Unique international master's programme takes off

On Thursday 2 September 2021, CHARM-EU will organise the official opening ceremony of the Master's programme Global Challenges for Sustainability. CHARM-EU is an alliance of five European universities. The Master's programme is a first in Europe: for the first time, students will have the opportunity to follow a joint degree programme of which the diploma will be awarded by five universities.

First group of students

73 students have been admitted to the first phase of the master's programme Global Challenges for Sustainability. Of these, 15 students will start at Utrecht University. The other students will start their programme at one of the other alliance partners: the University of Barcelona, Trinity College Dublin, Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest and the University of Montpellier. On each campus, students work together in hybrid classrooms: alternating between face-to-face and online education. During the one-and-a-half-year master's programme (90 EC), students may change universities one or more times for the various study components.

Julian Duśko-Bernyck from Canada, student: ”I choose to study at CHARM-EU because I was really excited at the prospect of what the master offers for students and faculty: the transdisciplinary mindset, the way that people are coming from all walks of life, a diversity in educational backgrounds and different countries. It’s really an inspiring international experience that I think is unique to CHARM-EU. I am looking forward to meeting people and to really get started.”

I choose to study at CHARM-EU because I was really excited at the prospect of what the master offers for students and lecturers.

Transdisciplinary approach

Global Challenges for Sustainability has a transdisciplinary approach and focuses on specific societal issues in water, food and health. To tackle these issues, students from various backgrounds have been selected. Over half of the students have a background in social sciences, public administration and law. Over a quarter have a bachelor's degree in science, technology or health. The remaining students have prior education in humanities and educational sciences.

Niels Bovenschen, Associate Professor in Medicine/UMC Utrecht: "In this new master's, students can contribute to solving real challenges, such as infectious diseases and pandemics, chronic diseases, ageing and cancer. In doing so, students will work together with students and professionals from other disciplines, from (bio)medical sciences to economics, communication and geosciences."

In this new master's, students contribute to solving real challenges and work together with other disciplines.

Innovative programme

The master's programme has several innovative aspects, including a flexible course structure, integrated mobility, broad content focus, emphasis on inclusiveness, challenge-based education and programmatic testing. The Utrecht education model and the innovative UU programme Educate-it were used to develop the programme. Students from the five universities contributed intensively to the programme.

Jasper van Vught, Assistant Professor at the Media and Cultural Studies department of the Humanities faculty: "In the master's, we are looking for educational methods that do justice to the international, transdisciplinary and challenge-driven nature of the programme. For example, we use programmatic testing in which students continue to reflect on the strength of their own disciplinary approach but also on what they learn from other disciplines. Students also work on specific initiatives to increase sustainability. We facilitate international collaborations with a range of hybrid educational formats."   

In the master's, we are looking for educational methods that do justice to the international and transdisciplinary nature of the programme.

European University Initiative

CHARM-EU is a European university alliance under the European Universities Initiative, funded by the European Commission. CHARM-EU stands for Challenge driven, Accessible, Research Based and Mobile. In addition to the master's programme, there is also a CHARM-EU research collective: TORCH.

Opening Ceremony

On Thursday 2 September, from 11:00 to 12:15, interested parties can watch the official opening ceremony via this link. For more information, please visit the CHARM-EU website or e-mail to charm@uu.nl.