NMetAU visit to KaHo Sint Lieven
NMetAU visit to KaHo Sint Lieven (Gent, Belgium) lasted from 2nd to 16th of March 2008. Delegation consisted of vice-rector I. Proydak, professor of the Department of Coatings, Composite Materials and the Protection of Metals G. Stovpchenko, associate professor of the Automation of Production Processes Department О. Potap, associate professor of the Metal Forming Department V. Boyarkin and associate professor of Quality, Standardization and Certification Department О. Yermakova.
About University
KaHo Sint Lieven is a young university in the south of Flanders with more than 5000 of students and 520 workers. KaHo Sint Lieven is a part of university association K.U. Leuven which was founded on 11th June 2002. It consists of 13 HEIs of Flanders. Its aim is to strengthen its position within new European educational environment and to work in cooperation for the education quality improvement.
Among main tasks of K.U. Leuven are:
• development of the cooperation between universities and university colleges,
• introduction of the 2-step education program in university colleges,
• improvement of the quality and efficiency of the educational programs,
• avoiding of the research resources fragmentation.
Now KaHo Sint-Lieven can offer Bachelor and Master degrees programs in campuses located in Aalst, Gent and Sint-Niklaas.
There are also PhD and external students studying in the University. There is a module tests system in In KaHo Sint Lieven. It gives a possibility to shorten courses and number of exams and also to optimize the educational program.
The employment issue for KaHo Sint Lieven graduates has a complex solution: on one hand, University constantly carries out measures to improve the quality of students' education, and on the other hand conditions for fruitful collaboration with companies are maintained.
Quality management and accreditation
External quality evaluation system was created in the beginning of 1990s. University colleges and universities responsible for internal and external 
education quality management constantly control education quality on their initiative. They involve students, graduates and external experts (who are potential employers during the process of internal and external quality check). Together they regularly organize external evaluation (each 8 years minimum).
Quality management in Кaho Sint Lieven occurs in following sequence:
• HEI's application for the external evaluation of the education
• forming of the education quality evaluation group (independent, often international, which consists of the partners from different countries)
• formed group carries out the education quality evaluation. During its visit, group examines additional information, makes discussions with administration and the education process representatives (staff, students, trainees). Also they inspect companies that cooperate with the HEI.
After their visit to the HEI, evaluation group makes a report about the results of the work where they explain their appraisal of quality and give recommendations as for the further improvement.
Vacancies fair
In March of every year catholic universities association K. U. Leuven Association carries out Vacancies fair on the basis of the Gent University. Several dozens of leading companies from Eastern Flanders participate in the event. Involvement of employers from other regions of Belgium considers to be unreasonable as the number of vacancies is big enough. Vacancies fair is held during one day. The event organizers carry it out on the working day when all the students are in the campus and have a possibility to attend the exposition. Companies present the information about themselves on vivid stands supporting it with the videos demonstration. Qualified consultants answer questions and survey students who showed their interest in the job offers. Main task of the event is to provide unofficial contact with the interested parties in the comfortable and usual for students conditions.
During the Fair employers make only simple survey of students and establish contacts with them. More detailed conversations with those who are interested in job offers are held during further meetings.
For the Fair carrying out they schedule unchanged date known to all the interested parties. Participation in Fair is free for all the participants. However, they participate financially in the catalog publishing for distribution among the attendees.
Companies Club
Acknowledging the important role of the Vacancies Fair one cannot limit cooperation with potential employers only by involving them to the participation in such short events. Their constant presence in HEI during each step of the students' preparation, from university entrants admission to thesis defense, is very important. Thus КaHo Sint Lieven created Companies Club, participants of which are companies and organizations of the Eastern Flanders 
interested in involving university graduates to work.
Participation in the Club gives following opportunities:
• place their propositions concerning employment to the computer base;
• create constantly operating expositions concerning participants' industrial and scientific activities;
• have an access to the information about students' advancement;
• take part in forming of educational plans for students' preparation - inserting materials which are important , taking into account the activity of the Club participant;
• form theses projects topics;
• involve students with whom contact is established to practical trainings;
• form topics of professional development courses for industrial workers.
Important task of the Companies Club is involving of small enterprises that normally don't have their own personnel departments and solve such issues unsystematically. 
Participation of practical workers is a constant practice in the educational process. As opposed to purely theoretical disciplines, teaching of which is a prerogative of scientists of the institution, practical workers can deliver some number of lectures and carry out appropriate practical classes on the subject of practical direction, where peculiarities of the industrial machines operation, development of the designing documentation, practical usage of actual legal norms and standards etc are discussed. Also practical classes directly on the enterprises and learning excursions with demonstration of machines work in industrial environment are held. High level of skills, understanding of professional activity details, nonstandard vision of problems, passion to the work, which are demonstrated by "non-professional" lecturers, is the best advertising of the enterprises for students. Moreover, during the educational work with students it's much easier for enterprises' representatives to establish contacts with them as with their potential employees.
Work with graduates
Solving the issue of graduates employment, HEI has a possibility of additional positive influence on the situation in the sphere of students' contingent forming. The connection between these problems is very tight, as the information concerning successful professional career of graduates acquires considerable cogency in choosing of the university entrant and it is the best advertising for HEI.
Fruitful work in this direction in KaHo Sint-Lieven is connected with improved system of connection with graduates maintenance. Separate worker carries out regular survey of graduates during the traditional meetings and via email. The survey content is constantly changed and updated. Acquired information is included to the graduates database and is placed to KaHo Sint-Lieven website.
University publishes annual magazine devoted to the graduates of the last years which are the authors of the articles and at the same time are its active subscribers. Each student of the last year gets such magazine before his thesis defense for free.
Postgraduate education
Postgraduate education organization is an integral part of the KaHo Sint-Lieven University's systematic work of graduates employment. This not only 
gives a possibility of additional financing (as opposed to other forms of education, postgraduate one is paid), but also broadens students' possibilities for better employability.
KaHo Sint-Lieven has separate Service for Advanced Courses (SAC), which counts 5 co-workers and is protected by postgraduate education and professional education courses. SAC activity is quite large-scaled: during 3 years of education more than 1500 people graduated from it. Educational programs are coordinated with the Ministry of Education and interested non-governmental organizations (e.g. Engineering chamber of Flanders) and foresee deepened or additional education within the acquired level: Professionele Bachelor, Academische Bachelor or Master. Today very popular are safety and protection of labor courses, ecology and environment protection courses.
Duration and fees of the offered programs are quite different. The shortest courses (symposium) are directed to refreshing of the knowledge acquired before. They are short (3-4 ECTS Credits), include 1 lesson a week and their cost is rather low (1200-1400 €). Longer programs (up to 20 ECTS Credits) are considered to be additional education and include lessons during 1 day (7 hours) a week. Most popular are one-year (200-220 contact hours, 1 day/week) and two-year (400 contact hours, 1 day/week) programs,which cost about 2000-6000 €.
Postgraduate education financing can occur on the attendees' cost, but more often employers pay for it (about 60% by their own costs, and 40% by the educational checks obtained from the government). Sometimes financing for the workers' education is covered by trade unions. Ministry of Education doesn't give university financing for this kind of education.
