Regulations

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Definitions

EUREC Master: the degree programme “European Master in Renewable Energy”
Memorandum: the Memorandum of Understanding between the academic institutions jointly offering the European Master in Renewable Energy
Course sections: The EUREC Master is divided into three course sections:

The Core (duration approx. 5 months)
The Specialisation (duration approx. 4 months)
The Project (duration approx. 6 months) – a period during which the Student works full-time on a renewable energy engineering project for a company or research institute.

Partner: one of the academic institutions that is a signatory to this Memorandum
Applicant: a person who has applied for a place on the EUREC Master
Student: a person who takes up his/her offer of a place on the EUREC Master
Module: part of the course section which can be examined
Steering Committee: A committee composed of one or more representatives from each of the Partners, charged with determining the structure and content of the course. The Steering Committee meets on an ad hoc basis and has the authority to revise part or all of this Memorandum, including its annexes, on a consensual basis. These meetings will be minuted.
Co-ordinator: the signatory to this Memorandum charged with assuring a satisfactory co-ordination between the Partners and EUREC Master students.
Core Provider: a Partner charged with teaching and examining the Core. Core Providers conduct their teaching in their national language, unless under special circumstances the Steering Committee and the Co-ordinator agree that teaching should be conducted in English.
Specialisation Provider: a Partner charged with teaching the Specialisation to a group of Students. The Specialisation shall be taught in English unless otherwise approved by the Steering Committee.
Project Host: the company or research institute for which the Student works during his/her Project
Academic Year: The academic year begins on the date when Applicants who have been accepted onto the course (‘successful Applicants’) are invited to take up their places at their Core Provider. These dates will differ slightly from Partner to Partner, but will start in the period September/October.
Offer Letter: letter sent to successful Applicants by the Co-ordinator offering them a place on the EUREC Master.
Master Thesis: two documents, written by the student about their Project:

The summary paper: 4-pages plus max. 2 pages of references, conforming to a pro-forma circulated to the Students by the Co-ordinator
The comprehensive report: 40 pages, including annexes (single spaced, 12 point font)

Project Presentation: A presentation made by each Student at the end of Academic Year relating to the work each has undertaken during his/her Project.

General

The RES-Master will follow the time schedule below:

Core: starts in September / early October, ends by the last week of January at the very latest.
Specialisation: starts at the latest mid- February, ends at the end of May.
Project: lasts six months, starts early June, ends by the end of November or early December.

Application Procedure

1.Applicants nominate a first and second choice of Provider for both the Core and the Specialisation, bearing in mind that these should preferably be attended in different countries.

2.The minimum entrance criteria are a 4-year degree in engineering or a scientific discipline (e.g. physics, chemistry, mathematics…). The criteria may be waived for Applicants with relevant work experience deemed equivalent to the academic admission requirements. All candidates must satisfy the language requirements of their chosen Core Provider and meet a minimum standard of English defined by those Partners teaching a Course Section in English.

3.There is no age limit on Applicants.

4.From the pool of Applicants, the Steering Committee select Applicants to whom they wish to send an Offer Letter, decide on the Core and Specialisation Provider for each Applicant in consultation with the Co-ordinator, and, if necessary, stipulate any conditions that the Applicant must fulfil in order to take up his/her place.

Tuition Fee

5.Failure of payment within the deadlines stated in the offer letter leads the Student to be taken off the course, and not being permitted to take his/her exams

6.The registration fee is non refundable. The 1st instalment is non refundable once students have started core classes. The 2nd instalment is non refundable once students have started specialisation classes

Changes and cancellations of core and/or specialisation courses

7.The Coordinator reserves the right not to run the entire Master programme. In this case, students are fully refunded for any tuition already paid.

8.Specialisation changes and offer of specialisations:

i.Students are allowed to change their specialisation choices until 31 October. Later change requests will not be granted.

ii.The Coordinator reserves the right not to run a particular Specialisation up to 15 November of the Academic Year. Any Students that have requested this Specialisation will be offered an alternative Specialisation.

iii.The Coordinator reserves the right not to allow a Specialisation change if the maximum number of students at the desired target Specialisation has already been reached, or if the departure of a student brings the number of students at a given specialisation below the minimum. These maximum and minimum numbers are fixed by the Specialisation Provider and are communicated to the Coordinator.

9.Core changes are not permitted once a student has registered for the course.

Mobility

10.Each student must study at least one Course Section in a different country to the other two.

The Project

Arranging the project

11.The student is encouraged to arrange his/her own Project. The Project should complement the knowledge that the Student has gained during his/her Specialisation, so, if necessary, the relevant Specialisation Provider should offer assistance to the Student in finding a Project. If despite the best efforts of the Student and Specialisation Provider, a suitable Project is not found, the Core Provider shall propose a Project to the Student. However, the main responsibility for finding a project falls on the student.

12.Each year, the Co-ordinator shall contact previous Project Hosts to see if they would host one or more Students in the current Academic Year.

Approval

13.Prospective Project Hosts must fill in a standard form (‘Project Proposal Form for Companies R&D Centres’) downloadable from the Co-ordinator’s website and return it to the Co-ordinator or, if a Student has approached them, to this Student.

14.Each Student must obtain his/her Core Provider’s approval for the Project work (s)he wishes to undertake. The Core Provider assesses Projects on the basis of the information contained in the forms described in 13. Therefore, each Student must make sure his/her Core Provider receives the Project Proposal Form.

15.Once approved by the Core Provider, each Student shall send his Project Proposal Form to his Specialisation Provider, as well as to the Co-ordinator (EUREC Agency).

Supervision

16.One month after beginning work on his/her Project, each Student should send a 1-2 pages document to his/her Core and Specialisation Providers describing his/her Project in detail, the role (s)he fulfils at the Project Host and setting out a timetable by when (s)he expects to complete different stages of his/her Project work.

17.The regularity of progress reports to be sent by the Student during his/her project will be determined by the Core Provider.

18.Core and Specialisation Providers will provide their Students with prompt feedback on the messages the Students send them.

19.Core Providers and Specialisation Providers reserve the right to impose further measures to ensure adequate supervision of their Students.

20.The company or research centre at which the Students work during their Project is required to write personally to the Student’s Core and Specialisation Providers at least one month before the Project Presentations. The letter should describe the Student’s commitment to the work that the company or research centre set them, their ability to take initiative, to work in a team, and any other aspects of the Student’s working environment that the company or research centre deems noteworthy. The letter should contain a mark out of ten for the Student’s performance. This information will be used by the Core and Specialisation Providers to assess the effort that each Student has put in to their Project.

Assessment

21.Project assessment will be in two parts: the Master Thesis and the Project Presentation. The relative weighting between the Master Thesis and Project Presentation is 80% and 20% respectively. The relative weighting between the comprehensive report and the summary paper of the Master Thesis is 75% and 25%.

22.The Steering Committee will ensure that all Students are marked according to a common scheme

23.If a Student fails the Project, then upon payment of a fee of 2200 EUR to the Co-ordinator, (s)he may redo this Course Section in the following Academic Year, respecting the condition that their Project work should represent six months of work only in that Academic Year (cf. § 24).

Handing in the Master thesis

24.Projects are assessed on the basis of six months of work.

25.Each Student is to send his/her Master Thesis by e-mail to his/her Core and Specialisation Providers, and to the Co-ordinator no later than two weeks before the first day of the Project Presentations. The files e-mailed should be in ‘doc’ or ‘pdf’ format.

26.If the Master Thesis is not handed in on time, the student will fail the Project unless he/she has prior written permission (including by e-mail) from the designated supervisor at their Core provider The Co-ordinator will confirm receipt of each Master Thesis and their accompanying summaries by e-mail.

27.The Co-ordinator will post the e-mailed files in an area of its website accessible only to it and the Steering Committee.

28.If the project hosts wishes it, Students can request their thesis content to be treated confidentially by indicating this on the cover of the thesis. In this case, the Co-ordinator undertakes not to allow access to the Co-ordinator’s copy of the Student’s Master Thesis to anyone outside the Steering Committee, aside from the Co-ordinator itself.

Presentations

29.The Steering Committee will decide well in advance the exact dates and venue for the Project Presentations and the Co-ordinator will communicate this to the Students.

30.Each Student’s Project Presentation will be heard by a jury composed of a representative of that Student’s Core and Specialisation Providers and the representative of another EUREC Master Partner. The Steering Committee and Co-ordinator will select this jury. The marks awarded by this jury will inform the mark that the Core Provider awards for the Project.

31.Each Student’s Project Presentation should last 15 minutes. The Student will then be subjected to 10 minutes of questioning on his/her Project by the jury mentioned in § 30.

32.Power-point presentation software and overhead LCD projector facilities will be available to the Students.

33.All Master students are requested to be physically present at the Master Presentation days in Brussels. However, under exceptional circumstances and previous approval of the student’s core university, students can have the possibility to present their Thesis in a conference call mode. In this case, the Core provider should, at the latest two weeks before the Presentation Days, send an email to EUREC Agency approving the student’s request.

Examinations

34.Examinations on each of the Core and Specialisation Course Sections will be held shortly after teaching has finished for the respective Course Section.

35.Under normal circumstances, examinations are written, but the Steering Committee reserves itself the right in special circumstances to approve or recommend the oral examination of a Student.

36.The Steering Committee will ensure that the type and level of examination for the Core follow a standard scheme and that the basis on which marks are awarded for course-work follows a standard scheme.

37.For the Specialisation,

i.The type and level of examination should be consistent with the ECTS credits to be awarded. This will consist of at least 2 written examinations of 3 hours in duration together with a further examination or other equivalent assessment, as determined by the Specialisation Provider.

ii.Students are not to be allowed access to sources of information beyond any information given in the questions.

iii.The proportion of assessment between the exams and the practical work (either a mini-project or laboratories) should be approximately 75% - 25%

iv.Each Student’s Core and Specialisation examination and coursework results shall be communicated as soon as available to the Co-ordinator. Each Specialisation shall officially communicate the marks that Students have earned during their Specialisation to each Core Provider that their Students have attended in writing.

v.Without prejudice to iv), the Core Providers will translate the marks communicated to them by the Specialisation Providers into equivalent marks on the scale that each Core provider uses, and to use only these translated marks as the basis on which to assess and report their Students’ performance.

38.If a Student fails a module, (s)he will be offered one chance to re-sit it at the earliest opportunity. Often this is likely to be a year after the first attempt. The requirement for a Student to re-sit an exam is the decision of his/her degree-awarding Partner, in consensus with the other Partners.

39.If a Student fails the entire Core or Specialisation course component, they will be offered the chance to retake the failed component but need to pay the associated costs.

Student Misconduct:

40.In cases where a student is in breach of the local regulations of the Partner where they are being taught, the Partner is responsible for applying a fair sanction, if necessary in consultation with the Steering Committee and/or the Co-ordinator.

41.Complaints made by Students that are unrelated to misconduct will be considered by the Steering Committee.

Requirements for Awards

42.In order to qualify for the EUREC Master Degree, Students must have:

i.Complied with the regulations of the Provider responsible for each of the three Sections.

ii.Accumulated a total of 90 ECTS credits. These credits are allocated as follows:

Core section: Total of 30 ECTS credits, comprising solar, wind, biomass and water power.
Specialisation: Total of 30 ECTS credits
Project: Total of 30 ECTS credits

iii.Followed a course in the Core on the non-examinable topic “socio-economic issues”. The Core Providers and Specialisation may add other non-examinable topics at their discretion.

iv.Paid in full all fees due to the Co-ordinator and, if applicable under Article 6 of the Memorandum, to the Partners.

43.The degree-awarding Partners must keep records of the final marks for each Course Section for each of the Students to whom they may award a degree. At the end of the Course Section they publish their Students’ final results according to the following system: 0 to 40% (Fail); 40 to 50% (graded Fail); 50 to 70% (Pass); above 70% (Distinction).

44.The degree-awarding Partner may, with the agreement of the Steering Committee, award the EUREC Master Degree with Distinction if a Student has achieved 90 ECTS credits and at least the equivalent of a Distinction for the Core and at least a Distinction and a high Pass for the Specialisation or Project.

Students taking re-sit examinations may never graduate with more than a Pass from the EUREC Master. A student who fails a re-sit examination will not be awarded the RES-Master degree. Such student has the opportunity to re-enrol in the failed Master section for the successive Academic Year. The maximum time for obtaining the EUREC Master Degree is two consecutive Academic Years.

Departures from the Programme Regulations

45.If a Student requests a departure from the Programme Regulations, the circumstances of his/her request will be judged by the Core Provider. If the Core Provider sees sufficient merit in the request (after consultation with the Steering Committee, if appropriate), the Core Provider will allow the departure in accordance with its standard internal rules.

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