Mobility programmes for study: approval, change, and recognition of activities

Information valid for the School of Economics&Management

Are you about to spend a mobility period abroad?

Here you can find specific information and procedures you need to follow after accepting the exchange opportunity.

Remember to read all the information on the University of Bologna webpage for outgoing students carefully.

Erasmus+ for study
Overseas (check this general info for the Fieldwork too)
Leaving as a "free mover"

Information valid specifically for EPOS students

The following instructions should be considered together with the ones valid for the whole School of Economics & Management linked above.

During your third year – but also earlier that that – you will be able to complete some exams abroad through an Erasmus or Overseas program, or to do an internship abroad. In order to do so, you present it in your study plan and arrive at a so called Learning Agreement before your departure. You must identify those courses at the host institution that best match the ones you want credit for at the University of Bologna. You can seek equivalents to the required EPOS courses of the second and third year; you can also usefully look at the EPOS study plan. In principle it is also possible to ask to convert your activities abroad into courses not listed in the EPOS study plan, but that is subject to a case-by-case approval (the complete list of courses available at Unibo is here).

As an EPOS student, you can submit your learning agreement at any time on AlmaRM. The next step will be a validation process. Validation is just the first step! It is possible for a validated learning agreement to be later rejected by the EPOS board. When will the decision happen? The EPOS board makes the final decision only at the dates listed below: all the learning agreements that have been validated within the given date will be considered and either approved or rejected:

Proposals validated by (will be approved by)

Nov 27^th (Dec 1^st) 2023

Jan 15^th (Jan 19^th) 2024

Feb 26^th (Mar 1^st) 2024

June 24^th (June 28^th) 2024

July 22^nd (July 26^th) 2024

Sep 2^nd (Sep 6^th) 2024

For example, all Learning Agreements submitted and validated by Nov 27^th will be approved or rejected by Dec 1^st. If you submit your Learning Agreement on Nov 28^th, you will have to wait until Jan 19^th for the approval.

The faculty member in charge of deciding on learning agreements is Prof. Martin Gonzalez Eiras, and the final approval is done by the Programme Director on behalf of the Degree Programme Board. All your communications, though, should be directed at the International Relations Office (didatticascaravilli.mobility@unibo.it), and not to Prof. Gonzalez Eiras or the Programme Director. Even if you have deadlines, please contact the relevant Office. They will then forward the documents if needed.

What courses at the host institution are likely to get approved for EPOS?

The course unit(s) you select at the host institution should match well with the course(s) at UNIBO you ask credit for. Some general criteria about the content that will facilitate the approval of your learning agreement are the following:

Equivalences work only for courses in the same area: e.g. a management course will not be converted into an economics course, and viceversa. At UNIBO, course areas are identified by their codes: IUS=law, SPS=political science, SECS-S and SECS-P/05=mathematics, statistics and econometrics, SECS-P/07-11=management, SECS-P/01,SECS-P/02,SECS-P/03,SECS-P/06=economics, SECS-P/04 and SECS-P/12=economic history and thought.
The big data sequence in EPOS comprises intermediate-level and advanced-level courses that you do after statistics, programming, and econometrics. You should make sure that the units you choose abroad are at the same level as the ones in EPOS. For example, doing an introductory quantitative course abroad would not be a good substitute for BIG DATA IN SOCIAL SCIENCES.
There will be more flexibility in converting a host institution course unit into an EPOS elective course than into a mandatory one.
The best way to do the comparison is to check the syllabi of the host institution course units (i.e. the detailed description of topics, textbooks, instructor’s name, etc.). They are not always available, but it is highly recommended to send them to didatticasociale.mobility@unibo.it when you submit your Learning Agreement on AlmaRM so that they will be used by the Degree Programme Board for a more accurate evaluation of your proposal. You can find a short description of mandatory and characterizing EPOS courses as well as more details on the syllabi in this website.
The number of credits of the courses should be comparable as indicated in the links above.
You will not get credit for English language courses done abroad. Even if you do an Advanced English writing class at the host institution, EPOS will not give you credit for it.
Do not leave credits for an unspecified course that indicates only the disciplinary sector (for example SECS-P/01), unless it is absolutely necessary. In particular, never put a sector (like SECS-P/10 for instance) where EPOS does not offer courses, either mandatory or optional.

Mobility programmes for study: approval, change, and recognition of activities

Information valid for the School of Economics&Management

Are you about to spend a mobility period abroad?

Information valid specifically for EPOS students

As an EPOS student, what UNIBO courses can I get credit for?

What courses at the host institution are likely to get approved for EPOS?