Call for Mobility – What we have done
PH. Brooke Cagle by Unsplash
Translated by Lisa Ferrario
Reading time 3 min
GOAL: to allow a greater number of students to study abroad for a semester.
THE SITUATION THUS FAR: 4500 applications per year; 3000 available places; 1500 actual number of people going abroad.
OUR POINT OF VIEW: the experience of studying abroad is a further benefit for students. The selection and assigning process needs to be more efficient.
WHO: our representatives in CdA, the rector’s proxy for mobility, the representative professors for each faculty and the university’s designated offices.
ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN AND DECISIONS:
- We should review the current agreements between universities, with the aim of improving those of higher quality, reducing those that are not very interesting for students and creating new ones.
- We should duplicate the current fall/winter (November/January) call, creating a new opening in spring (April/May).
- Increasing the number of preferences to 6 for short-term mobility and 3 for double degrees reducing to 2 the number of reassignments on the ranking list. This was necessary in order add the second call in spring.
- With regards to the engineering faculty, maintaining Grade criteria (weighed average, 33pt + 3pt bonus[*].
- For design and urban planning architecture faculties, change the composition of the score in order to be admitted in the ranking. In order to speed up the process of assigning places, it was necessary to modify it:
- Making it meritocratic, depending on the students’ effort
- So that it would consider affinity with regards to destination, at least for the first choice.
- And so that it would also include portfolio and profiles.
In addition to grades (33 pt + 3 pt bonus[*]), motivational letters and CVs (profile, 10pt), it was decided to keep portfolios (10pt) with the additional aim of evaluating the affinity with the first choice. This affinity will probability account for 3pt for AUIC and will not include any points for Design, other than an eligibility evaluation. Portfolios evaluation will be carried out by a committee, rather than individual professors. Lastly, there will probably be a ranking for each university site rather than a single ranking, in order to maximise the number of outgoing students.
- [*] keep the 3pt bonus to assign to those who participate for the first time or those who have already studied abroad for a short term and are now requesting to study abroad for a double degree.
- Facilitate the exchange of Freemover students. It will therefore be possible to leave without going through rankings only for destinations with which Politecnico does not have agreements.
- Facilitate the procedure for abroad dissertations by increasing the number of scholarships offered.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- To the constant activity of our representatives present both within the main University board as well as within the AIUC and Design boards.
- To the dialogue that has been established with the other students’ representatives with whom we had to discuss values and principles.
- To the discussions that we have had with some professors in order to understand the starting point of both sides and achieve an optimal trade-off for everyone.
With this method, the work is coming to an end.
Tempo di letture 5 min