Master programmes going global
Making use of new opportunities for educational internationalisation within the VLIR International Course Programme, we were able to obtain substantial co-funding that will allow us to start implementing the strategic vision for a renewed Globalised Northern- Based Development Studies Institute( see Annual Report 2015), in particular in our core area of Master’ s education. The principles of the IOB strategy are to build upon existing partnerships, to match demand and supply, to strengthen the nexus of education – research – outreach / impact, and to work using an incremental, gradual approach, allowing for diversified levels of ambition according to conditions and the nature of the partnership. The main instruments concern student and staff exchange( Mobility Window, fieldwork for dissertations) and the co-development of MA modules in situ.
The five-year plans( 2017-2021) for the approved ICP projects that support our three Master’ s programmes aim to achieve, in particular:
( a) enhanced exchange of students and staff within our existing programmes( guest lectures by teaching staff from partner countries, research and dissertation internships for IOB students in all partner countries).
( b) the co-organisation of joint course modules in the DRC and Tanzania, part of local Master’ s, but also accredited as modules of our own Master’ s in Antwerp.
( c) the co-organisation of a Central American version of our three Master’ s programmes, i. e. the organisation of three of the four modules in Managua( LIPR track) and the second module of the programmes in Antwerp.
In all partner countries, these new educational plans are tightly linked to ongoing and new research efforts and, in particular, new initiatives to further strengthen the quality and social impact of joint and autonomous local research. The strategy also involves cooperation with additional national and international stakeholders, thus avoiding an exclusive IOB-centred process. In the DRC, together with our long-standing partner Université Catholique de Bukavu, we are working towards the creation of a joint IOB-UCB Master module on the governance of natural resources, and the intensification of staff and student exchange. In Tanzania, the educational plans are linked to monitoring and evaluation research aimed at a synergy-platform, involving different organisations of the Belgian development cooperation, as well as other national and international partners of Zumbe University. In Nicaragua, the dynamics of the cooperation process point towards more intense regional cooperation between the three Jesuit universities in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala. Other international academic partners from the US and Europe will also join this ambitious effort.
30 • Annual report 2014