The scope of the project is to conduct a comparative study in a number of EU Member States on the added value created by double degree programmes. For the specific purposes of this project and for a matter of clarity and simplification, this general term includes all the possible variants of educational degree programmes carried out jointly by two or more institutions with an embedded mandatory mobility component (Dual Degree Programmes, Joint Degree Programmes, Multiple Degree Programmes, etc.) in Science and Technology from the point of view of the different actors involved in the process (programme directors, administrators, students, employers) and with a particular focus on the employability and personal development of the students participating in these programmes. Many surveys on Double Degrees have been carried out over the years, but little if no attention has been devoted to the impact that these programmes have on the students’ career path and the development of his/her competences. Other surveys in this sense have been performed but the focus was on the mobile students in general and not specifically on the Double Degree students. General objectives: - Provide the students with a clear picture on what kind of scenario they can expect to face when registering to a Double Degree programme in a specific country and in a specific scientific field. This should help the universities to recruit a higher number of motivated and fully aware students to their existing Double Degree Programmes; - Issue a set of recommendations/guidelines on how to improve existing double degree programmes in the light of the feedback received by the stakeholders and how Programme Directors can create new effective and attractive ones both from the point of view of students and employers. The 7 partners of the consortium are leading European Universities of Science and Technologies representing a subset of the members of the CLUSTER network (www.cluster.org) and have been active in the development and management of Double Degree Programmes since the early ‘90s. The project aims at covering the following main set of activities over a 2 year time spam: - A Comparative study on the existing national and EU policies on Double Degrees, on the existing programmes their structure and performance, existing literature and analysis of the definitions; - A quantitative survey via a questionnaire on the feedback of Double Degree alumni based on a set of indicators analyzing their careers and performance; - A set of interviews to alumni, students, employers and programme directors aimed at collecting qualitative data about the perceptions of these target groups on the added value of Double Degree Programmes; - The identification of what works and what doesn’t work in Double Degree programmes in order to create a new standard based on recommendations and guidelines. - A training event for professionals involved in the development and implementation of double degree programmes at the partner universities and beyond in order to develop a standard to be used for organizing similar training events at other HEIs The project activities have been structured around the following 7 outputs: 1) Report on the State of the art 2) Survey on student feedback 3) Interviews - qualitative data on the employability of double degree students 4) Manual for the restructuring and development new double degree programmes 5) Interactive Website and Double Degree Programmes repository 6) Quality Plan for internal and external quality assurance 7) Dissemination Plan for the outreach, sustainability and exploitation of the results The partners will organize seven Transnational Project Meetings for the coordination of the activities and development of the intellectual outputs and two dissemination events with the participation of a total of 100 external stakeholders will be held at mid-term and at the end of the project lifetime. The following final results are expected on different levels: - Better understanding from the student side of the implications of taking part in Double Degree Programmes in terms of employability and personal development; - Better understanding from the employer perspective of the profile and skills of this specific group of graduates; - Better understanding on what works and what needs to be adjusted and redesigned in the curricula and Programme structure from the perspective of the Directors of studies and other professionals involved in the development and/or management of double degree programmes; - Impact on the overall internationalization strategies of HEIs in terms of resources to be allocated to new joint educational programmes and recruitment policies: - Adoption at EU level of the recommendations and of the new standard for DoubleDegree Programmes with a possible impact on the structure of the next generation of European programmes.