Transnational Community Development (TransCoDe)
TransCoDe aims to design a Joint Master Programme “Transnational Community Development” that follows an interdisciplinary approach and enables its graduates to recognize the distinctiveness and the specific needs of transnational communities. Furhtermore the graduates will be able to address community building challenges in transnational settings, to act responsibly, to design interventions in creating social responses to systemic changes, and to find effective and problem-solving approaches for strong and sustainable transnational communities.
The consortium
The partner universities involved cover a relatively wide geographical breadth (from Finland, Norway, Germany, Romania to Jordan), with each region being affected in different ways by the challenges to be addressed.
In addition, the partners' content-related competences complement each other as follows due to their already existing Master's degree programmes and their research foci:
What we do
Within the TransCoDe setting, the activities will be implemented by three working groups composed by experts from the different HEI due to their respective experiences.
Working Group 1 will be in charge of the development of a didactical outline and administrative framework within two strands. First and foremost the team will design the desired competence profile of the future graduates, following the creation of suitable assessment methods for these competences. The design of the necessary learning events and settings are derived from this. In addition, the team will structure the results in a curriculum concept that integrates the mobility phases in a meaningful way in terms of competences and content.
The administrative questions are the core concern of Working Group 2: in cooperation with the legal department, the accreditation office and the office of immatriculation, the team figures out the requirements of admission for the students and the necessary conditions for the establishment of a new Masters’ programme.
The financial management is yet another task this Working Group will take on: It will create a legal framework for the financial questions arising in the Consortium as a whole, as well as in the respective HEIs themselves.
The scope of the third working group is on the creation of joint services and promotion, including further services (e.g. language courses, visa support) that are necessary and useful for the students as well as the design of common promotion strategies and the development of dissemination initiatives. The team's work aims to create joint promotion and awareness-raising activities in order to ensure worldwide visibility of the programme as well as of the Erasmus Mundus scholarship scheme.
TransCoDeWorking Days
From 31 May to 01 June, the "TransCoDe" Working Days took place at THWS. "Transnational Community Development" is a joint master's programme involving five universities. During the Working Days at the THWS, the consortium, consisting of the project team of THWS, DIAK in Finland, VID in Norway, GJU in Jordan as well as the Transilvania University of Brasov in Romania, came together to jointly approach and plan the next steps within the project.
Within the working groups, different topics were worked on with regard to the planned Master's programme. During the workshop days, the colleagues met in person for the first time, which not only enabled them to get to know each other intensively, but also to work together fruitfully.
Working group 1 is primarily concerned with the academic and didactic content of the planned Master's programme. This includes the development of a competence profile of the future graduates and, related to this, the structuring of the teaching offers. During the workshop days, the members could agree on mobility tracks and finalised the modules to be taught.
It was taken into account that the expertise of all partner universities is represented in one field of study within the Master's programme, so that students can concentrate on one field of study during each semester and optimal supervision by the respective university is guaranteed. The mobility tracks were chosen in such a way that, on the one hand, students can set a focus through certain tracks, and, on the other hand, it is ensured that all students acquire equally profound basic knowledge.
Working group 2, which deals with administrative issues, was also able to make great progress during the workshop days by agreeing on an initial structural framework for the Joint Master. This includes, for example, the definition of common admission requirements or the coordination of the consortium regarding the selection procedure. During the workshop days, synergies were also created so that working groups 1 and 2 were ultimately able to work together on defining the mobility tracks.
Furthermore, working group 3 was able to develop initial joint ideas concerning the public relations work of the Joint Master. As a starting point for the brainstorming, the target group was more clearly focussed and defined, which led to initial considerations on the corporate identity of the programme. This resulted, for example, in ideas for the web presence, the visual concept and logo as well as social media activities. In addition, the working group was able to define important aspects about the external presentation and communication of the project. Initial considerations were made on how the programme could be made as attractive and appealing as possible for potential prospective students. It was considered that perceptions vary depending on the country and culture, which is why a jointly coordinated communication is essential for the success of “TransCoDe”.
Further planning...
During these first joint workshop days, important milestones took shape that will now be further refined during the coming weeks and supplemented by many important steps for the Working Days 2.0 in November 2022.