Nowadays, many countries across Europe and around the world opt for concepts of dual education. This special system of higher education has great future potential for all stakeholders: universities, companies, students, cities and communities. However, the steps to implement dual study programmes and the cooperation between companies and academia are different in different countries. In this project, four European universities with their associated industry partners and regional policy stakeholders will cooperate to bring the different experiences from the development and implementation of dual study programs together. The main objectives of the project are: • To look at dual education from different perspectives. • To identify challenges and potentials for the future. • To provide a platform for exchange. • To find a systematic and standardized internationalization of the previous dual study programs. • To increase mobility between universities. • To boost the transparency of the international study programs with a view to the integration of the services and innovation provided in the regional industry. • Furthermore, the project consortium wants to develop and test a joint international study module that incorporates digital learning and teaching methods as well as a real and blended mobility phase. After the end of the project, the module should be established at individual partner universities, so that it can be expanded to an international dual degree study program, for example within the follow-up project. The project consortium will consist of two working groups: Teaching Incubator und Management Incubator. Both working groups will be composed of members of the project consortium, their associated industry partners (dual partners) and selected regional policy stakeholders. Both working groups in five European workshops will prepare the project results. The working group "Teaching Incubator" will be responsible for the preparation of the content concept of the module and the working group "Management Incubator" for the preparation of the organizational concept. Workshops of the project consortium and associated partners will be additionally supported by individual regional activities of each project partner. These activities will play an important role in the project: • The project partners clarify specific framework conditions at the regional level for the development and implementation of an international study module and obtain information from the regional ministries, accreditation institutions, Rectors' Conferences and similar. • The project partners validate important interim results from the Teaching and Management Incubator workshops by regional bodies. The concept of the international study module will be tested in the mobility phase of the project. In the first year of the project, a summer school for students from all partner universities will be planned as preparation for participation in the international module. Corresponding documents for the implementation of intercultural, linguistic and professional competence training will be documented by the project consortium. In the second year of the project, on the other hand, a trial run will be planned for the joint study module. The project consortium will discuss different models for the implementation of the module, for example: • Model 1: Students will finish the theory phase at home university and the practical phase in the associated company abroad. • Model 2: Students will finish the practical phase in the “home company” and the theory phase at the partner university abroad. • Model 3: Students will finish one part of the theory phase as a presence-study at home university, and the another part as a distance learning course (blended/ virtual mobility). The practical phase will be finished in the associated company abroad. After project completion, the following main project outputs will be expected: • Study on dual study models among all project partners. o Quantity and quality of existing dual study programs among all project partners o Does an understanding of dual education models already exist in the target European regions and, if so, how deeply engrained is it? Is it common for education programmes to feature extended praxis terms, and are such terms well accepted? o Are societal, economic and political decision makers in the target European region generally interested in supporting dual education models? o Which general economic conditions support the transfer of dual study models? • Final publication: recommendations for universities and policy makers on the implementation of dual study concepts at the European level. • Module description for the joint international study module. • Teaching and learning materials for the joint study module. • Implementation of the mobility phase (included blended mobility) in the joint international study module
Across Europe, the interest in cooperative models in higher education is increases steadily, as these models are regarded to offer a unique and direct transfer between higher education and practice, due to the intensive interaction between the stakeholders. Searching for future talents, many industrial partners in cooperative programmes also welcome an intensified internationalization of the study programmes. However, the framework for implementing cooperative study programmes and the cooperation between companies and academia are different in European countries. The project tried to answer which kind of internationalization is currently used in the different systems and what are the possibilities for Cooperative study programmes to push forward internationalization under the restrictions of the legal and organizational origin of the programmes. In this project, four European universities together with their associated industry partners and selected regional policy stakeholders cooperated to bring the different experiences into the development and implementation of cooperative study programs together. The consortium of the project partners consists of • Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Stuttgart (DHBW Stuttgart, Germany) • Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France (UPHF), represented by its internal Higher Institute in Engineering: Institut National Des Sciences Appliquées Hauts-de-France (INSA-HdF, Valenciennes, France) • Heriot Watt University (HWU, Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom) • Metropolia Ammattikorkeakoulu Oy (Metropolia UAS, Helsinki, Finland) The main objectives of the project were: • to look at cooperative education from different perspectives. • to identify challenges and potentials for the future. • to provide a platform for exchange. • to find a systematic and standardized internationalization of the previous cooperative study programs. • to increase mobility between universities. Furthermore, the project consortium wanted to develop and test a joint international study module that incorporates digital learning and teaching methods. In this sense, the project set out the main objective to analyse the framework for cooperative programmes in higher education of the countries involved and the prerequisites for an improved transnational mobility, giving students the possibility to gain international experience and to develop intercultural competencies. In the first phase, the project analyzed the study models of four European Higher Education Systems. Concentrating on their intrinsic (dual/Cooperative) organizational models, the project examined which kind of internationalization is currently used in the different systems and whether are there more possibilities for Cooperative study programmes to push forward internationalization under the restrictions of the legal and organizational origin of the programmes. (IO1) Following, the project analyzed the life cycle of a cooperative student by comparing and evaluating the four different cooperative or non-cooperative study models of DHBW, INSA-HdF, HWU and Metropolia UAS. As a result, the project identified nine basic parameters, cooperative study models benefit from. (IO2) Due to the substantial differences in the organizational models of cooperative programmes, stakeholders experience limited flexibility when in comes to the implementation of students´ international mobility. Complete international semesters appeared only to be constrained suitable to the stakeholders. In this sense, in the second phase the project set out of the development and implementation of a Summer School and an international module as main objective. (IO3) Based on the experiences and insights from the Summer School, in the next step, the agreed and formally implemented international module conducted and a summary of learning and teaching materials developped, is provided. (IO4) Concluding, the project developped a set of significant recommendations that arise from the work of the InT#Tech project, representing the viewpoints of the stakeholders in Coop programmes: the students, the universities, the employers governing bodies. (IO5). The IO's are finally summarized in the last report, also giving conclusions on the whole project (IO6). The dissemination of the project outcomes took place through multiplier events, along with other canals and instruments described in the specific section. The above stated main objectives of the project, were achieved. Additionally compiled results and mutual activities of the consortial partners will be maintained. The project partners also seek to extend the existing network.