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Agricultural, Food and Environmental Policy Analysis (AFEPA) – (M.Sc.)
Université Catholique de Louvain
Department of Applied Biology and Agricultural Productions
| Application Deadline: | January 10, 2012: Scholarships All Applicants;March 31: Non-EU Applicants;April 30: EU Applicants | ||
| Annual Tuition Fee: | ≈ € 3,000 - ≈ € 6,000 (non-EEA) | ||
| Location: | Louvain-la-Neuve / Belgium / View location on map ▾ Hide location on map ▴ | ||
| Duration: | 24 months | Start Date: | September, October |
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| Languages: | English French German Spanish | ||
Location of Université Catholique de Louvain
The European Master in Agricultural, Food and Environmental Policy Analysis aims at providing a high quality education in designing and assessing public policies targeted to the agricultural and food sector as well as the rural environment. The programme is policy oriented, focused on economic analysis, but with a strong multidisciplinary component. By the setting of criteria of admission and by courses in advanced microeconomic theory and quantitative methods the programme provides the basis for applied policy analysis founded on state of the art economic models and econometric tools. Drawing on complementary, specialized teaching and research expertise of professors from several universities the Master programme offers teaching relevant for the analysis of agriculture, food and environmental policy issues within a unified framework exposing students to policy traditions in different European countries.
Students are required during their studies for the Master degree to be associated with at least two of the five universities involved in the programme. This gives students from Europe and from the rest of the world the opportunity to establish a rich professional and academic network involving fellow students and teachers associated with the programme. In this and other ways the programme assists students to obtain access to universities in Europe and beyond in the pursuit of further academic qualifications to undertake agricultural, food and environmental policy analysis.
Academically the programme distinguishes itself from existing programmes in Europe by
o being policy oriented,
o being based on state of the art training in microeconomics and micro-econometrics,
o combining the analysis of agricultural and environmental policy issues within unified economic framework, however also exposing students to multidisciplinary approaches.
* Learning outcomes
The European Master in Agricultural, Food and Environmental Policy Analysis trains graduate students that will be:
1. aware of the economic, social and environmental dimensions of the performance and competitiveness of the agricultural and food sectors and other profit (market) and non-profit (non-market) activities in rural areas,
2. able to understand the fundamentals of recent economic theory as well as its strengths and weaknesses,
3. able to use and apply adequate methods and tools to address and analyse socio-economic and environmental problems that are observed or anticipated in the agricultural and food sectors and rural areas in different development contexts,
4. able to use complementary approaches from other disciplines when needed,
5. able to perform sound quantitative economic analysis and anticipate possible effects of policy and regulation reforms,
6. able to interpret results and derive policy implications and recommendations,
7. able to draw from European experience and expertise in designing and evaluating policy and regulatory reforms given the economic, social, environmental and ethical dimensions of the issues facing societies expressing structural change,
8. able to communicate their methods and results to both specialised and non-specialised audiences, hopefully in at least two European languages.
The main objective of this Master Course is that recipients be qualified to use and apply adequate methods to analyse socio-economic problems, formulate policy recommendations and understand the risks and consequences of any given economic policy measures, especially those oriented towards agricultural and food sector, rural areas as well as natural resources and their environment. In particular, recipients are expected to be able to use and develop quantitative methods to perform rigorous socio-economic and environmental assessment of these public policies, and provide sound and relevant policy recommendations to a better sustainable development of rural areas.
Recipients are qualified to take responsibilities in international, national and regional agencies, non-governmental organisations, consultancy firms, professional organisations and private companies such as banks, insurances and agricultural, environmental and food business.
Contents
The European Master in Agricultural, Food and Environmental Policy Analysis is a two-year programme of 120 ECTS credits. The academic programme consists of a number of compulsory courses for 30 ECTS credits, a number of optional courses for 40 ECTS credits within at least three different subject areas, a number of supplementary courses for 15 ECTS credits, two short summer schools for 5 ECTS credits and a thesis for 30 ECTS credits. Table 1 lists the components of the programme.
Students are associated with at least two of the five universities participating in the AFEPA consortium. In general students spend the first academic year on one of the three universities (SLU, UBonn, UCL) which offer the core courses in microeconomics and quantitative methods. The second academic year is in general spent in one of the four other universities. However, when indicated, students may be allowed to spend only one semester in a second university, or spend the second year in two different universities.
Both at the end of first and second years all master students are gathered at one of the participating universities for a summer school consisting of a two-week programme of workshops, lectures and field trips. At the end of the first year of study students present a research proposal, and at the end of the second year their Master thesis for discussion by fellow students and participating faculty.
Table 1: The structure of the European Master in Agricultural, Food and Environmental Policy Analysis 1. Compulsary Courses(30 ECTS):
1.1. Microeconomic Theory (12-18 ECTS)
1.2. Quantitative Methods (12-18 ECTS)
2. Optional Courses within three of the following six subject areas (40 ECTS):
2.1. Agricultural and Trade Policy (12-15 ECTS)
2.2. Environmental and Natural Resource Policy (12-15 ECTS)
2.3. Agribusiness Management and Market Analysis (12-15 ECTS)
2.4. Agricultural and Food Sciences (12-15 ECTS)
2.5. Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (12-15 ECTS)
2.6. Rural Development Policy (12-15 ECTS)
3. Supplementary Courses (15 ECTS):a
3.1. Language Courses (maximum 5 ECTS)
3.2. Other Courses (maximum 15 ECTS)
4. Summer Schools at the end of the first and second years (5 ECTS) 5. Master Thesis (30 ECTS)
(a):Selected from the academic programme of the institutions, subject to approval of the AFEPA Management Board
The core courses provide the students with a shared background in microeconomics (including consumer theory, producer theory, general equilibrium theory and welfare economics) and quantitative methods (including statistics and econometrics).
The optional courses broaden and deepen the students´ empirical and theoretical knowledge directly relevant for the economic analysis of agricultural, food and environmental policy issues. The courses require in some cases a good command over the subject covered in the core courses and should therefore be taken during the second year.
Supplementary courses may be in any other discipline recognised by the AFEPA Management Board to deepen or broaden the academic curriculum. Examples of such courses are Ethics, Environmental Law, Trade Law, Finance, Public Policy, Sociology, Statistics and Geographic Information System. Languages courses should not exceed a maximum recongnition of 5 ECTS credits.
The thesis shall draw on and deepen subjects covered in the courses of the programme. It shall be 40-60 pages long. It has to be submitted and presented orally by the student at the end of the second year of studies. Students may adopt a theoretical or empirical approach, but are encouraged to address a concrete policy issue.
At the start of the Master programme each student is associated with a faculty member who with the student establishes a study programme according to the interest of the student, but also to establish appropriate depth, scope and consistency with respect to the courses to be followed.
To pass from the first to the second year of the Master programme students need in general to have completed the core courses and acquired at least 20 ECTS credits in optional and supplementary courses.
You are normally required to take an English Proficiency Test if you come from a non-English speaking country.
Most European Universities recognise the IELTS test.
More informationRequirements
Requirements
To be admitted to the European Master in Agricultural, Food and Environmental Policy Analysis candidates need to have a Bachelor degree or an equivalent academic degree of minimum three years of undergraduate study corresponding to 180 ECTS. Students in their final year of their Bachelor degree may be admitted in the Master programme on the condition that their Bachelor degree is awarded before they enrol the programme. All candidates also need to have followed courses in mathematics, statistics and economics as well as agricultural, food and environmental sciences at least at an introductory level. This implies that applications from candidates that have not followed courses of both economics and natural sciences at the introductory level will not considered for admission. Candidates must agree to complete the academic curriculum in two consecutive academic years and to the terms in the study contract as specified by the AFEPA consortium.
Candidates from English speaking countries must provide an official letter from their university from which they graduated attesting that English is the media of instruction. All other candidates will have to provide evidence that they master English at a level corresponding to the minimum scores on one of the following tests. Please note that we have to receive an applicant's language certificate directly from the testing institutions in the case of the TOEFL test. So applicants should contact the TOEFL test center and have them send a copy to the AFEPA coordinating institution, the Catholic University of Louvain (Applicants have to mention to the testing institution the specific code for the Catholic University of Louvain, which is 8823. If an applicant choses to take the IELTS test, we can accept a certified copy of your test results. The IELTS test result copy should clearly indicate the "test report form number", which will then enable us to contact the testing institution and verify the results.
We require the following minimum scores for the TOELF and IELTS results:
* Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL): at least 575 on the Paper-based Test (PBT) or 90 on the Internet-based Test (IBT).
* International English Language Testing System (IELTS): an overall band IELTS score of at least 6.5, and no section below 5.5.
* A test deemed equivalent by the AFEPA Management Board (if you want to submit test results oither than from the TOEFL or IELTS tests please obtain our confirmation of that particular test prior to sending your application package).
Candidates who choose to study at UCL and UPC also need to prove that their command of French and Spanish, respectively, is sufficient for them to participate in courses at these two institutions. If French and Spanish are neither their mother tongue nor the language of their past study, it is advised that these candidates obtain the B1 threshold level of the Common European Framework of Reference, i.e., they can understand the main points of clear standard input on familiar matters regularly encountered in work, school, leisure, etc. For French, it corresponds to the DELF B1 level and for Spanish to the DELE “inicial” level (B1).
Candidates can apply for an Erasmus Mundus scholarship except those who have already benfited from an Erasmus Mundus Master Course scholarship or are benefiting from another European Community grant while pursuing their Erasmus Mundus master studies.
Selection
The selection for admission to the European Master in Agricultural, Food and Environmental Policy Analysis and for scholarships of the Erasmus Mundus Programme is based on academic merit, language skills, professional and volunteer experience, expression of motivation, recommendations, and other credentials (reputation of the school of origin, the referees, etc.) to guarantee the selection of high-quality students. Country of origin and gender are additional criteria that could be used to orient the recruitment towards diversity in geographical cover and balance in gender representation.
It is expected that the successful candidates have succeeded their Bachelor degree with an average equivalence of a A score in the ECTS grading scale and be ranked within the ten top percent of their class. Successful candidates also have to have demonstrated a strong interest in agricultural, environmental and economic sciences. Their letter of motivation, the letters of their referees and their extra-curriculum activities will be thoroughly examined for that purpose.
Additional Requirements
| Minimal degree required: | Bachelor's degree |
| Minimal amount of work experience | Not specified |
Language Proficiency
| IELTS Band: | 6.5 |
| TOEFL Paper-based: | 575 |
| TOEFL Internet-based: | 90 |
Accreditation
The Louvain School of Management of UCL has received several accreditations worldwide:
European Quality Improvement System is a quality assessment, improvement and accreditation of higher education institution in management and business administration. Equis gather 90 institutions world-wide with about 60 of them from Europe.
LSM - LLN Campus has been accredited since 2006 and has been re-accredited in 2009 for 3 years (see
The Financial Times ranked LSM 19th (and 1st in Belgium) for its Masters in Business Engineering programme in 2010. Together with our CEMS partners, our CEMS Masters in International Management (MIM) program is ranked N° 1 in 2009 and N° 2 in 2010 by the Financial Times.
The LSM has received the honor of being ranked amongst the best business schools worldwide in 2009 and 2010 (EdUniversal).
Ask a Question
You can contact Henrich Brunke to ask a question about Agricultural, Food and Environmental Policy Analysis (AFEPA) at Université Catholique de Louvain.
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