Mobility programmes: approval, change, and recognition of activities

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of the Learning Agreement is to provide a transparent and efficient preparation of the study period abroad and to ensure that the student will receive recognition in his/her degree for the educational components successfully completed abroad.

In the Learning Agreement you must list the courses you are planning to attend abroad which will replace subjects in your study plan. In the learning agreement you are able to include all the exams of your degree programme which have not been yet held or passed, this means not only the exams of the year in which your experience abroad will take place, but also the remaining exams from the previous or the following year.

The Learning Agreement is an official contract, therefore, once validated by the exchange coordinator and approved by the Degree Programme Committee (signed by your Degree Director), you have the guarantee of recognition. This means that if you attend successfully all the courses listed in the learning agreement, you will have the certainty of recognition of studies completed during study abroad. On the contrary, courses not listed in the learning may not be recognized (or, even if it the recognition will be asked upon the return, it would not be guaranteed).

The Learning Agreement must be completed online on AlmaRM (https://almarm.unibo.it).

The student must first select the type of activity, indicating:
- "Studies" if you want to take exams or curricular internship;
- "Thesis" if you want to do only research for your final dissertation. In this case, you must indicate the research project and name of the supervisor at Unibo. You won’t get any credits for the research.

Please note: The internship must be already confirmed by both sending and receiving Institutions, before adding it in the LA, for this reason it is highly recommendable to add it only after arrival at the host Institution.

On the displayed template on AlmaRM you must insert on the left side the course or courses you wish to attend at the Host Institution and on the right side you must select the activity that will be replaced upon successful completion of the study programme abroad. The aim is to create as much as possible a one-to-one correspondence between the components followed abroad and the ones replaced at the Home Institution. Additional rows can be added as needed with the option "add group”. 

IMPORTANT: if the number of credits for each course taken abroad is lower than those of the matching course in the study plan you must add more courses, in order to reach the same amount of credits. By contrast, if the courses at the foreign university have a number of credits higher than those in your study plan, you can create a correspondence with more courses of your degree programme.

For instance: (1 ECTS = 1 CFU)

It is not always possible to find a full correspondence with regard to the number of credits: in general, the difference between foreign credits (ECTS) and credits to be recognized by the University of Bologna (CFU) must not exceed 3 credits. 

Electives: you can add optional credits or indicate a corresponding elective course of your study plan, only pointing to the scientific subject area if there’s no clear correspondence with elective courses offered by the University of Bologna:

For instance:

To insert these credits, in the section "Activities to recognize", you must indicate the number of CFU and select from the list in the box the Scientific Subject area (SSD). 

N.B. However, we highly recommend to all the students to choose the optional courses of your degree programme respecting the deadlines, even if you have added these courses in the learning agreement. In the event you do not pass or hold the examination corresponding the optional credits, you will have the opportunity to take the elective course at your home institution upon return and complete your studies.

• Credits for Language Exams: language courses can replace electives, prior approval of the Degree Director and their level must be at least B1;
• The Law Exams: usually you cannot insert the Law exams that specifically concern the Italian legislation in the Learning Agreement because the exams taken abroad differ from those contained in the study plan, with reference to a different national legislation;
• In case you follow additional educational components beyond those required for your degree programme, these additional credits (or equivalent) must also be listed in the study programme;

Bachelor degree students will have to fulfill the minimum of 8 CFU/ECTS, for each semester.

THE LEARNING AGREEMENT APPROVAL:

Before submitting the Learning Agreement on AlmaRM, you should contact the degree programme Tutor who will check your proposal.

1. Once the Learning Agreement is evaluated by the tutor and completed on AlmaRM, you can save it in Safe Mode and change it later; alternatively, by clicking on "submit the Learning Agreement", you perform the final saving and send the Learning Agreement to the professor in charge of the agreement (by clicking on "withdraw", you lose all changes);
2. The professor in charge of the agreement can validate it for the subsequent approval by the Degree Programme Director or send it back to the student for changes;
3. After the final approval, the Learning Agreement it will be uploaded with the signature of the Degree Programme Director on AlmaRM and you will be able to upload the mobility agreement duly signed.

IMPORTANT: All parties must sign the Learning Agreement.

WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU NEED TO MODIFY THE LEARNING AGREEMENT?

It often happens that the students, arriving at the host University are forced to modify the LA for reasons of timetable conflicts, changes of the educational offer or simply because you have found a most interesting course. In these cases, you can request changes to the study programme within 5 weeks after the start of each semester on AlmaRM, following the rules mentioned above.

After submitting the changes to the learning agreement, the Degree Programme Director will approve (or reject) the changes within two weeks and the new Learning Agreement will be uploaded signed on AlmaRM.

Be aware that: amendments to the Learning Agreement should be considered as exceptional and, basically, there is only one amendment possible for each exchange semester. This means that the two changes are, as a general rule, allowed only for longer periods of exchange.

WHAT SHOULD I DO UPON MY RETURN TO ENSURE THAT THE PERFORMED ACTIVITIES WILL BE RECOGNIZED?

At the end of the exchange period, you will receive the Transcript of Records certifying the academic outcomes successfully completed. Upload the TOR to Almarm before submitting the request of recognition.

Be aware that: you will be able to present the request of recognition only if the learning agreement signed by all parties and the certificate of attendance were correctly uploaded on Almarm.

The system will automatically load the activities specified in the Learning Agreement, you must indicate whether you passed the courses at the host institution (adding the grade obtained abroad, and possibly - but not mandatory - the exam date) and whether you intend to apply for recognition of the corresponding activities in the Italian study plan. 

After submitting the application for recognition:
- The professor in charge of the agreement will convert out of thirty the grades received by the student at the Receiving Institution;
- The Degree Programme Committee will approve and the student's career will be updated normally within five weeks after having received the student’s request.

The conversion of the grades will be made through the ECTS system.

More info at: https://www.unibo.it/en/teaching/enrolment-transfer-and-final-examination/the-university-system/ects-label/the-ects-grading-scale .