International Joint and Double Degree Programs

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International Joint and Double Degree Programs

• Barbara Evans

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
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AAUC Bologna Ottawa Jan 09

• Questions posed for commentary
• Why is joint graduate degree development a
  growing trend at Canadian universities? What are
  the drivers behind this trend?
• Why are these partnerships important? What are
  the opportunities? What is the value-add for
  Canadian institutions and their students/faculty?
• What is the link between these academic programs
  and research collaboration? What links should be
  made if they are not?
• What are the challenges? What increased support
  is needed for Canadian universities to engage in
  such partnerships?
• What are you doing at your institutions to foster
  strategies and programs for joint graduate degree
  development?

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• Terminology
• Levels
• A definition
• Common concerns
• Global comparisons
• Needs
• Funding
• Why bother?
• CAGS guidelines?
• Global benefits

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First the terminology.

• generally understood definitions
• - joint one degree, two logos
• - double or dual two separate degrees
• - BOTH are collaborative degree programs 
• but what is a degree? a single
  qualification that may be recorded by
• - one parchment with two logos OR
• - two parchments each with a clear statement
  as to the
• joint nature of the degree
• and the abbreviation? e.g. PhD (UBC UCL)

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Next the levels

• Collaborative degrees are quite different at
  Masters and PhD levels
•  
• Masters
• . increasing diversity of programs outcomes
• . can be coursework, professional or research
• . often involve a cohort of students
• . now widespread, well established understood
• . BOTH joint double masters degrees appear to
  work

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• PhD
• . already the most international prestigious
  of degrees
• . increasingly involves international research
  collaboration
• . often international examiners of the thesis
• . French Co-tutelle has led the way for Joint
  PhD
• . involves single students not cohorts
• General consensus that
• . a joint PhD is OK
• . a double PhD would require two separate
  research theses, and thus has little support.

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One definition.

• A jointly awarded PhD is a single
  qualification conferred upon a student on
  completion of a collaborative program designed,
  supervised examined by faculty from two
  universities.
• It is normally characterized by
• . meeting the academic requirements of both
  universities,
• . joint design, supervision and examination,
• . a single degree awarded for one PhD thesis, and
  
• . parchment(s) issued that explicitly state that
  it is a joint program.

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Common concerns everywhere..

• Double dipping - but limits normally exist
  on the amount of cross crediting between
  institutions towards other degrees
• The parchment problem - the degree
  parchment(s) must clearly reflect the joint
  nature of the award.
• Issues of Intellectual Property Rights - need
  to be explicitly dealt with.
• Considerable differences in degree
  structures.. which may impact directly on
  opportunities for productive international
  graduate collaboration.

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Global comparisons

• Two important similarities
• - universities are essentially autonomous and
• - many regions have very effective networks
• But many differences
• a) program level
• academic structure, length, language content of
  programs
• nature of the examination use of external
  examiners
• extent sources of funding for students
  programs
• expectations opportunities related to TA RA
  work
• guidelines, frameworks accountability
  mechanisms
• levels of concern about completion rates and
  times
• demand for training in generic skills

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• b) national level
• - government recognition and funding of graduate
  education and research training,
• level of educational policy oversight and level
  of independence at federal, provincial and
  institutional levels
• for example
• - Canada two languages, different provincial
  funding arrangements, some fed s for research,
  no overall control of QA, CAGS
• - US much larger, more diverse, no national
  anything, CGS
• - EU lots of governments, lots of languages,
  but rapidly growing EU oversight, EUA-CDE
• - Aus one language, one government, lots of
  intervention re. QA s, DDoGS

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Effective international collaboration requires

• defining our own purposes, goals constraints
  
• understanding potential partner universities
  and their goals perspectives and
• having the resources and will to make it work.
• For Joint PhDs - think boutique
• lots of work involved so not for large nos.
  of students
• individual agreement signed for each student
• best based on existing research collaboration
• French co-tutelle around for years

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Funding QA

• Adequate funding is needed to provide quality
  international experiences for students and many
  universities have funds set aside for this
  purpose. Additional funding is also often
  available from research agencies and governments.
  
• Policy and procedures should be equitable,
  consistent and transparent.
• Planning for new collaborative programs should
  incorporate ways to measure the quality of
  outcomes, sustainability and success of the
  program.
• Evaluation of progress/success should overtly
  lead to refinement and improvement.

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Why bother? the benefits

• For students
• - access for top research students to unique /or
  sophisticated research equipment resources,
  to world class faculty
• - ability to undertake research of explicit
  global significance
• - become more informed global citizens from which
  will come the next generation of scholars and
  researchers
• - develop confidence in their own academic work,
  breadth of experience, knowledge of their
  discipline, networking skills and connections.
• - develop their personal attributes of
  international leadership, partnership and global
  engagement.

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• For universities
• - supports the international goals of the
  University
• - enhances the Universitys research effort
  (graduate students are after all the research
  engines of universities)
• - supports ongoing research collaborations and
  the development of new collaborations
• - raises the Universitys research profile and
  visibility internationally
• - enhances the recruitment of excellent graduate
  students

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CAGS guidelines/checklists?

• Consider developing broadly approved Canadian
  principles or guidelines regarding
  international collaborative degree programs,
  including expectations for handling visiting
  students, so that each of us doesnt need to
  start from scratch. A task for CAGS?
• Such guidelines would provide a measure of
  transparency, consistency and equity for students
  and programs.
• They would also enable promotion of Canadian
  opportunities for collaboration within a
  nationally and internationally understood/accepted
  framework.
• Lots of examples we could draw on.

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Global benefits..

• Graduate collaborations should be strongly
  embedded in the overall international policy of
  each university including how the institution
  wishes to interact internationally.
• Different countries are at different stages of
  their economic, educational and national
  evolution so, understandably will have
  different national and institutional goals.
• Mature universities, such as ours, have an
  opportunity (indeed responsibility!) to
  contribute materially to the global good to
  the development of a civil society by working
  in new ways to build more effective partnerships
  in countries with developing education systems.

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