and modules offered in a foreign language” and through the “participation in international projects for the development of international Joint Double or Multiple degree”.
Respondent 6: Internationalisation is part of the University's statute and JPs are strategic: every year we strengthen existing successful agreements and start new ones, both within Europe and worldwide, in particular with Asia and America”.
If, a fortiori, all universities which answered the questionnaires do manage JPs, we should note that only half of them have developed a strategic policy to develop such programmes. A more detailed analysis of the data shows however that those universities which have developed such a policy have, on average, a higher number of JPs. More precisely:
• Universities with a policy on JPs have 10 JPs on average (between 2 and 40)
BOX 3
A strategic policy on JPs adopted at the highest level of an institution seems to contribute to a systematic development of JPs. Thus a JP policy enhances
internationalisation and gives the institution an international profile. Moreover, a strategic policy gives the institution credibility when cooperating with other institutions.
A strategic policy anchors the development and running of JPs within the institution and at the highest level. It may also enhance the quality of the
programme. Furthermore, a strategy can also motivate academic and administrative staff to work towards the development and running of a JP.
Based on the study visits, we can distinguish two basic approaches to set up a strategic policy:
Top-down approach: developed from the highest level of the institution and then
spread inside the institution. So for instance one HEI has developed a JP policy, has then integrated it in its general policy documents, and finally has disseminated a “JP culture” to faculties and departments.
Bottom-up approach: a strategic policy is developed after the institution becomes
involved in JPs in order to streamline and frame the development of new JPs. Such a policy might also be defined in order to help the existing JPs to run more smoothly. The strategic policies can have different emphasis:
- They might stress the administrative side and hence limit themselves to defining a framework
- They might add an incentive to work inside a framework
- Or else they might aim at rationalising the development of JPs, by creating an appropriate professional culture
It does not seem out of place to cite here an excerpt from one of the study visits, which shows how a JP can have an impact on an institution or a faculty:
“[…] These two programmes brought a very important change in the culture of the Faculty […]. They brought an important impulse to the internationalisation culture (courses in English, international dimension, etc.), but also to the whole organisation of the Faculty (dedicated tutor for international students, coaching for social integration, dedicated fund for the running of the international programmes).”
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3.3 Guidelines for the development and management of JPs
The majority of universities do not have a support framework or guidelines to develop JPs or to manage them.
- 75% of the respondents do not have guidelines for the development of JPs; - 70% of the respondents do not have any guidelines for the management of JPs. Only very few universities presented their guidelines for the survey.
The guidelines presented are of a varied nature and scope. The most complete guidelines are those from the University of Lund, which address all main points that one has to take into account for setting up and running a JP. These guidelines are also reported integrally as an annex of this report. References are given to the main sources of information and ideas are put forward for those seeking financial support. The tone of the document is not emphatic and has no promotional objective.
Other guidelines are of a completely different kind, focusing on legal aspects related to the recognition and accreditation of degrees. They seem to be fairly complete in that respect, and are thus rather technical.
In between these two kinds of guidelines are those which are built around a template for cooperation agreement and therefore include a statement of intent, but also address most of the relevant legal matters, albeit in a generic way.
A fourth model analysed follows very closely the procedure that a department has to follow to obtain accreditation from the Ministry of Education of the Country concerned while the last example of guidelines received is interesting in that they emphasize the need for a JP to comply to the quality assurance principles of the institution, which are to be understood as guaranteeing students that they will not lose out on quality during their mobility periods.
BOX 4
Internal guidelines guarantee that the institution functions or operates in a
homogeneous way concerning all its JPs.
Such guidelines also enhance the transparency of procedures and make the institution more accountable, as a partner.
If guidelines are available, academic staff and administrators work in a more systematic way within JPs.
From the point of view of the institutional leadership, guidelines are a good tool for
monitoring the implementation and running of JPs.
If the institution has a quality assurance system, these guidelines must be in alignment with this system.
The purpose of the guidelines should help to support the staff in developing and running JPs.
At the same time guidelines should be flexible at the point to allow negotiations
with partners.
Respondent 1: [We have developed a] policy rather than a strategy with a very large