Structure and Organization

The Master Course runs over two academic years, and requires the acquisition of 120 ECTS credits (60 ECTS per year). The course relies on already activated Master Courses at the partner universities. The global course is subdivided into four semesters, distributed in time according to the following indicative schedule:

A Pedagogic Council (PC), including the coordinators of all partner institutions, manages the course. The basic functioning of the Master relies on a contract with the students. When a student first enrols in the Master, he/she shall sign an "Pedagogical contractt", which describes the goals to reach, a pedagogical path (programme), the remedies/sanctions in case of failures, and the financial arrangements (amount and deadlines for registration fees, amount and modalities of bourse payment (if any)…). See also the document “Student guidelines”. The pedagogic path envisages enrolment of each student in at least two universities of the consortium from different countries. The main educational goal is complemented by a linguistic/cultural one, consisting in getting acquainted with the European languages (other than English) of the hosting countries.

In the following we describe the typical programme to be inserted in the contract with the students:

• First year – The first year, all students will be in France. They will be spread over the three French universities of the consortium. Every student stays during the whole academic year (1st and 2nd semester) at the French university where he/she has been assigned. At the end of the year the student must have acquired 60 ECTS. The reason why the students shall go first in France:
  
  
  
  • This organization makes the logistic issues easier: organisation of the welcome week in Lyon; furthermore registration in French university includes social security and health insurance and the registration costs are lower. This also will facilitate communication between students during the first semester. Students can meet each other in one of the three French universities without difficulties at reasonable cost. The students will, all, register at the University of Lyon, which has agreements with all other universities partners. In this way, the registration at the very university where the student follows his/her training will be automatic.
    
  • Staying at the same place during the first academic year allows the students (especially those coming from third countries) to become gradually familiar with and to adapt to a European socio-cultural milieu before being exposed to changes. Another organization would require that the students find new accommodations and make a real effort of adaptation to a new place in the middle of the year;
    
  
  
  
• Second Year – The registration process remains the same: unique registration at University of Lyon and automatic registration in the assigned university. But the student must change to one of the three remaining ones: Bucharest, Barcelona or Alessandria. The student, after moving to a new university for the third semester, can possibly come back (for the fourth semester) to the university where he/she spent the first year or to a third university for the internship that not requires a new registration. The student remains under the supervision of the university where he/she is already effectively registered. The student shall attend an intensive course of the local language when he/she arrives in a previously unvisited country. The second year necessarily includes a semester of attending courses and a semester of stage in the chosen university or in a company. The student must acquire 30 ECTS in each of the two semesters of the second year.