​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Glossary

Credit conversion​

Once the exchange period is complete, the transcripts of Edinburgh Napier students will be sent to the Global Mobility team who will forward these on to the member of staff with responsibility for credit transfer for returning students.  Please contact the Global Mobility​ team for information on who has this responsibility within your School.

Overseas agreements

The University has approximately 25 Overseas Reciprocal Exchange Agreements to facilitate student exchange outwith Europe. These agreements have been established with universities in Australia, Canada, USA, Hong Kong, and New Zealand. The majority of our Overseas Reciprocal Exchange Agreements are university-wide agreements. 

University-wide exchange agreements

Exchanges are open to most students, however, not every degree subject taught at ENU may be offered by all our University-wide partner institutions.

Subject specific exchange agreements

Exchanges are only open to students whose degree programme is in the stated subject area.

IMF –Institutional Mobility Forum

The Institutional Mobility Forum (IMF) was established in 2017 to support Schools to achieve outward mobility targets in both traditional and short-term mobility initiatives, and to support the increase in non-exchequer income through growth in Visiting Student numbers. One of the most important responsibilities of the IMF is to manage the process of setting up and reviewing exchange agreements, therefore all exchange agreements are subject to scrutiny via the Institutional Mobility Forum. All Schools and related professional services departments are represented on the IMF.

International Student Exchange Program - ISEP​

The International Student Exchange Program is the largest global community for study abroad offering exchanges at more than 300 universities. Edinburgh Napier University has been a member of the network since 1992. The Global Mobility team sends approximately 5 ENU students through the ISEP Network every academic year, mainly to the countries where there is a very limited number of partner universities or there are no partner universities at all. Recently ENU students participated in the ISEP exchanges in Taiwan, South Korea, China, Japan, Fiji, Puerto Rico. Students are not permitted to undertake an exchange to a direct reciprocal ENU exchange partner through ISEP. 

Overseas exchanges

Overseas exchanges currently refer to reciprocal exchange arrangements outwith the EU. Approximately 100 ENU students participate in the Overseas exchanges every academic year. Our main non-European destinations are Australia, Canada, USA, Hong Kong, and New Zealand. ​​​​​

Reciprocal Exchange

The main tenet of a reciprocal exchange agreement is that tuition fees are waived in both directions. Therefore, students visiting ENU under a reciprocal exchange would not pay tuition fees to Napier, and Napier students would have their tuition fees waived at the host institution.

School Mobility Lead

An academic member of the IMF who represents their School on the forum. SML acts as a liaison, feeding into IMF agenda discussions and disseminating information back to the School, including  informing the School about the decisions made by the IMF and implements the agreed changes or improvements and actions.

Short-term mobility

A short-term internship, group cultural visit or course that lasts for a minimum of a week. Some schemes offer funding for short-term mobility but these short-term mobilities must last for a minimum of 4 weeks. Short-term opportunities remove barriers often associated with full year mobility, making the activity more accessible and inclusive. Short-term mobility can also act as a taster for future traditional mobility. Short-term mobilities are currently managed by Schools or are undertaken at student’s own behest. Some short-term mobilities may be eligible for Turing grants.

Turing Scheme​

In December 2020, the UK government announced the launch of the new Turing Scheme. Turing is expected to be the primary funding programme for outward student mobility going forward - covering a range of student mobility activities of between 4 weeks – 12 months. The UK Government’s ambition is for the scheme to be international in focus rather than being focused solely on Europe. It is anticipated that funding will be available through the Turing Scheme for international placements during the period from September 2024 to August 2025 – though this will not be confirmed until the Summer of 2024.

Visiting Students​

Non-graduating students who study at the University for typically either one or two trimesters. They do not articulate onto a named degree programme and instead select modules form the following module catalogue. Please note that double degree or direct entrant students who plan to graduate from Edinburgh Napier University are not part of the VS cohort.

There are four categories of Visiting Students:

Fee Payers

● Study Abroad (via a provider with whom ENU has a contractual agreement)

● Free Movers – ENU does not have a formal agreement with these students’ home universities

Non-fee payers

● Overseas Exchange (Primarily Non-EU)

● European Exchange (Primarily EU)

LAST UPDATED: 17/06/2024

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