Abstract:

This paper summarises the results of the study carried out by the JOIMAN Network on the management and administration of joint degree programmes at master level in Europe.

The study has been conducted through an online survey addressed to HEI’s administrators holding responsibilities on the definition and implementation of internationalisation policies (vice rectors for international relations, deans, academic delegates for internationalisation and quality assurance) and to joint programmes’ academic coordinators and managers. The results of the survey, which observed 36 administrators and 89 joint programmes academic coordinators, have been deepened and extended by site visits to institutions which took part to the survey and by interviews to administrators of institutions not covered by the survey. The data collected have been analysed and commented by the JOIMAN project’s working groups.

JOIMAN is a Network supported by the European Commission which involves 15 European Universities with a long experience on Joint programmes development and management and 3 Erasmus Mundus National structures which helped the researchers in the identification of targets and in the dissemination of the information.
The fields of investigation which have been covered by the study are:

1. The role of the institution in the definition of policies and strategies for the implementation of joint programmes;
2. The management of the joint programmes, including the administrative units involved at local and transnational level and the organisation of services for students and scholars;
3. The students’ administration timeline: from the application and selection process to the award of the final degree and certificates;
4. The financial management of joint programmes: from the definition of tuition fees to the management of scholarships, with a particular focus on the issue of sustainability;
5. The quality assurance measures for joint programmes: transparent and efficient measures for the monitoring and evaluation of the whole implementation process.

The results of the study have been included in the “Good Practice Report for the administration and management of joint programmes”. The Report includes a section describing the rationale of the study and the methodology applied. A second section presents and comments the collected data, and a final section contains 50 recommendations and 15 good practices examples extracted from the collected data, which could be used by Higher Education Institutions interested in developing new joint degree programmes.

This paper presents a summary of the Good Practice Report, presenting the main data collected and listing the main recommendations and good practices examples for the management and administration of joint degree programmes. The full paper will therefore be structured with an introduction which explains why the study has been carried out and which methodology has been applied; a second section will describe the main tendencies on the 5 fields of study and the models represented by the data collected; a final section will describe the whole process of development and implementation of joint degree programmes and will provide the main recommendations and good practice examples extracted from the study.

Keywords:

Joint degrees, joint programmes, internationalisation of higher education, management and administration of higher education institutions.