Master organization

   Scientific Contents 

   Evaluation

   Organization

Deadline for European students: August 15th 2011

In 2010/11 this programme carries the Erasmus Mundus Brand Name according
to the decision taken by the European Commission by way of its representative EACEA
[for more information]

Master organization

This is a full 2-year Master, organized during four semesters rewarded with 120 ECTS. It is coordinated by the Ecole des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris, with the participation of teachers at Paris 13. The three other members of the Consortium are Évora University (Portugal), Linköping University (Sweden) and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain). Colleagues at Charles university (Prague, Czech Republic) the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Pecs University (Hungary) participate in teaching. In addition, at he consorted universities invited professors from the whole give special courses, seminars and lectures in the master’s field. It means that the active participation to the Master will not be limited to the Consortium members.

Full Consortium Members:

PARIS-EHESS (France)
EVORA University (Portugal)
LINKOPING University (Sweden)
BARCELONA Autonomous University (Spain)

European Universities participating to the EMMaster:

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom
Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
Pecs University, Hungary
Warsaw University, Poland
University of Paris 13, France
Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, Portugal

The curriculum is organized in modules and four intensive weeks focused on specific themes. The course will start with an intensive week in Évora. It will work as an integration week allowing all students to meet each other and the teachers to create networks which can be continued through electronic communication. During the second year, the second intensive week will be organized in Linköping devoted to comparative approaches, and another in Paris on the economics of health and welfare, and the fourth one on Community intervention: experiences and strategies, in Barcelona. The third semester is specifically designed for student exchanges.

Modules of 6 or 12 ECTS each are provided, at each university, leading to 60 ECTS each year and a full Masters (120 ECTS) in two years. Each member already has a "local" Master based on part of the field proposed here. Students can choose the number of modules they need to complete their Masters. Classes in S1 and S2 have to give the basics needed by students in the field. S3 classes are more open to research preparation and other perspectives.

Students are welcomed to each university on the 1st of September. Teaching consists of lectures, seminars, working groups, and tutorials, ending at the end of June, every year. In collaboration with each student, an individual itinerary of teaching, lectures and seminars will be defined according to his/her background and his/her professional perspectives at the beginning of the first year.

The Masters thesis (30 ECTS) has to be completed during the month of June, in semester 4. The aim is to develop the student’s ability to conduct original research on an approved topic in Health Welfare and Society. On completion of this project, students should be able to: formulate a research problem and review relevant literature; design and implement methods to examine the specified problem; write and submit a postgraduate thesis reporting the findings of their original analysis. The student must demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge and mastery of the topic, present and defend a postgraduate thesis.

 

Pedagogical model

The educational model consists of lectures, seminars, studies of literature, analysis of sources and problem-based learning through individual and group activities supported by tutorials. As a full-time program, the number of student hours per week is 36 and the average number of teaching hours will be 10-12 per week. Faculty with experience in the relevant topics, theories and methods will supervise individual work and theses. Lectures will be given by faculty from the Consortium and by invited experts and international scholars from Warsaw University, Budapest university, and from well known third country universities (for instance Cape Town, Sao Paulo, Mexico, Harvard, Montreal, Tokyo…). Lectures will be accompanied small-group discussions in working-groups, seminars and tutorials.

Each Consortium university is authorized by its national institutions to deliver Masters degree(s). The programme components and the programme as a whole have been recognized by the authorities in each university (Scientific council, Rector, President).



The Masters will be a double one. The main university of the student will award the degree and will recognize the ECTS generated during exchanges (semester and intensive weeks) and the shared supervision of the Master’s thesis. The other university, which received the student during the exchange semester and co-supervised the Master thesis, will also deliver its Master’ s degree and diploma, recognizing the ECTS of the university where the student is registered (the EM Masters is indicated on each diploma).

The Diploma Supplement accompanies the Masters degree diploma. It provides the title of each module and its ECTS number, the marks for each module, total marks and a global ranking as suggested by the Diploma supplement instructions. Marks of A/B/C/D/E are assigned to successful students.
Students in the top 20% and the next 25% are recognized on their diplomas.
The contract signed by Consortium members indicates that the ECTS from other universities in the Consortium will be recognized and integrate a Diploma Supplement.

 

Teaching staff

The core of the study programme will be delivered by experienced faculty, who have previously taught at the Masters level or higher. In addition, they have an extensive record of successful international cooperation. Professor Patrice Bourdelais is responsible for a special programme at the EHESS (Medicine, Health and Social Sciences) and for continuing education. He is also the President of the European Association for the History of Medicine and Health, and he regularly organizes sessions in international conferences. He is a member of the scientific commission of Erasmus PhoenixTN “European Thematic Network on Health and Social Welfare Policy”,( 213854-CP-1-2001-1-PT-ERASMUS-TN), (4th year in 2004-2005), member of an Alpha A project accepted in 2004 (Graph – Graduate Programme in the Social Dynamics of Health), and participant to the European IP Health and Social Change.

Professor Laurinda Abreu (Évoray) is a specialist on Portuguese Misericórdias. Her teaching responsibilities at Évora University include courses for Masters students. She is the Coordinator of the previously mentioned Erasmus PhoenixTN “European Thematic Network on Health and Social Welfare Policy”. She is also the Coordinator of the Alpha project (Graph – Graduate Programme in the Social Dynamics of Health), and a participant in the European IP Health and Social Change.

At Linköping University, associate professor Sam Willner (coordinator) is specialized in historical demography and the history of public health. He is also the editor of Hygiea Internationalis and has been engaged in international cooperation since 1990. Professor Jan Sundin (study advisor) has been at the centre of this field for twenty years. He organized an International Network for Public Health, started Hygeia Internationalis, organized a European Intensive Programme (funded by the Commission in 2003-2004) on Health and Social Change. He has also been a member of the executive committee of member of PhoenixTN and Graph (Alfa project).

Professor Annette Mulberger (Barcelona) is a specialist in history of psycology with worldwide connections to historians of science and medecine. She has been the former president of the European Society for the History of the Human Sciences between 2003 and 2007.

The other faculty members are also highly qualified, because of their scientific work and publications and their teaching experience. The inclusion of faculty from central and Easter Europe will give new dimensions to the teaching, and it will facilitate the integration of these colleagues in European academic circles.

The deputy for the EM master in each university were chosen for their involvement in international collaboration and teaching, they are also high qualified faculty members:
Didier Fassin at Paris, Fatima Nunes at Évora University and Gunilla Tegern at Linköping university, and Teresa Gutierrez and Josefina Caminal at Autonomous University of Barcelona.

The teaching staff is committed to being available for all the classes planned and for regular weekly meetings with students and to follow their progress. Each student has an individual programme itinerary decided with the teachers at the beginning of the semester 1. In cases of unavoidable absence, classes will be replaced. Most modules involve the participation of several instructors, which will assure continuity for students. Moreover, local PhD students will be specifically in charge of the Third country students.

 

Admission, application, selection, examination criteria

The council of the EM Masters, including the external assesment panel, will be in charge of selecting students in a centralised admission process.

The application form for admission will be available on the websites of the partner universities and will have to be sent to Paris. For this purpose, admission shall be a Consortium’s duty, notwihtsanding the fact that each partner university may follow their academic criteria when receiving the students’ applications.

A budget, including the cost of lodging, and social security will be indicated for each place.

Students shall have backgrounds in sociology, political sciences, anthropology, philosophy, history, demography, Public health, Education, Public administration or Law.

The minimum requirements are to have a bachelor in one of these disciplines, English language capacity and a knowledge in at least another one among French, Portuguese, Spanish, a research proposal written in english and a motivation paper in the second foreign language.

In the final ranking for selection the excellence of the Academic degrees will be taken into account for 70% and the research proposal for the 30% per cent.
If the merits, CV and capacities are equivalent, priority will be given to the number and the quality of foreign languages, the underrepresented sex, the candidates under 30 years old (detailed selection criteria in Admission criteria.
Fees for non-European students admitted in 2011 will be 4,000 Euros per year. Fees for European students will be paid according to the local fees of the student’s main university.

 

Mobility arrangements

Each student has to spend one semester in another university ( the third one) to get 30 ECTS. He, or she, also has to follow at least the first intensive week organized in the S1 and two of the intensive weeks organized during the second year (6 ECTS ). This means that each student will get at least 36 of 120 ECTS (30 %) outside of his (her) university. Intensive weeks are organized to avoid interference with the regular schedule classes.

Inside the Consortium, teachers will be invited to give complementary lectures at another university for one week. We will take advantage of differences in class schedules among universities to avoid absences during the regular semester. (For example, the EHESS has breaks between 10 September and the last week of October, one week in February, and two weeks for spring vacations in April or May. In Évora classes are not in session during the two first weeks of September, has a break in January-February, and “Easter vacations” and classes ends at the end of May; and in Linköping each teacher is engaged in intensive teaching only some weeks each semester, free to go to another university on the other weeks. The same happens at the Autonomous University of Barcelona where the schedule is compatible with Linköping, Paris and Évora as well.

 

Third-country students and scholars

The PhoenixEM Master is unique in Europe and elsewhere in its humanistic and social approach, providing knowledge and a wide spectrum of job opportunities for third-country students.

In the application form each candidate has to indicate, preference-ranking and linked with language ability, the four universities where he/she would like to be admitted as the home university. The Consortium will give priority to the Academic ranking and will then give to the first ranked their first choice. Inclusion of students and scholars from Latin America will be facilitated by the option of using also the Spanish and Portuguese languages for examination.

Several scholars will be selected each year, based upon the merits of their research proposals and possibilities for integrating them in the teaching and research teams in each university. The degree of complementairty (discipline, knowledge and scientific different culture context) is a second criteria and the third one is the experience of collaboration in pluridiciplinary teaching and research. The same ranking procedure than for students is applied even for the choice of one home university. The Autonomous University of Barcelona, the Universities of Linköping and Evora and the EHESS in Paris have participated in scholarly exchanges for decades, and they have established procedures for making these programs efficient and successful for visiting scholars and students).

An international office with someone able to speak in English will be in charge of welcoming students and helping them with visas, payment of fees and social security contributions, and housing. Third-country students will be individually welcomed by teachers at the beginning of their stay. In addition local Master students will be assigned to orient them in matters of both education and every-day life, and third-country students will be integrated with local students in small study-groups. Third-country students will be encouraged to participate in the social activities of the university (sport, cultural activities, theater, music).
These Master students will be in charge to follow them individually all over the year and to be the daily person in touch with them. They also will be in charge of their cultural preparation (by electronic contacts before they arrive) and integration after their arrival.

Third-country scholars will have access to the facilities of the International office too, and they will be integrated in the teaching groups and research teams linked to the Master. They will also receive help with lodging. Specific help will be provided to married students to find lodging and to disable students.

Classes to learn the local languages will be organized in small groups to facilitate integration and the efficiency of learning. Scientific and social integration is also important for language acquisition.

They will have full access to computers and IT facilities, to the electronic campus and to the library. They will have access to the weekly research seminars in each university and to the thematical intensive days linked to the field.

A specific help will be provided to married students for lodging, to their children care, and everyday life and for disabled students as well (access to classes rooms are available and designated person will be in charge to provide help to them.

Grants and scholarships will be handled according to Annex 2.

 

Language policy

Language ability is considered in the admissions process. English is compulsory and high priority is given to a second laguage among French, Portuguese and Spanish. The TOEFL will be required, and the Alliance française certificate or marks in French classes will be necessary for Paris. For Evora, marks in Portuguese language classes will be required as for Barcelona it will be in Spanish. Classes in each university will be presented in English and in local language ; students will need to be able to read and write to be fully integrated.

The Consortium will also support language learning before and during exchange periods. Each university will organize an introduction to the other languages used inside the Consortium to facilitate mobility (English and French in Evora; English and Portuguese and Swedish in Paris; French and Spanish in Linköping, English and French in Barcelona). The foreign Insitutes in each country, the new software offer and e-learning will complement classes.

Language instruction will be given in Spanish, Portuguese and English at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, in English in Linköping, in Portuguese and English in Evora, in French and English in Paris. The four intensive weeks will be taught in English.

Apart from these intensive weeks, the language of examination will be English in Linköping, French or English in Paris, Portuguese or English, French or Spanish in Evora, and Spanish or English in Barcelona.

Languages for the Masters thesis will be English in Linköping, French or English in Paris, and Portuguese, Spanish or English in Evora, Spanish, French or English in Barcelona. If the thesis is written in Spanish or in Portuguese, a twenty pages summary in English or in French will be required.

These languages requirements will preserve the diversity of languages in the Consortium while making exchanges and examinations possible.

 

Partners