On your placement

If you've been offered a placement, please begin the approval process by contacting your School's placement team.

Placements outside the UK require additional checks on top of the standard paperwork, including a travel risk assessment. These extra steps can take time, so it's important to notify your placement team as early as possible if you plan to complete a placement overseas.

Before starting any placement abroad, you'll need approval from both your School's placement team and your Dean of School. Please plan ahead, as the paperwork for international placements can take a little longer to process.

Approval process

The approval process will involve confirming that the placement meets the minimum requirements and learning objectives set out in your placement module. Suitable placements will:

• Offer meaningful, degree-relevant work at a professional level that challenges you and supports your development.
• Provide a named supervisor who will support your workplace development, wellbeing and liaise with the University.
• Provide you with a safe working environment that complies with the University’s requirements and reflects your values. Read our information guide to finding a placement organisation that shares your values.
• Makes reasonable adjustments to support your individual needs where necessary.
• Comply with the requirements of your visa as set out by the Home Office, if you are a student with a student visa.

Placement requirements

To ensure that your placement meets the above requirements, the placement team will ask your placement host organisation to complete the paperwork necessary to verify and approve your placement. For this to happen, once you have been offered a placement, you must contact the placement team with the full contact details of your placement host organisation, including the name and email address of your workplace supervisor.

If your placement coordinator needs more information regarding your placement, they will contact you directly through your student email.

Placement paperwork

The placement team will liaise with your workplace supervisor to arrange that the following paperwork is completed:

• Placement Learning Agreement, confirming that your placement is relevant to your studies and offers meaningful developmental opportunities.
• Health & Safety, Safeguarding and Data Protection checks, ensuring your placement provides a safe environment and properly protects your personal information.
• For all students on visas, an Attendance Monitoring Agreement for Placement Providers, also known as the Visa Compliance on Placement form, will need to be completed and handed in along with the completed forms highlighted above. The Visa Compliance on Placement form will need to be completed in full and signed by your placement host as soon as you have secured your placement. If you undertake your placement without your employer completing this form first, you will likely be breaking the terms of your student visa.

These forms must be completed by your placement host and returned to the placement team before your placement begins. This process is essential to ensure all health, safety, and data protection requirements are met, safeguarding you during your placement.

It is very important that you do not start your placement until the placement team has received the completed forms from your workplace supervisor and you have received formal approval. Starting without approval could put your safety, insurance coverage, and placement validity at risk.

Once you have accepted a placement, we strongly encourage you to withdraw any applications from other roles to ensure you maintain a professional relationship with other organisations. Your chosen field is smaller than you think, and you never know who you might meet again in the future.

• You are required to check your university emails while on placement. Consider downloading the Edinburgh Napier app or Outlook for your University email account so you can view your emails directly on your phone.
• Make sure you complete the registration process as you would normally and check you have received your confirmation from your student loan provider, if applicable.
• As a student, you are exempt from paying council tax, and this still applies when you are on placement.

Your placement is a professional experience that requires a professional attitude, eagerness to learn and appropriate behaviour. No one expects you to know everything, but it's important that you meet certain expectations. During your placement, you should try to:

• Clarify expectations regarding assigned responsibilities and activities.
• Demonstrate a positive and enthusiastic attitude.
• Meet deadlines.
• Avoid office politics and gossip.
• Interact professionally with colleagues, customers, and supervisors.
• Follow office policies regarding use of phones, computers, email, etc.
• Dress appropriately as clarified by supervisors.
• Exercise wise time management skills.
• Do not be late, and if you are for any reason, ensure that you call your supervisor to let them know and apologise. Make sure you allow yourself plenty of travel time to avoid delays.

Health cover for placements abroad

Edinburgh Napier students undertaking a placement abroad as part of their degree are required to have full health insurance. Basic health coverage will be provided during your stay in an EU country through the Study Health Insurance Card (Study GHIC), if eligible.

You must obtain the GHIC if you are eligible for one. Where the GHIC will not cover costs for essential medical treatment, this is supplied by the University through our Personal Accident & Travel Insurance Policy.

If you plan to travel overseas on official University business, you must always complete a travel risk assessment form before any travel or accommodation is booked. More information is available under the 'Travel' tab on our Health and Safety page.

The University's travel cover includes emergency medical expenses and repatriation as a result of an accident whilst travelling, or unforeseen illness whilst on a trip. Please note, no cover is available if travelling against medical advice.

The coverage provided by the GHIC and the University’s travel cover should be adequate as emergency health cover. If you are in any doubt after reviewing the travel cover summary, contact the placement team, and we will put you in touch with the insurance team.

Liability cover

The University's cover providers take the view that, while on any form of work experience, students will be under the direct supervision and control of the receiving organisation, so the legal responsibility for any accidents caused by or to the student would rest with the receiving organisation.

We expect/insist the receiving organisation to have in place their own comprehensive public liability and employer's liability in place to cover students in the event of an accident or injury caused while undertaking their placement.

We recommend you contact the receiving organisation regarding its liability insurance cover and expect that they will hold sufficient insurance to cover you during the placement period. You are responsible for ensuring there is appropriate insurance before starting the placement. We expect details of cover offered for you and those who may be affected by your undertakings will be provided to the University before your placement starts.

Where such cover is not provided by the organisation responsible for the placement, then the placement team should be informed, and we will discuss the suitability of the receiving organisation.

If you are involved in any accident, you and the receiving organisation and student must inform Edinburgh Napier, but the University will not be liable for any resulting costs of the accident. The University is also not liable in any way for any acts, errors or omissions of the placement student.

We have public and products liability cover in place, which indemnifies Edinburgh Napier in respect of all sums which it may become legally liable to pay as damages for accidental injury to a third party or accidental damage to property belonging to a third party. If the receiving organisation requires a view of these certificates, then they can be obtained from insurance@napier.ac.uk.

Please note that this is an outline of the cover situation, and if you have any queries, you should contact insurance@napier.ac.uk.

Remember, it is your responsibility to ensure your placement organisation is clear about what they do and do not cover and ensure adequate cover is in place before the start of your placement.

It is important to look after your health and wellbeing when you are out on placement. As a current student, you still have access to all the other services provided by the University. Whilst you can contact the Placement Team for advice and concerns you may have, and we would encourage you to do so, we also understand that you may have questions or concerns which relate to other aspects of your studies.

If you're looking for support or resources related to your studies, wellbeing, or campus life, make sure to visit the rest of My Napier for a wide range of student services, including academic support, mental health resources, financial guidance, and much more.

Safeguarding Policy and Support Framework

The protection of members of the University community from harm and abuse is a key priority for Edinburgh Napier. The University recognises its duty of care and is committed to providing a safe and protected environment for all its students.

Download the Safeguarding Policy and Support Framework (Word, 34kB)

Suicide Prevention Support Framework

Many members of the placement team have completed mental health training, so we are here to listen and support you whenever you need it. No matter how low or difficult things may seem, you're not alone. Visit our Experiencing suicidal thoughts or feelings page for resources, contact details and helplines.

If you would like to discuss any matters relating to your placement, including any changes to your placement, please get in touch with your School's placement team - we're here to help.

• The Business School: nbsplacements@napier.ac.uk
• School of Applied Sciences: sasplacements@napier.ac.uk
• School of Arts and Creative Industries: saciplacements@napier.ac.uk
• School of Computing, Engineering & the Built Environment: scebeplacements@napier.ac.uk
• General enquiries: placements@napier.ac.uk

For all academic and assessment-related questions, please contact your Module Leader or academic tutor.

We hope everything will go well for you while you're on placement. However, if something goes wrong, we're committed to trying to resolve any complains through a fair, efficient and transparent process. We'll look to resolve any issues informally first, and as quickly as possible.

If you have a concern or complaint when you are on placement, start by raising your concerns with your School placement coordinator, who will help you to explore whether the issue can be resolved informally. You'll need to include:

• Your full name, student number and contact details
• As much information as you can about the complaint, e.g. dates, times, locations, names and roles of those involved
• What outcome or resolution you are seeking

We will always try to respond within five working days if we can. You can reach your School's placement team through the email addresses at the top of this page.

If you are uncomfortable making your complaint directly, we recommend reaching out to complaints@napier.ac.uk. We will consider complaints submitted anonymously if there is enough information for us make further enquiries.

If you are dissatisfied with the placement team's response, your complaint will be passed on to the University's complaints team, who will acknowledge this in three working days.

For full information on how the University's official complaints process works, including what you should do if you are dissatisfied with our final decision, visit the Complaints page.