a) External placements are termed curricular when they form part of the study programme, count for ECTS credits, and have the duration specified in the study programme, corresponding to the number of credits. b) Placements are deemed extracurricular when they do not form part of the study programme and are completely voluntary on the part of the student. They must still be directly linked to the student's studies and must have a workload of no more than half that of an academic year (750 hours). An academic year is taken to be the period between September of one year and September of the next.