| The team leader and the team partners need institutional and faculty support, which is given by professional expert services in the partnership: |
| • The educational programme administration ; |
| • Teaching and learning services |
| • Internationalization services |
| • IT for education services |
| • Legal services |
| • The student administrations |
Guidelines
The educational programme administration
New programme initiatives usually have to go through a faculty or university approval process. A dialogue should be started as soon as possible with the education administration at central or faculty level, in which the programme leader and the team are informed about all preconditions and steps to be taken from the start of the programme design to its publication in the relevant programme guides and its implementation.
Teaching and learning services
The teaching and learning support services are essential for designing a joint master’s programme. They have expertise in course and curricula development, as well as collaborative approaches to this development. Consulting through this service will dramatically reduce the time and therefore the cost required to design the programme as they are familiar
with all aspects of the design to be covered.
Internationalization services
Internationalization services also have expertise in international course and programme design. In addition, they are used to develop mobility formats for teaching staff and students in line with the curriculum. They are also familiar with all kinds of agreements that are necessary for a joint master’s.
IT for education services
IT services will advise the team on all digital aspects of the curriculum, including synchronous and asynchronous online delivery and online group collaboration. A major issue concerns the common platform or learning environment to be used for the delivery of the programme. For pragmatic reasons, the platform of the leading institution is generally
used. In newly established EUI alliances, a new common platform is envisaged for the delivery of common course offerings, but this has not yet proven to be an easy solution.
Legal services
Legal services have the task of resolving all (legal) regulatory issues and converting restrictions into opportunities in dialogue with partner institutions. This will sometimes lead to changes in institutional rules. It can also lead to advice or requests to the national government to change regulations.
The student administrations
The student administrations will advise the team on the central enrollment of students and on secondary enrollments at partner institutions for participation in subsequent parts of the programme. Multiple enrollments are required to ensure that students can achieve a joint qualification and that institutions ultimately receive public funding for all parts of the programme.
Recommendations
• In order to improve programme quality and reduce design and development costs, support services should be contacted from the start of programme design;
• In general, the team leader will first engage the support services of his university and then try to align and engage the partners in common approaches that require them to seek advice in their institutions;
• Professional representatives from the support services of all partner universities might establish a joint task force or expert group to support teaching staff in the design, development and implementation of the programme. They can build on mutual expertise and act as a point of contact for solving problems that have arisen.
