Minutes of the Accreditation Work Group in Geneva
by Tim Shaw
Participants:
Chair: Louk de la Rive Box (President of EADI; ISS, The Hague)
Rapporteur: Tim Shaw (Institue of Commonwealth Studies)
Ibolya Bárány (HUN-IDA, Budapest),
Michel Carton (IUED, Geneva)
Lawrence Haddad (IDS Brighton)
Petr Halaxa (IIR, Prague)
Cathrine Hodgkin (KIT, Amsterdam)
Bruno Lautier (IEDES, Paris)
Simon Maxwell (ODI, London)
Henrik Schaumburg-Mueller (CBS, Copenhagen)
Gianni Vaggi (CICOPS, Paiva)
Irene Maestro Yarza (Món 3, Barcelona)
Thomas Lawo, Fritz Scheidhauer, Simone Schlobinski (EADI, Bonn)
1. General
The Chair outlined the purpose of the WG which had been agreed at the previous Directors’ meeting in Pavia: to advance the interests of EADI's members in defining the field of “Development Studies” in Europe in advance of any EU rules about quality assurance. The working group seeks to facilitate the parallel Bologna Process, Erasmus/Socrates mobility and European Credit Transfer System (ECTS).
Agreed, the teaching focus on a masters level is prioritised as opposed to accreditation of research. However, with regards to the aspect of being ahead of the field, the necessity to integrate research (especially doctoral programmes) was pointed out, once the accreditation process on teaching on a masters level will be established. The accreditation of master programmes should be driven by the output of master programmes, which is the knowledge and skills of graduates. Their professional development and competencies are the benchmark of the success of a programme.
Two stages of EADI´s move towards such professional accreditation were outlined.
To agree on minimum quality standards for masters programmes, a common definition of “development studies” is necessary. The current status of development studies, which clearly is different throughout Europe, needs to be clarified.
2. Ad hoc team & vision paper
With regards to the necessity to define “Development Studies” the first stage of move of the Accreditation Working Group is to draw up a vision paper by a core team (“the three wise men“ – perhaps joined by additional female/Southern voices?). The nominations of this ad hoc team were presented by the Chair and are Jacques Forster, Hans Opschoor and Richard Jolly.
Their aim will be to prepare a draft vision statement on development studies and accreditation within three to four meetings presented at the EADI conference in Bonn in September 2005, where it is going to be discussed by the Directors and others.
The ad hoc team would seek to recognize, reflect and advance the diverse range and embeddement of “Development Studies” programmes in the EU offered by larger and smaller institutes and universities (NB these are being listed at www.eadi.org for the EU; DSA already has a UK listing at www.devstud.org.uk/courseguide and the Commonwealth has one at www.acu.ac.uk).
The self-definition in the vision paper would emphasize interdisciplinarity and transnationalism and would build on national experiences in the Netherlands, UK (NB the RAE in 2008 for the first time has a separate sub-panel for Development Studies and DSA is also helping to define Quality Assessment and Accreditation (QAA) benchmarks for the field in the UK) and elsewhere in the EU, along with disciplinary criteria already adopted in similar fields of study.
The vision paper would integrate outcomes of the “experimental” European Master in Development Studies, which is being designed by the university institutes at Dublin, Edinburgh, Helsinki, Nijmegen and Pavia (the first module of which is about to be offered in Helsinki).
Moreover, its was mentioned that in the long run national regulations with its limitations need to be clearly identified and compared to find a consistent European consent of what development studies are and should be. The question was raised how the diversity of specialisations offered affects the accreditation process.
3. Content master programme
Once the vision paper is brought forward, the second stage can be entered: To identify necessary contents and favoured curricula of a masters programme in the field of “Development Studies”. It was already mentioned that any master programme needs to combine the three areas of theoretical studies and practical approaches (in the form of internships) as well as a research component (thesis), all together requiring a duration of at least twelve months.
The question of the meaning of “Development Studies” programmes for development countries was mentioned and how to tackle the upcoming financial issues with regards to their integration. The need to compile EU funding possibilities such as the Erasmus Mundus and CoMundus was outlined.
The Chair invited further voluntary financial contributions to meet the costs of this process of advancing professional accreditation for EADI members.
