absolutely to be avoided, and many cases are known where it happened, is to discover the importance of some of these issues only during the student mobility.
1) The architecture of the exchange (which is very different for horizontal mobility, double degrees and joint degrees and also for the Bachelor, Master, PhD level).
2) Particularly in the case of horizontal mobility, how to transform the credit of the host institution into the credits of the home institution.
3) In the case of double degrees, extra workload required (if any) with respect to a single degree,
4) Particularly in the case of joint degrees, legal issues and what final degree certificate will be issued.
5) Tuition fees and the often relevant issue of balancing the student flows. This is extremely important where at least one of the two partners has high tuition fees.
6) Quality control of the process.
Only at this point a syllabus can be negotiated and a learning agreement signed.
The two presenters will show different perspectives: The one of a public non-profit European University and that of an American (based in Italy) private, for profit University.

Author(s):

Giancarlo Spinelli    
Politecnico di Milano
Italy

Eny Di Iorio    
Lorenzo de' Medici Institute
Italy