The sustainability related aspects of international Joint Programmes, just like any other international collaborative venture, should be addressed in parallel with the development phase and throughout the implementation and monitoring phases of the programme.
JPs are costly collaborative schemes and their sustainability does not solely concern the financial aspects, but also other types of resources to be allocated, commitment at different levels, quality assurance procedures, and a number of other factors. According to a study from the Institute of International Education, 50% of the institutions delivering JPs were at a certain point forced to discontinue one or more programmes due to lack of sustainability.
Building sustainability into the design and delivery of joint programmes can help institutions to avoid the following problems:
● High costs: designing a new programme requires investment of time and resources. Ensuring that the programme is relevant and innovative can prevent time and money being wasted. A joint programme that’s attractive to students will also reduce costs per capita, allowing participating institutions to keep tuition fees at a steady level or from running the programme at a loss.
● Bureaucracy: if the allocation of responsibilities is clearly defined at all levels, the workload distributed evenly among the partners, and due diligence undertaken with regards to the regulatory framework and risk management procedures, then bureaucracy can be kept in check.
● Reputational damage: successful joint programmes can be a real boost to a higher education institution’s internationalisation and visibility, but a failure to properly deliver a joint programme can have a negative impact on its reputation.
A sustainable joint programme is characterised by academic, financial and organisational integrity. It features satisfied and engaged stakeholders, many meaningful outputs and credible prospects for success. It will possess distinctive branding, balanced workload between partners, and be underpinned by a financial and strategic plan that has the support of stakeholders.
Design phase
1. Conduct needs analysis
Conduct a detailed needs analysis (with academic and administrative staff, partners, students, employers etc) and compare it to the existing programme offering, distinguishing the added value of operating in a joint international context. The needs analysis should be carried out by the involved parties at the beginning of the process in order to ensure that there is an actual need on the market for the new academic programme in that specific field and that those are actually the appropriate partners to develop such programme. Interviews with employers in the field might provide an answer to this question, as well as surveys among upper secondary school pupils.
2. Engage relevant academic staff
Consider how their strengths can be leveraged (eg specific scientific competence in the relevant field but also innovative pedagogical approaches, international experience, intercultural communication skills, international network etc), while taking challenges into account (eg if the programme is to be delivered in English, ensure the academics required to teach it are able to do so in a second language, so as not to undermine the overall quality).
3. Engage employers
Work with employers throughout the programme’s life cycle, to provide students with a higher degree of employability while incorporating additional funding opportunities that support the programme.
The involvement of external actors is an aspect that most JPs still too often neglect. An early and active involvement of employers, public and private organization in the relevant field, and local/regional/national public bodies will benefit the JP in a variety of ways. First of all, JPs with the active participation of employers are more attractive for the perspective students. The REDEEM2 project showed that the main complaint of graduates from JP is the lack of contacts with the labour market representatives from the countries concerned and the lack of embedded internships in the JP. Besides, the involved external stakeholders might turn over time in potential funders of the programme if they actually benefit from it either in terms of knowledge exchange or in terms of active recruitment of high-quality graduates.
4. Identify the right partners
Seek out partners with a shared vision, a complementary educational offer and comparable student services. Partners where existing research cooperation and/or ‘regular’ student exchange arrangements exist should be considered first, rather than newcomers. Compatibility of partner institutions is one of the main elements needed to ensure sustainability.
5. Ensure institutional support
Ensure all partners have institutional support and adequate personnel and financial resources committed. Use the needs analysis to convince leadership of the added value of the programme (innovative programmes are more likely to get institutional support).
6. Engage key administrative staff
Ensure a clear distinction between administrative and academic roles throughout the development process, with academics assigned responsibility for realising the academic concept and administrators given ownership of the legal and administrative elements (credit allocation, minimum requirements, thesis procedures , language policy etc).
7. Develop the partnership agreement
This will be your main legal tool throughout the delivery of the programme. The rationale of the programme should be made explicit in the agreement, as well as the needs analysis, partners’ resource allocations, the rules for termination and conflict resolution, intellectual property rights regulations, course offering, teaching responsibilities, learning outcomes, tuition fee policies etc. The more complete the agreement, the easier it will be for the partners to ensure the sustainability of the programme in the long term. See Documents and templates
8. Assign decision-making power to the Joint Programme Steering Committee
Allow it to act as programme board. A clear problem-solving procedure should be established that enables it to tackle complications. It is important to determine the competences of the steering committee in the consortium agreement and confer to its members the power to approve changes to the annexes without going through the formal institutional approval process.
9. Assure quality
Consider quality assurance (QA), internal and external evaluation, and accreditation at the time of programme development. Make a QA plan and investigate the possibility for programme accreditation through the European Approach for the Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes.
10. Funding of the programme
At the very beginning of the negotiation process, all the parties should be made aware of the costs each partner will face. A thorough analysis should be carried out so that the Faculties/Departments/Schools that will own the JP can transparently asses the cost/benefit ratio and take an informed decision.
Once the format of the JP has been established and all the parties are onboard, the consortium should develop a sustainability plan that describes how the programme will be funded over time, what kind of resources each partner is expected to invest and when. The plan should also include different scenarios and a number of alternative plans depending on the availability of external funding.
Tuition fees represent in some cases a source of income, but the extreme diversity of policies and regulations in the different countries represents usually one of the most problematic aspects in the development phase of JPs. The consortium should include the management of tuition fees in the consortium agreement trying to satisfy the minimum requirements of each partners, and find mechanisms to redistribute equally the generated surplus.
Delivery phase
1. Ensure targeted promotion and recruitment
Highlight the academic content, support services and extracurricular activities. Be clear on the nature of the programme (research versus professional Master’s) and the added value it brings. Identify specific undergraduate summer schools where recruitment for the programme might prove effective. Make a plan for centralized (coordinator driven) and decentralized (partner driven) marketing activities and the ressources needed
2. Develop the brand
Identify and articulate aspects of the programme and its learning outcomes that are unique and innovative. Design a programme logo and produce branding tools (eg banners for student fairs and T-shirts) to enhance the feeling of belonging. Organise exclusive extracurricular events and develop a dedicated programme website.
3. Embed staff mobility
This can be a powerful tool to create a feeling among staff of belonging to a specific community, which might lead to spin-off activities among faculties and serve as a further incentive to continue the programme.
4. Conduct a yearly impact analysis
Measure the programme’s impact in terms of employability and relevance of learning outcomes. Pay particular attention to feedback from alumni
Other useful tips
● Remember every joint programme has its own requirements; the transferability of administrative solutions between programmes will be limited.
● Pay attention to geographical/national differences and special needs.
● Target the joint programme students as a specific group, rather than just as general exchange students.
● Ensure teaching staff are aware of the international character of the classroom and prepare them to teach in that context.
● Be aware of the need to structurally embed the programme, as key staff involved in a joint programme may leave. Documenting procedures, the nature of stakeholder responsibilities and the scope of specific roles are examples of structural embedding.
● Learning outcomes should be clearly defined, as well as which professions the qualification will allow the graduates to access. Negative feedback from alumni on the employability of programmes can jeopardize the future attractiveness of the programme.
● Mobility schemes: keep them as simple as possible to maximize the student intake and minimize the additional administrative costs. 90% of the existing JPs are offered at Master level and the most popular scheme is 1 year at university A + 1 year at university B, (with the flexibility of spending the final semester/term at a company or third university for the purpose of preparing the Master’s thesis). This scheme simplifies the administrative support needed for visa and permit of stay procedures, housing, etc.
● In many cases JPs need to be reaccredited even when based on pre-existing national programmes, just because the language of instruction switches to English, because of a different type of certificate to be awarded, because part of the programme will be offered by a different institution, or because the name of the programme is changed to satisfy the needs of all HEIs involved. Obviously, newly created JPs will need to be accredited in one or more countries. These accreditation processes are usually very demanding in terms of time and resources, and in many cases also costly. A recent study carried out by the ED-AFFICHE pilot project on the Joint European Degree Label showed that most of the HEIs involved in JPs identify accreditation related issues as the most problematic in the development and implementation phases (need for accreditation/re-accreditation, time needed to complete the accreditation process, and costs of the accreditation).
● Monitoring and evaluation are very relevant components of the sustainability of JPs. The satisfaction of the graduates is crucial for the future success of the JP and it needs therefore to be regularly measured in order to make the necessary adjustments and ensure the stability in the high quality of the programme. The needs of the labour market is also constantly changing and the learning outcomes should be regularly revised in collaboration with the employers. A clear information on the profile of the graduates and their employability appear to be crucial elements that students take into consideration for the selection of the programme. Moreover, the needs of the labour market today in certain fields (especially those related to the rapidly changing technical sectors) will not be the same in 4/5 years’ time. This should be taken into consideration since the preparatory phase of JPs takes between 1 and 2 years, the recruitment/selection/admission phase up to one extra year, and two more years for the first students to graduate in the case of Master programmes.
Impact of the programme on
the environment and society
Sustainability of a programme can be understood on two perspectives: “continuation of a programme” as described above and “the impact of the programme on the environment and the society”. The programme developers are encouraged to include environmental-friendly approaches when designing their projects, and think about alternative greener ways of implementing their activities (especially if applying for European projects). This section gives some hints on this issue and provides some non-exhaustive example practices:
● Check the EU and United Nations’ sustainable development goals
● Some of the sustainability development goals can be included in the contents of the programme.
o
Eg. In MAKES
Joint programme on Industry 4.0 (Master in Manufacturing
Adaptive Key Enhancers for a Sustainable Industry.
, one of the objectives is to shape the
transition from traditional manufacturing environments to modern and
sustainable ones. Hence courses on sustainable industrial processes are
included in the programme.
● For some others actions can be proposed within the programme (some non-exhaustive examples are below):
● Actions regarding inclusion and diversity (some examples below)
- Attract more female students in the engineering studies.
- Include actions for the inclusion of disabled students.
- Include actions to provide mobility opportunities for those having less opportunities (students with mental and health related conditions, students with children, students who work or are professional athletes, …)
- Make selection procedures that take into account equity and inclusion and assess applicants' merit and motivation holistically.
● Ensure and promote mobility while considering environmental impacts of travelling.
- Look for carbon-neutrality by promoting sustainable transport modes.
- Blended mobility and online course catalogues.
- Monitor and reduce carbon footprint of activities.
- Integrate and promote the principles of sustainability in their everyday work.
- Reduce the consumption of paper and plastics at work.
- Digital management of the JP.
● Measure the social impact of the JP (An impact analysis is requested when applying to European projects. E.g. EMJM).