Quality Assurance for Work Placement in Higher Education

Abstract

Work placement is one important tool for preparing students for real working life with focus on the companies need for risk management skills and ability to handle continuously changes in business life. There is political and societal demand for a closer cooperation and more exchange of knowledge between higher education and working life. The government, the industry in general, The Norwegian Society of Engineers and Technologists (NITO) and students encourage engineering educations to provide student with work-life experience. The academic institutions have an important role to enable university-industry interaction and stimulate the flow of knowledge. The Bologna Declaration from 1999 was signed by European Ministers of Education. Two main goals were highlighted in this declaration. Learning programs should focus on preparing students for graduate studies and the programs should qualify them for a continuously changes in the labor market. University of South-Eastern Norway, Faculty of Technology, Natural Sciences and Maritime Sciences (USN-TNM) has a clear strategy to strengthen the collaboration between the university, the industry and the students. The results from the study presented relates to Norwegian context, but quality issues and findings discussed in this paper are considered relevant in an international context. We present how University of South-Eastern Norway, Faculty of Technology, Natural Sciences and Maritime Sciences (USN-TNM) have some promising approach to overcome and resolve these challenges.