Erasmus Policy Statement

Strategy, objectives and priorities for the Erasmus activities

(2007-2013)

In the framework of the Flemish and European priorities KHK(Katholieke Hogeschool Kempen/Kempen University College) formulated a vision policy:

“KHK stimulates the dynamics of internationalisation. KHK offers students and personnel the opportunity to develop professional competencies enabling an active participation in a multicultural society. KHK has a cosmopolitan orientation and wants to participate in development cooperation.

KHK wants to create an environment where students and personnel develop international competencies. We want to help students to prepare professionally and socially for a global society.

Internationalisation contributes to the realisation of KHK values. Therefore we support initiatives of development cooperation, professionalism and lifelong learning.

KHK wants to maximize opportunities for student and teacher mobility and projects. We integrate the international assignment in the lecturer’s workload. It is important to sensitize constantly all members of personnel, so that internationalisation becomes an integral part of education at KHK. Incoming lecturers add a further international component to the courses.

KHK guards the quality of the international activities, in the framework of Flemish quality management via TRIS, derived from EFQM.

Quality in mobility and projects is ensured by procedures for information, communication and reporting. Together with the EPS and the Charter they can be consulted via the KHK quality manual and the e-learning platform. The English website is the communication medium with our international partners.

KHK offers internationalisation at home activities in the curriculum via international modules for international and KHK students, international days, Intensive Programmes and Comenius programmes.

KHK condemns all types of discrimination. The KHK working group “Equal Opportunities” guard the execution of this decision and takes concrete action. The international team cooperates with the coordinator for equal opportunities, for e.g. the creation of common international projects.

We want to give our students an impulse to an attitude of lifelong learning in all forms of higher education. We create projects to maximize graduates’ opportunities on the international labour market via Grundtvig and Leonardo.

Apart from the LLP programme, KHK also cooperates with the other language communities of Belgium via Erasmus Belgica. Development cooperation is becoming an attention point, via the support of the Association KULeuven.

As a member of the Association KULeuven KHK wants to take up a strong position in Flemish and European Higher Education Area. The Association wants to be a cluster of centres of excellence in many fields of education, research, innovation and services to the community. The courses are developed according to stringent internal quality criteria, and want to reach international accreditation, in the framework of the Bologna goals. Concerning international cooperation the international offices have developed common strategies to reach the goals of a European cooperation within a global context.

Quality of academic mobility activities

KHK recognizes the study period abroad as an integral part of the curriculum via ECTS and the KHK student tracking system. The credits listed in the learning agreement and transcript of records are quoted on the diploma supplement.

Short programmes are often a starting point for longer mobility and intercultural awareness. We involve lecturers and students to broaden the basis of internationalisation. International days, Erasmus Intensive Programmes and other international activities are part of the curriculum. Cooperation with foreign universities stimulates the internationalisation of the curriculum.

Students and lecturers are informed about internationalisation via information sessions, the KHK website and the e-learning platform. All KHK outgoing students are prepared in an intercultural preparation day and presentations of returnees. Students can borrow instruction packages for their language preparation. The academic and international coordinators decide together about the academic mobility, whereas counselling and organisation is dealt with by the international teams. KHK stimulates international assignments for lecturers.

Incoming students and KHK students can attend English modules. The goal is to offer an attractive and structured programme for all incoming students.

Integration of incoming students is the responsibility of the international team. All information needed can be found on the website www.khk.be. Each English module starts with a welcome and information day. Academic and/or leisure activities are organised by the international coordinators and student councils. Dutch lessons are integrated in the course for a quick integration in the local community. KHK Social Service counsels for non-academic problems.

The KHK accommodation officer finds the right match between the students’ wishes and the offer of private accommodation and checks the quality and safety of the rooms.

The quality of the mobility is guaranteed by the choice of academic partners. KHK wishes to broaden the participation in networks and consortia to every study field, as membership is a quality asset.

There is close cooperation between the disciplines in order to create common international modules for students of the participating partners.

Quality of student placement activities

KHK has a tradition of excellent cooperation with professional organisations, abroad and at home. In the new LLP this cooperation will be formalised within the European grant system. Practical arrangements are made in advance according to procedures which are already used for the Belgian placements. Evaluation procedures are negotiated with the professional partner and the contract is signed. Quality control is done by our academic partners or directly by KHK lecturers.

The placement is an integral part of the curriculum. In the professional bachelor courses credits are assigned to placement and final work. In the master’s course credits are given to the master dissertation, based on practical projects and/or research projects.

International placements are honoured by credits and recorded in the diploma supplement. Placement visits and assessment is done mostly by our own lecturers. Sometimes a lecturer of an academic partner institution will do the counselling and assessment.

A thorough preparation is part of a qualitative placement. The linguistic preparation is the responsibility of the student. Language material can be borrowed. For KHK students a common intercultural preparation day is organised. It teaches students how to deal with the (reverse) culture shock. The practical preparation of the individual placement is done in the courses.

KHK is closely connected with the Kempen region and always involves professional organisations in international projects. They are the necessary connection for placements, final work juries, project weeks, exchange of know-how, and employment of our graduates.

These Kempen organisations also offer placements for the students of our partner institutions. For incoming students we use the same procedure. Placement content is negotiated, assessment and monitoring is done by our own lecturers, via placement visits and assessment moments at KHK. The student writes a placement report and receives a placement assessment at the end.

The close cooperation with professional and international organisations from the Kempen area are an important stimulating factor in the internationalisation of the curriculum.