Adhoc Meeting, Administrative and Financial Matters & Accreditation
The administration offices within the Turquoooise consortium met on October 19 and 20 in Split, Croatia, to discuss critical agreements needed for future SEA-EU joint degrees. These two intense days of workshops have highlighted the great work being done behind the scenes by our administrative offices to roll out degrees and especially, joint degrees which are an objective of the European Commission and European Universities alliances.
Master in Sustainable Management of Organisations is an initiative funded by Erasmus Mundus Design Measures (EMDM) to support the design of high-level and integrated study programmes, which will be jointly offered by six partners of the alliance: name them Turquoooise project, a pilot Master’s programme led by the University of Malta and currently being run in partnership with five European universities that are also part of the European University of the Seas Alliance SEA-EU: the University of Cádiz (Spain), the University of Western Brittany (Brest, France), the University of Gdansk (Poland), the University of Split (Croatia), and Nord University (Bodø, Norway).
As is well known, joint degrees are the nucleus of our collaboration as an alliance, giving a tangible opportunity to students to experience the ‘inter-university’ European University Campus the European University alliances are presenting. However, these can reveal the subtleties and complexity of what initially appears to be a very simple concept but which, by its very nature, can become complex, and Turquoooise is no exception. Although it is a high-potential initiative composed of high-level academic and administrative staff, it has faced some difficulties and left some reflections, which are mentioned below:
Administrative and financial matters
One of the most interesting things about Turquoooise is to see how the Universities have worked to define the appropriate protocols and effective management practices that will ensure the long-term sustainability of the project; however, it is unavoidable to face some circumstances that in certain way could affect the performance of the project, such as the difficulties for the expert members to coincide in physical and virtual spaces for teamwork, the failure to achieve the schedules and deadlines, among other internal aspects of the Universities such as the difference between institutional procedures, which has caused difficulties for instance when estimating the general costs of the project such as tuition, teaching, participation fees, etc.
Accreditation
The accreditation processes may be affected by the strict requirements of some associated partners if they follow the national accreditation routes of their national countries, as there are no uniform accreditation standards in the European Union.
For Turquoooise, the accreditation procedures in each of the six universities were analysed one by one, and based on this, it was decided that the application for this process will be made through the French agency Hcéres, which uses the European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes since the accreditation schedule would be more flexible as well as simplifying the administrative design of the Master’s programme.
After the project is completed, the European approach will begin; It can take up to eight months and requires a Self-Evaluation report to be submitted to a Review Panel, then a Site Visit is scheduled, and finally, the formal results and decision are given. While the process is being taken forward by the UBO partners, obstacles and opportunities are still being identified to smooth the right path towards a Joint Degree.
It should be noted that at Turquoooise we are aware of the conditions and challenges that these initiatives inevitably present; therefore, a judicious exercise of awareness and commitment is being made to counteract these challenges and transform them into significant opportunities.
Although the ‘design of the masters’ project ends on 31st of January 2024, this is only the end of the beginning: the Alliance’s combined efforts are laying the groundwork for this and other joint programmes. The year 2024 will be dedicated to work on the European Approach and the programme’s accreditation. The official launch of the first cohort of the EMJM is expected to be in October 2025.
