External placements are a training activity undertaken by students and supervised by the UIB. The aim is for students to apply and supplement the skills acquired during their academic training, and pick up new abilities to bolster their employability and prepare them for their future career.

Placements run at national and international businesses, institutions and organisations, including the UIB itself, depending on the planned placement category. Given the training nature of placements, they in no way involve obligations inherent to employment contracts.

There are two categories for external placements:

1. Curricular placements. These placements are part of the curriculum on official master's programmes at the UIB. Each programme organises their own placements under the CEP's supervision and guidance.
2. Extracurricular placements. These placements are voluntary and undertaken by students during their programme. Students must be enrolled on an official postgraduate or UIB-specific programme in order to do this type of placement. Where master's programmes include curricular placements, students may request any extracurricular placements be accredited (please see the following section: How to Accredit Previous Professional Experience or Extracurricular Placements). Extracurricular placements are managed by the DOIP.

The conditions for undertaking external placements are set out in the programme curriculum. Moreover, the enrolment requirements, conditions and specific information are included in the subject course guide.

Where placements involve contact with minors, students will need to state whether they authorise the UIB to request a clean certificate of sexual offences or commit to submitting one when enrolling on the subject.

In turn, all students enrolled on the external placement subject must provide the UIB with their social security number (NUSS) in order to process their social security registration and contributions, in accordance with current regulations.

All students enrolled on external placement subjects have the right to do their placement at an organisation proposed by the programme. Where student have a specific interest in undertaking a placement at a different organisation, they may request the programme coordinator to assess the possibility and, where applicable, take the necessary steps to ensure they can do the placement.

Every academic year, students enrolled on the programme will be notified sufficiently in advance about the list of organisations where they may do their external curricular placements.

Students may see the full list of organisations with placement agreements with the UIB by entering their programme name in the 'By Programme' section in the search engine.

Please check the search engine to see the list of organisations with a placement agreement with the UIB.

Where an organisation does not have an agreement with the UIB, the relevant placement coordinator will contact the CEP, where applicable, through the standard procedure for proposing a new placement agreement, using the following template approved by the Governing Council: 4480 agreement template with appendices for external curricular placements for postgraduate students. The coordinator must ensure details for the collaborating organisation or company are duly filled in.

Once the UIB and collaborating organisation have signed the agreement for each student or group, the placement coordinator will submit the relevant placement plan appendices to the CEP (length, schedule, goals, activities, etc.), as well as the confidentiality agreement (appedices 2B and 3 in the agreement template).

For more information about the procedure for signing a new external placement agreement, please see the following document: Procedure for Signing an External Curricular Placement Agreement on Official Master's Programmes with an Organisation or UIB Department.

The academic tutor will ensure the tutor or coordinator at the organisation suitably informs all students about all occupational health and safety hazards during their placements.

In turn, students must comply with the instructions provided by the collaborating organisation where they will undertake their placements, with regard to operational, and occupational health and safety hazard regulations, codes of best practice, personal data protection rules, etc.

As of 1^st January 2024, students who undertake paid or unpaid external placements must be registered with social security.

Therefore, all students required to take an external placement subject must provide the UIB with their social security number (NUSS).

How to Obtain or Consult an NUSS

Students may request or view their social security number at the following link.

Where to Enter the NUSS in Acadèmic

1. The personal details tab in the enrolment section
2. The personal details tab in the Acadèmic profile section.

Please be aware that students who fail to enter their NUSS in Acadèmic will not be allowed to do an external placement.

All students enrolled on external placement subjects must provide the UIB with their Social Security Affiliation Number (NUSS) in order to process their social security registration and contributions, in accordance with current regulations.

The procedure they must follow will depend on whether they have a Foreigner ID Number (NIE).

Overseas Students who Have an NIE

There are two options for requesting an NUSS:

1. Directly contacting social security over its e-services portal Importass.
2. Contacting administrative services and providing the following documents:
   • Form TA 1, duly filled in and signed
   • A copy of the NIE document
   • EU nationals: a copy of the photo page of their passport or ID card
   • Non-EU nationals: a copy of the photo page of their passport and a copy of their visa, where this has been issued.

Overseas Students who Do Not Have an NIE

Where students do not have an NIE upon their arrival in Spain, they will need to request one since it is essential for obtaining an NUSS and undertaking external placements. They will therefore need to perform the following steps:

1. Contacting administrative services and providing the following documents:
   • Form EX15 'Foreigner Identity Number (NIE) and Certificates Application', duly filled in and signed, and selecting the following document type: 'Foreigner Identity Number'
   • A payment receipt for the relevant fee: 790/012. They must indicate the following item: 'Foreigner Identity Number (NIE) Allocation at the Request of the Interested Party'
   • EU nationals: a copy of the photo page of their passport or ID card
   • Non-EU nationals: a copy of their entire passport (all pages, even blank ones).
2. Administrative services (via the UIB Payroll, Social Security and Immigration Service) will arrange an appointment at the Immigration Office for students
3. Going to the Immigration Office (Carrer Felicià Fuster, 7, Palma) on the day of the appointment with the reviewed aforementioned documents
4. Applying for an NUSS through one of the following options:
   • Directly contacting social security over its e-services portal Importass.
   • Contacting administrative services and providing the following documents:
     • Form TA 1, duly filled in and signed
     • A copy of the NIE document
     • EU nationals: a copy of the photo page of their passport or ID card
     • Non-EU nationals: a copy of the photo page of their passport and a copy of their visa, where this has been issued.

Academic tutors will assess curricular placements in line with the criteria and weighting for each assessment component, as set out in the subject course guide.

Assessment covers the entire activity, taking into account tutorials, the company tutor's report and students' final report on their placement.

The final student report must include the placement's goals, a detailed description of activities and results, and a personal appraisal of their performance and working conditions.

Where stated in the degree verification report, students accrediting previous professional experience directly linked to the skills inherent to their programme may request credit recognition for external curricular placements. They must provide a copy of their contract, agreement or grant award, alongside a detailed transcript of the assigned tasks issued by the organisation in question. This transcript must clearly state the student completed the relevant activity.

Students accrediting they have undertaken external extracurricular placements on postgraduate programmes may also request credit recognition for the purposes of curricular placements. In this instance, they need to provide a copy of the signed extracurricular placement agreement. Moreover, they must submit a placement report setting out the goals, a detailed description of activities and results, and a personal appraisal of their performance and working conditions.

In all instances, credit recognition must be requested by the deadlines set by the CEP in the Calendar of Administrative Procedures for Master's Degree Programmes (2024-25 academic year).

More information on the credit recognition procedure and deadlines.

UIB Regulations: Regulatory Agreement 11124 of 19^th September 2014 that amends Regulatory Agreement 10336/2012 of 8^th June that approves the External Placement Management Regulations for UIB Students at Companies, Organisations and Institutions.

CEP Regulations: Agreement of the CEP Board of 15^th July 2024 that sets out the CEP's Internal Regulations for External Placements on Postgraduate Programmes at the University of the Balearic Islands.