Higher Education

The 2-year international programme is the first ever European Master´s programme on higher education. It is unique in three specific ways:

* Worldwide, it is the only program covering a broader range of disciplinary (specialisation) perspectives on higher education.

* The program is based on multi-faceted mode of delivery (lectures, seminars, colloquiums, etc.), supported by a state-of-the-art e-learning platform (podcasts, student blog, online resources, etc.)

* It builds upon the involvement of a variety of leading research centers and partner universities from Europe, Asia, Africa and North America, bringing together a variety of leading experts in the field.

The programme introduces students to generic disciplinary concepts, theories, and perspectives, and discusses their relevance for understanding change processes in higher education at various levels: the basic unit (department, institute, faculty); the institutional or organisational level; the national; as well as, the supra-national (e.g. European Union) level. Such perspectives are highly relevant not only for researchers, but also for active practitioners such as institutional managers, policy-makers, and all those directly involved with the field of higher education.

Examples of recent change processes in higher education include:

* The increasing awareness by international bodies and agencies like UNESCO, the OECD, the World Bank, development aid organisations, etc., of higher education as a critical sector in fostering socio-economic and cultural development both, at the national as well as local/regional levels.

* The growing attention towards the quality of teaching, research and third steam activities, nationally as well as internationally.

* The creation of European Areas for Higher Education and Research and ongoing national and supranational efforts aimed at modernising universities across Europe.