Student Exchanges (page under development)The Department of Computing at Imperial College has standing agreements for whole academic year student exchanges with a small group of partner Departments in Technical Universities and Institutes in Europe where there is an intensive programme in Computer Science that is similar to the integrated MEng degree in Computing at the College. More details of these partner institutions are given below. The College has an International Office for general enquiries from students at other universities. An Imperial College MEng student who is registered for the European Programme of Study in Computing is required to take the whole fourth year at one of our partner departments. Under the agreements we will accept a similar number of incoming exchange students, again for a whole academic year. The actual programme of study of an exchange student is usually as close as possible to that which the student would follow at their home university, subject to available course options. These exchanges are normally partly funded under a scheme for student mobility, such as Erasmus, or Unitech. The policy of only allowing an exchange for a whole academic year has its basis in the need to avoid excessive administrative costs in ensuring that each student has an environment where he or she can progress scholastically. This form of student mobility is cometimes called horizontal, as opposed to the more flexible vertical provisions available under the Bologna Agreement, whereby a student completes a Bachelor degree at one university and then gains admittance to an MSc at another university. Since the Department of Computing also provides a Bachelor programme in Computing, and has both Conversion and Advanced MSc programmes, the arrangements envisaged by the Bologna Agreement are already available. Some of our partner universities in the Idea league also provide MSc programmes, some given in English, to which graduates from Imperial College can apply. In practice, admission to an Imperial College degree programme at Bachelor or Master level is open, but is very selective. Fees are applicable, but reduced for home and EU students. Under horizontal exchanges within the Erasmus and Unitech schemes a student is still considered to be enrolled at their home university, so no new fee is applicable, indeed, the practice at the College is to reduce the costs. In addition to those universities where we have standing agreements, the Department of Computing at Imperial College may occasionally agree special arrangements for a whole year student exchange with a Computer Science department from one the universities in the Cluster, Idea, or feasibly the Caesar consortia of European Technical Universities. In cases where the College has an agreement to facilitate student exchanges with a University outside Europe, the Department will give due consideration as part of the College processes, but it is not commited to such exchanges. Students who come to Imperial College as part of an exchange arrangement with another Department should note that even though the formal admissions process is centrally organised, each department manages its own student teaching and research programmes, including most of the associated costs. A student is taught within the programme of courses arranged by the student's home department, not the Faculty, as is the case in Arts and Science degrees at many traditional universities. In particular, the Department of Computing does not normally allow an exchange student hosted in another department to take one of the lecture courses in Computing, unless the lecture course is part of an agreed joint programme with the student's host department. |