Abstract:

In ESPANT (European Study Programme for Advanced Networking Technologies ), a one year postgraduate study programme of 60 ECTS credits is addressed. The curriculum will be tailored on students who obtained a bachelor degree in an IT related subject – computer science, multimedia, information engineering, telecommunication, etc. It is our aim to implement a bachelor level training programme. This means that the emphasis lies on operational objectives rather than on design and research topics.
To face the above mentioned project, institutions from Belgium, Spain, Finland, Portugal and Slovenia will work together to develop a modular programme, international in organisation and contents, presenting the integration possibilities between a number of selected topics.
The ESPANT programme is a competence based programme and will be built around six modules: general system management, implementing real-time media, integrated security, mobile and wireless communication techniques, integrated network storage, and networking infrastructure. Each institution in the consortium implements one, two or three modules, which means that student mobility is essential to finish the complete study programme. This enhances the international and intercultural competences of the participants.
After finishing the project the programme in advanced networking technologies will be implemented. The different modules will be described in ECTS files which outline the study programme. Besides the ECTS files, competence cards for each teaching activity in the modules will be produced, which will be based on existing competence profiles. The study material will be uniformly conceived in English. In a trial period, the modules mentioned earlier will be taught using a test audience. The outcomes of this trial will be used to adapt the course material to the objectives of the modules. Once the programme is running in the participating institutions, several other institutions across Europe will be invited to participate in this study programme by copying and providing the different modules. Students on an Erasmus exchange programme are able to participate in the modules implemented by the guest institution.
The interaction between different areas in the technological field is often lost in traditional study programmes. To give students the competences to integrate different networking technologies, an innovative teaching approach is needed, providing i) real world examples and case studies, ii) training have to take place in a realistic environment rather than an artificial lab setup, iii) operational competences, and iv) detached modules, in which the different areas in the study field are integrated in case studies and lab projects.
An advanced methodology is used to ensure that the aims and objectives of this project are addressed properly: A steering committee, formed by the leading persons of all the partners in the consortium, monitors the overall performance of the project. To ensure an independent quality control, an external quality coordinator supervising that the aims and objectives of the project are reached,
At the end of the project, it is expected that Institutions across Europe joined ESPANT being able to copy and implement one or more modules from the study programme. This enlarges the recruiting space and the flexibility of the study programme.

Keywords:

higher education, long life learning, networking technologies.