Instituto Politécnico de Bragança

It is possible to improve the classification awarded to curricular units taken through certified training accreditation processes, in accordance with the UPB Accreditation Regulations and the UPB General Examination Regulations. There is no possibility of improving the classification awarded as a result of professional experience accreditation processes.

The purpose of the Accreditation Committees is to: 

• • Deliberate on all accreditation processes, regardless of the student’s admission procedure and the cycle and course in which they are enrolled;

• • Prevent double accreditation;

• • To guarantee the coherence and consistency of the accreditation procedures at the level of the School, the study cycles and the courses for which it is responsible;

• • Ensuring continuity and consistency of procedures, based on accumulated experience;

• • Continuously develop the established accreditation procedures and suggest the adoption of new procedures, the latter to be ratified by the Scientific Council;

• • Improve and consolidate the UPB Accreditation Regulations.

An Accreditation Committee, nominated by the Technical-Scientific Council of each UPB School, is responsible for deciding on all accreditation processes, and its decisions are approved by that body.

1. Accreditation of professional experience should be the result of demonstrating effective learning and the corresponding acquisition of skills as a result of that experience, and not merely the accreditation of the time during which that professional experience took place.
2. Professional experience must be appropriate, in terms of learning outcomes and/or competences actually acquired and their level, within the scope of a course unit, a scientific area or a set of them.
3. The classification must be the result of an effective assessment, carried out using the most appropriate methods for each course and the profile of each student, in order to ensure the authenticity, accuracy, timeliness and fairness of the classifications of the learning outcomes and/or competences actually acquired, credited in the curricular plans.
4. Without prejudice to others considered more appropriate, the following assessment methods may be used, oriented to the profile of each student and the objectives of the curricular units or scientific areas, which may be exempted by accreditation:

• • Assessment by examination, with a structure similar to the conventional examinations of curricular units that can be exempted by accreditation, but which is not the most natural or likely form of assessment for the purposes of accreditation;
  • Written assessment in the form of a test or quiz;
  • Oral assessment in the form of a questionnaire, with a written summary of the student’s performance in the questions asked;
  • Assessment based on the completion of a project, an assignment, or a set of assignments;
  • Assessment based on demonstration and observation in the laboratory, or in other contexts in the “field”;
  • Assessment through an interview, possibly with a questionnaire, with a written summary of the student’s performance;
  • Evaluation of the portfolio presented by the student, namely documentation, objects, work, etc., which show or demonstrate the acquisition of the competences that can be credited;
  • Assessment based on a combination of the above and other assessment methods.

5. Whichever evaluation methods are used, the following principles are taken into account:

• • Adequacy, in the sense of guaranteeing the suitability of professional experience, in terms of learning outcomes and/or skills actually acquired, within the scope of a curricular unit, a scientific area or a set of them;
  • Sufficiency, in the sense of confirming enough breadth and depth, including demonstration of reflection, to accredit the learning outcomes or competences claimed;
  • Acceptability, in the sense of confirming an adequate correspondence between what is documented/claimed and what is demonstrated, and whether the documentation is valid and reliable;
  • Authenticity, in the sense of confirming that the learning outcomes or competences are the result of the student’s effort and work;
  • Timeliness, in order to ensure that the learning outcomes or competences assessed remain current and taught within the scope of the course.
  • The classifications must take into account the statistical data of the curricular unit(s), scientific area(s), or all of them, where the professional experience is credited, and classifications that are outside the transcript must be duly justified.

Post-Bologna certified training  For training obtained in higher education institutions, national or foreign, of any subsystem (polytechnic or university), after the implementation of the Bologna Process and, consequently, with credits formally attributed according to the ECTS regime, training obtained previously is directly credited, up to the limit of accumulated credits. The crediting is approved by the Scientific Council of each School based on the guidelines established in the UPB Accreditation Regulations and complemented by the following rules:

1. Regardless of their access regime and the number of ECTS credits they have accumulated, any student must complete at least one course unit from the new UPB plan;
2. Regardless of their access regime and the number of ECTS credits accumulated, any student may be required to complete 10 per cent of the ECTS credits of the new UPB plan;
3. The total number of ECTS credits to be credited in the new UPB programme must be obtained from no less than the number of credits accumulated in the previous programmes.

Without prejudice to the previous points: a) In the case of reentry:

• • All the training obtained during the previous enrollment in the same course or in the course that preceded it is credited;

• • The number of credits to be completed in order to obtain the degree cannot exceed the difference between the number of credits required to obtain the degree and the amount credited.

b) In the case of a change of institution/course, the amount to be accredited depends on the degree of similarity between the student’s course of origin and the course of destination.
c) Curricular units credited under the terms of the previous paragraphs retain the marks obtained at the higher education establishments where they were taken.  Pre-Bologna Certified Training For training obtained in higher education institutions before the implementation of the Bologna Process, or without credits formally awarded according to ECTS:

• • 60, 30 or 20 credits are credited for each curricular year, semester or quarter, respectively, when the full-time training planned for these periods is complete;

• • For training obtained in incomplete periods (curricular years, semesters or quarters), the crediting of a given subject or module corresponds to the relative weight of that subject or module in the set of subjects or modules for that period, in terms of the student’s total hours of work;

Other certified training For certified higher education training obtained outside the scope of higher education courses:  a) The higher or post-secondary level of the training obtained is confirmed by analysing the documentation presented by the student and other public documentation; b) The adequacy of the training obtained in terms of learning outcomes and competences is also confirmed, for the purposes of crediting in a curricular unit, scientific area or group of them, by analysing the content, relevance and timeliness of the training; c) The credibility of the classification obtained is confirmed by checking the assessment methods used;  d) The credits are calculated on the basis of the contact hours and the estimate of the student’s total work, taking into account the official documentation presented; e) Certified training that is not accompanied by an explicit, credible assessment that is compatible with the entire numerical scale of 0 to 20, or that does not comply with the provisions of points a) and b), will not be recognised for crediting purposes; f) The training referred to in the previous paragraph can be taken into account in the procedures for accrediting professional experience; g) In the procedure referred to in point c), the change of classification of origin shall be duly justified.

The appreciation of a request for accreditation is based on the legislation in force and on the fundamental principles of accreditation used in other countries. In addition to the fundamental principles of accreditation, the following general rules are used:

• • accreditation takes into account the level of the credits and the scientific area in which they were obtained;

• • accreditation can only be granted for a number of credits that coincides with a whole number of curricular units that the student is exempt from taking;

• • the accreditation procedures prevent the double accreditation of both professional experience and certified training.

The request for accreditation of professional experience is made online, on the UPB accreditation portal, accompanied by a portfolio presented by the student, which should include, objectively and succinctly, the relevant information for the purposes of accreditation, namely:

• • Description of accumulated experience;

• • List of learning outcomes;

• • Documentation, assignments, projects and other elements that demonstrate or evidence the effective acquisition of learning outcomes;

• • Indication, where possible, of the curricular unit(s), scientific area(s), or combinations of these, where the professional experience can be credited.

The request for accreditation of certified training is made online, on the UPB accreditation portal, and must be accompanied by the necessary certificates proving the classification, syllabus and workload of modules, subjects or curricular units taken, as well as the respective syllabuses.

• • Requests for accreditation of professional experience must be made at the time of enrollment.

• • Requests for accreditation of certified training must be made at the following times:
    • • When applying for access to study cycles leading to a bachelor’s degree for applicants to the change of institution/course and reentry regimes and for applicants to the special competitions for holders of technological specialization diplomas, holders of technical specialization professional diplomas and other higher education courses.
    • • At the time of enrollment and in the year in which they enroll for the first time, for students of higher professional technical courses and Bachelor’s and Master’s study cycles

• • Requests for accreditation of certified training must be made at the following times:
    • • When applying for access to study cycles leading to a bachelor’s degree for applicants to the change of institution/course and reentry regimes and for applicants to the special competitions for holders of technological specialization diplomas, holders of technical specialization professional diplomas and other higher education courses.
    • • At the time of enrollment and in the year in which they enroll for the first time, for students of higher professional technical courses and Bachelor’s and Master’s study cycles