The EUA Joint Masters Project was designed with the following specific aims and objectives:
- To ensure visibility and wide dissemination of existing examples of good practice in Joint Masters programmes;
- To optimise performance of existing programmes;
- To improve quality of mobility for students and professors;
- To formulate recommendations for the successful running of European co-operation programmes at the Masters level.
The study on Joint Masters programmes was also conceived with an eye to Bologna developments, because Joint Masters programmes by their very nature necessitate agreement and understanding on nearly all aspects of Bologna reforms: transparency and convergence in degree structures; compatible qualifications; increased inter-university cooperation; increased student and professor mobility; and an emphasis on European dimensions in higher education.
To meet these ambitious project goals, a large launch conference was held to introduce the selected programmes in Brussels, September 2002. At this meeting, the coordinator of each network of universities offering a Joint Masters programme agreed to focus on three main themes for examining the operation of their programmes:
- quality assurance and recognition;
- student experience and mobility;
- course integration and sustainability.
The process of information-gathering began with a qualitative research project undertaken by recent graduates of each programme. The graduate researchers received training by EUA on methodological aspects of participant observation, and worked within a research framework that focused upon the three project themes. Through interviews with students, professors, institutional leaders, employers and programme administrators, this research aimed to highlight a range of perceptions on key issues.
At the same time, network coordinators also organized their own internal meetings with their main academic partners to discuss the three themes and to focus upon issues of fundamental importance for each network.
The results of both the graduate research and the network meetings were brought together in an inter-network gathering in Bilbao at the University of Deusto, 14-15 April 2003, in order to examine the main findings of the 22 reports prepared (2 perspectives offered on each network) and to identify examples of good practice. For more information, please consult the Joint Masters Project Inter-Network Thematic Meeting Working Document
. The two-day meeting was structured around the projects' three main themes and made significant inroads in discussing quality assurance, funding, and recognition difficulties, which are experienced by all networks.
Final project results were not available for EUA's Convention of European Higher Education Institutions in Graz, May 2003, but a project update document
was made available for all Convention participants.
A final project report, Developing Joint Masters Programmes for Europe: Results of the EUA Joint Masters Project
, was the outcome of the EUA Conference on Joint Degrees "Universities working together in Europe", held on 24-25 October 2003 at Babes-Boyai University in Cluj, Romania. This final report contains not only clear information regarding the current practice of Joint Masters programmes in Europe, but also guidance and advice to all EUA members that are considering the development of new Joint Masters programmes. The report also comments specifically upon the opportunities to be offered by the Erasmus Mundus programme, and outlines different policy options to enable EUA to support effectively the development of joint degrees.