Transcript Curriculum Development with International Partners - Haaga

Curriculum Development
with International Partners
How to Build a Joint
Communication Degree Program
Kevin Gore
Outline
Why create international curricula?
 Which curriculum for development?
 Where to actually begin?
 What we envision!
 Our long-term goals

Why create international curricula?
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
International student exchange programs are wellestablished with large numbers of mobile students
However, often it appears that the exchange is an
”academic break” when it could offer much more
For students, a joint curriculum between ”strategic”
partner schools could add:
– An extra incentive to study abroad
– Result in a concrete benefit:
 An area of specialization

For HAAGA-HELIA:
– Real input to our ”home” curriculum
Which curriculum for development?
In joint curricula and student exchange, high
risk of overlapping subjects from the student’s
perspective
 However, one area is clear: Communication

– Students report it is something they want to improve
– It is culture-specific, thus exchange enhances it
– It is one of HAAGA-HELIA’s main foci in education
Where to actually begin?

Get together with all members involved in the
development and get to know each other!
– We too have to communicate our aims, desires and
understanding of what we want to jointly create
(time-consuming but worth it)
– Have a clear ”driver” (Luuk van Leeuwen in our case)

Determine what is the ”competitive advantage”
of each ”strategic” partner
– HAAGA-HELIA: PBL
– Hogeschool Utrecht: Multimedia
– Fach Hochschule Wien: Integrated Communications
Where to actually begin? (cont’d)

Come to a consensus on what is the joint vision
and mission
– ”The power of belief”

Do a detailed audit of what each partner can
bring to the table:
– Specific courses and content
– Credits, assignments, reading materials, class size,
electronic learning platform, etc.
– Clarity about who teaches what, where when and
how. (easy to say, hard to do)
What we envision!

Suomi
– HAAGA-HELIA

Nederland
– Hogeschool Utrecht

Österreich
– Fach Hochschule Wien
What we envision! (cont’d)
Each school would send and receive 3-5
students during their 4th-5th semester, spending
(at least) one semester abroad
 Students are integrated into current courses at
each school, but special gatherings and
seminars organized only for them to create a
sense of community
 Set ”core” communication curriculum at each
school, plus elective courses
 Local language courses REQUIRED!
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Our long-term goals
One semester is study, another is work
placement, either in same country or
other partner country
 Highlight to companies that we are
offering work placement interns with a
specialization in communication
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– E.g., work in internal communications
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Platform for communication-oriented
theses (research and execution)
Our long-term goals
Lecturer exchange
 Exchange of pedagogocal practices
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– Interest in PBL
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Easier to build and conduct joint research
projects in an establish network