KDE hacking and undergraduation

As a part-time professor and part-time PhD student I was wondering about the role played by universities when providing students with some guidance towards free software development, methodologies, and community organization.

As the usual and already provided experiences (internships, research projects scholarships, and full-time job directions) I think all of us agree on technical, cultural, and social benefits of joining a free software community and it would be good if computer science undergraduate courses could somehow promote and support such activities.

I'm organizing things to have an optional course about free software development offered as part of computer science curriculum at Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. It'll be a 51h course when students will choose a project to contribute and experience 100% hands-on time bonding to the community, boosting their development skills, and learning why and how do free software development work. And, unless there is student already bonded to other communities, KDE projects are our main target :).

I've been heard about similar experiences occuring in France and other countries. I'll be grateful for hear you back about the results, impediments, and conclusions on such effort.

Cheers,