Practical advice when collaborating with students
It is both rewarding and fun to collaborate with students. To ensure the best possible collaboration, here is some important information to read through when considering having a student in training in your organisation.
Students in training
All previous collaborations that students have with companies and organisations follow a syllabus, which means that students have certain requirements that must be met in order to be approved in the examination.
There is always a responsible examiner or supervisor at the University. The supervisor sometimes visits the students during the project period. As a client, it is important to be aware that these are people in training, who are doing projects to learn. If it is important that the work is completed at a specific time, and/or with specific results, it should be considered whether it is appropriate to carry it out as a student project.
Insurance and safety
Students at Halmstad University are insured by Kammarkollegiet and covered for accidents during school hours at a workplace that the University has approved.
Secrecy
When in contact with organisations, students may find themselves in situations where they have access to, or need to handle, confidential or sensitive information. This may, for example, involve access to patient data or trade secrets in a company. External parties participating in the collaboration may request that students, and in some cases supervisors, sign a confidentiality agreement for the type of sensitive information involved. It is always the external party's responsibility to ensure that this happens.
In collaboration with companies, it is not uncommon for issues of confidentiality and the right to results to be handled in agreements on IPR (Intellectual Property Rights). Confidentiality agreements can never extend beyond what Swedish law allows.
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and Public Documents
In general, students own the results they produce in student projects and degree projects. This also applies when the work is carried out together with an external partner. If students and an external partner create results jointly, they share the rights to those results.
In collaborations with companies in particular, students and the external partner should agree in advance, through a written agreement, on who owns the results and how they may be used. For example, the company may be given the right to use or take over ownership of the results, possibly in return for a royalty, and agreements may also be made on how patents will be handled. Such agreements are made between the students and the external partner.
If the students and the external partner signs employment contracts, the client owns the intellectual property rights. Both students and clients should ensure that any agreements or employment arrangements do not prevent students from presenting and reporting on parts of their work.
Finished work or material submitted to the University, such as theses or reports, is considered public information. This means it may be shared if someone requests access. Small parts of the material that are not essential for assessment may sometimes be kept confidential and included as a separate appendix. However, the material used for assessment must always be public. Students’ oral presentations may also be public, so sensitive information should be avoided.
If the work contains results that can be patented, a patent application must be submitted before the work is made public.
Costs and compensation
When degree projects and student projects are part of the students' education, there is no requirement for students to receive compensation. From the students' perspective, degree projects and student projects are important elements, they are essential parts of the education.
Costs for carrying out projects, such as materials, software and project travel that are necessary for students' tasks in collaboration with the organization, are expected to be covered by the organization. If more such costs are expected to arise, a budget should be agreed upon before the work begins. Any compensation to students (in addition to project costs) is an agreement between your organisation and the students.
