Per Ivar Chutko

Globalisation and Sustainable Development (Master's Programme)

Hilde Refstie

This assessment is based on available course evaluation reports and reference group reports (GEOG3005, GEOG3053, GEOG3518, GEOG3522, SARB3518), discussions with student representatives and discussions in the programme board. The overall conclusion is that with a few exceptions, the MSGLOPOL programme is well organized, the overall quality of the teaching is satisfactory, and students are overall satisfied with the programme. The spring of 2020 was challenging for many study programmes, especially the global programmes of study with international students and international scope (fieldwork and internship abroad). We both had students abroad and students planning to travel abroad during this period. The lecturers were affected differently by care responsibilities and other duties during the lockdown, and all lecturers had to transition to online teaching. Many students were in the same situation, and several lacked good workspaces in their often-shared homes. The stress of being away from family and relatives in a global pandemic, as well as having to adjust master thesis fieldwork and internship plans made the spring of 2020 quite exceptional. This must be taken into consideration when assessing the learning outcome and quality of the programme for 2019-2020. Learning outcomes: In the past few years, we have worked with institutionalizing some of the decisions made when the programme changed its name to Globalisation and sustainable development. More discussions on sustainability in all its facets have been brought into the different courses, and the programme description has been revised to reflect this.&nbsp; Courses and structure: The courses with registered course reports (GEOG3005, GEOG3053, GEOG3518, GEOG3522, SARB3518) are all evaluated as relevant courses that are well implemented. One concern, brought up by students, is how the course SANT3508 - Globalisation, Theory and Culture is not experienced as relevant for the program. This was also brought up in last year’s report, and the programme coordinator has asked for more information on this to consider possible actions. This year we have also had some challenges in terms of making sure that our elective courses do not clash with our mandatory courses and each other. As the program’s list of electives is relatively large, it has been near impossible to avoid this. The list of electives was discussed at the programme board meeting, but since the distribution of students on electives were so even, and there were good reasons for keeping the different electives, the list was not changed. Overview elective courses class of 2018 and 2019: AAR5270: 5 (Class of 2019)SARB3518: 3 (Class of 2019)SARB3519: 10 (Class of 2018)SØK2007: 2 (Class of 2019)TIØ4261:HIST3400: 4 (Class of 2018), 6 (Class of 2019)GEOG3101: 5 (Class of 2018), 4 (Class of 2019)GEOG3517: 4 (Class of 2018), 8 (Class of 2019)GEOG3527: 1 (Class of 2018), 1 (Class of 2019)Other courses (Individual decision):HIST3375: 1 (Class of 2018) Need for more in-depth evaluation:&nbsp;One consequence of Covid-19 for the programme was that a number of students had to get extensions for their master thesis work. Another is that the first-year students got the option to start with their master thesis work in the third semester instead of doing an internship. While most students managed to start their internship despite the Covid 19 challenges, some students are therefore currently working on their master thesis and plan to do their internship in the spring 2021. Given the number of students that now have different trajectories in terms of their thesis work, some more evaluation is needed to assess how the programme can best support them to successfully finish their thesis on time.

In 2019 288 applicants had the program as their first priority. This is an increase from 207 in 2018. The student numbers in the courses developed for MSGLOPOL is also increasing, as other programmes are using our courses as electives into their Master programmes. While this creates some challenges in terms of addressing students with a very wide range of backgrounds in our courses, it also shows the relevance of the MSGLOPOL programme and the courses we offer. Status class of 2018It was 27 students that was admitted to the programme in 2018. Only 6 students have completed the degree without delay in the spring of 2020. 9 students are delayed (still active). 2 students are on a leave of absent. 10 of the students withdrew the first semester or never showed up (did not pay semester fee, did not come to Norway etc.). These ten students lost their right to study before October 2018. Since they have not been active (completed any courses) they should not be included in dropout statistics. We assume that the fallout before the programme starts has to do with student financing issues, but it would be interesting to learn more about this.&nbsp; Status class of 2019It was 27 students admitted to the programme in 2019. 10 students have withdrawn or lost their study right for the programme. All 10 except one withdraw within the first semester. 17 students are still active. Status class of 2020In total it was registered 33 students in 2020. 25 are still active. 14 of these students have a registered semester address outside of Norway. Programme Leader’s assessment of quality of programmeThe programme leader experiences the MSGLOPOL programme as a good quality programme that has kept its profile over time while at the same time speaking to current discussions in globalization and development. The interdisciplinary basis of the programme is one of its strengths, and it is the programme leader’s impression that more and more programmes are adopting similar structures, both in terms of interdisciplinarity, and in terms of integrating internships as part of their programmes.In the first half year of the new programme leader (starting January 2020), the focus has been on streamlining information and communication, following up on students during the Covid 19 crisis, and preparing for hybrid teaching and onboarding of students for the fall 2020. Action points <ul><li>Research design and preparations for writing a master's thesis:&nbsp;Several students have been delayed in submitting their master thesis due to the pandemic. Delays were, however, also observed before the pandemic.&nbsp;The programme team will therefore look into the different causes for this and see what can be addressed through for example&nbsp;more&nbsp;training on developing research design, writing project drafts, research ethics and processing of personal data in research, academic writing and literature. In other programmes at the geography department students receive this training through a course GEOG3008 Geography in practice - field and research design.&nbsp;The MSGLOPOL students do not currently have access to this course, which means that research design and writing are mainly discussed - and thus to a lesser degree - in programme progress meetings. The programme team will explore possibilities for linking this activity to credit-covered courses corresponding to GEOG3008 to be discussed at the next programme board meeting.&nbsp;</li><li>Distribution of supervisors:&nbsp;To support a more even distribution of student supervision, the programme coordinator will gather bios from the potential supervisors at the collaborating departments to present to the students early on when they are conceptualizing their master projects.&nbsp;&nbsp;</li><li>Admission of international students spring 2021:&nbsp;The programme team will communicate to the&nbsp;Office of International&nbsp;Relations&nbsp;and NTNU centrally the need to have organized quarantine measures in place for incoming students to ensure a collective study environment on campus and avoid hybrid teaching where possible.&nbsp;</li><li>SANT 3508 Will go through an internal evaluation by the responsible department and be strengthened according to student feedback. </li></ul>

<ol><li>Continue the mapping out of possible interventions to better support the students in their thesis design, planning and implementation</li><li>Conduct a five-year evaluation in 2023</li><li>Work on streamlining and predictability on the communication with students</li><li>Organize a meeting among the different course responsibles to map gaps and overlaps</li><li>Revise internship report guidelines</li></ol>

Tiltak

Follow-up Plan MSGLOPOL 

NTNU:TIA:REST

Fakultet for samfunns- og utdanningsvitenskap

Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences

This assessment is based on available course evaluation reports and reference group reports (GEOG3005, GEOG3053, GEOG3518, GEOG3522, SARB3518), discussions with student representatives and discussions in the programme board. The overall conclusion is that with a few exceptions, the MSGLOPOL programme is well organized, the overall quality of the teaching is satisfactory, and students are overall satisfied with the programme. As the programme board now has several new representatives&nbsp;the board meeting held in the spring 2021 focused on getting everyone on board in terms of how the programme has worked in terms of recruitment, course composition, supervision and semester time lines. The programme experiences a steady increase in applicants. In 2021 it had 69 Norwegian first priority applicants and 288 international first priority applicants. This makes the MSGLOPOL programme one of the most popular study programmes at NTNU and in Norway. Class of 2019 has 16 active students supervised at the following departments: Dept.&nbsp;of&nbsp;Geo: 12​, Dept.&nbsp;of&nbsp;Social&nbsp;Work: 3​, Dept.&nbsp;of&nbsp;Sos.ant: 1. As for submitted theses, 11 have submitted with 2 being delayed to submit in the late spring&nbsp;and 2 in the autumn. Class of 2020 has 22 registered students comprising the following nationalities: Norway (11), Ghana (2), Nepal (2), Brazil, Chile, Greece,&nbsp;Cameroon, Netherlands,&nbsp;Russia, GB, Taiwan, Ukraine,&nbsp;Germany. The supervisors are distributed as: Dept.&nbsp;of&nbsp;Geo: 11​, Dept.&nbsp;of&nbsp;Social&nbsp;Work: 2​, Dept.&nbsp;of&nbsp;Sos.Ant: 3​, Dept.&nbsp;of&nbsp;Ind.&nbsp;Ec: 2. Since the possibilities for travelling are still uncertain, many students have to do their internships in Norway. For English speaking students this can be challenging, but most students have been able to secure internships. For those remaining there is an opening in the MSGLOPOL regulations for instead taking courses. Learning outcomes: One feedback from students have been that the programme is very heavy on economic theory in the first year. This is not unnatural as e.g. development thinking have been very dominant in early development and globalization studies. The students would, however, like to see more focus on issues of environmental and ecological justice issues as well as natural resource management. This is something that has been incorporated in the GEOG3053 course the past two years and that is still under development. Another student feedback was on the course SANT3508 Globalisation, Theory and Culture. Addressing feedback from students in 2019 and 2020, the Dept. of Social Anthropology had redesigned the course and also added teaching resources. However, the students still raised issues with the quality of the course. These concerns have been shared in writing with the Dept. of Social Anthropology for further processing. The representatives also brought feedback from the students on that EiT (mandatory for the first time this year) was not experienced by most as a useful course. The course is, however, mandatory for all master students at EiT with few exceptions. The programme has had a more structured follow-up of students at the programme level in the period 2020-2021 than was the case in 2019-2020. Yet, more can be done to facilitate more activities at the programme level. To boost the learning environment at the programme following one and a half year with the pandemic, a student "buddy" team was hired to help receive the students who arrived in the autumn 2021. The hope is that this will help create a stronger class-identity. A student committee is also working on setting up what they have named "OpenTalks" where they invite researchers, former students as well as people working in th public, private and civic sector to allow for networking and more informal conversations on globalization and sustainable development. These are all initiatives that can strengthen the learning environment.

The quality of the study programme is generally good, but as the feedback from the students indicate there are some improvements that could be made in singular classes as well as in promoting a more integrated focus on all dimensions of sustainability in the programme (social, economic and environmental). From a programme leader perspective I also see the need for more follow up on research design, writing project drafts, research ethics and processing of personal data in research, and academic writing and literature search. In other programmes at the geography department students receive this training through a course called GEOG3008 Geography in practice - field and research design. The MSGLOPOL students do not currently have access to this course, which means that research design and writing are mainly discussed - and thus to a lesser degree - in short courses and programme progress meetings. The programme team will explore possibilities for linking this activity to credit-covered courses corresponding to GEOG3008 to be discussed at the next programme board meeting.&nbsp; The second concern is the linking of students with potential supervisors at other departments than the geography department. Here, the board members serve an important function as being the contact point between the programme leader and administrative coordinator, and their department.

A number of changes and refinements have been implemented in the programme during the last year. Reception of new students: The success in using two students as 'buddies' for incoming students was continued, and a number of social activities related to the programme was organized, including linking up with the second year students staying in Trondheim. The students now have a Whatsapp group they use for communication. The MSGLOPOL alumni facebook page that was created last year is also used for sharing events and opportunities. Research design and process: We have ensured a better coordination between methods classes and research design teaching at course and programme levels for the students. All MSGLOPOL students are now offered lectures in research design regardless of whether they choose qualitative or quantitative research methodology. In addition, the number of progress meetings at the programme level in each semester has been increased from two to three, and contains now a more focused approach to research design and development with the support of Prof. Emerita Ragnhild Lund who has a long history with the programme. Lastly, the Department of Geography is in the process of examining how to offer better quality teaching on this subject to all its students through a course on research design, testing and project development, where students learn from practice how to navigate a research project. How this relates to MSGLOPOL could be one subject for the upcoming evaluation of the programme in 2023. Introduction of potential supervisors from departments outside Geography: In the autumn 2021, the students organized OpenTalks with some of the lecturers involved in MSGLOPOL where they presented work from their departments (Social Work and Anthropology). To build on this, a symposium was organized in the autumn 2022 where representatives from all departments were invited and present for a very fruitful discussion on inter and multidisciplinary, and what each department has to offer on the broad topic of Globalisation and Sustainable Development. GEOG 3522: Migration and Development: To have a more focused frame for GEOG 3522 in line with competencies at the department as well as current discussions, it is suggested to change the name for this course to Migration and the humanitarian-development nexus. The course description now emphasized the role of migration in a world where crises have become the 'new normal'. The course keeps its focus on the global south as a departure point for discussing this in light of globalisation and development. Communication from the department on practical matters: While there is still high pressure on the administrative resources for the programme, more effort has been put into communicating in a timely manner and give students more information about upcoming meetings in due time.

The MSGLOPOL programme is seen to maintain a high quality and continues to be very relevant. Application numbers: The application numbers have gone up, but we see some decline in applicants outside of EU. While the applicant numbers have increased slightly, fewer candidates are also deemed qualified. We are looking into whether this has something to do with changed practices at the International Section, or whether there are other reasons for this change. Lastly, it continues to be challenging to estimate how many of those who are offered a place will actually travel to Norway and become active students. Several students have struggled with visa cues and long processing time together with rise in costs of travelling and living in Norway. To make up for this, the programme has supplemented with Norwegian students in a second round of offers. This has changed the composition of the class and is not something we wish to have as a rule. With concerns regarding the Government's suggestion on school fees for international students it is relevant to see how educational collaborations could help address this gap so that a more diverse student group is re-established. Learning environment: The study barometer gives some indications of the study and learning environment, but there are few respondents so that the years are merged to have enough of a foundation for the survey results. The qualitative feedback from students in courses, progress meetings, meetings with class representatives and board meetings is that the overall quality of the programme is high, but that some areas could be worked on in terms of improving courses and the way they link together. This could be another focus for the upcoming evaluation in 2023. In the programme, we are specifically working with the progress meetings and creating arenas where the students discuss both within and across programmes. The work load in the first semester is experienced as quite high, and quite a lot of work related to the master thesis is not embedded within any credit giving course. This is something that have formed the basis for discussion on a potential research design and practice course similar to what some other comparable international programmes have developed. The internship report guidelines will also be revised as the workload for the report is currently quite different between students depending on what kind of internship they are conducting. Progression: The numbers with regards to progression and finishing up in time is not of concern as it is comparable with other study programmes. During the past year we have focused on a more structured process with regards to preparing for the master thesis through research design, progress meetings, and more communication with the supervisors on th etimeline for the internship and master's. Societal and work relevance: The programme has maybe been better at communicating societal than work relevance, but the latter comes in very strongly with the internship. After a period where some of the students have had to conduct digital internships or internships conducted in Norway only, we are now back to students travelling all over the world and securing highly relevant internships. In the spring 2022, the programme actually received more requests for internship placements of our students than we were able to fulfill. More students are also now able to do fieldwork where they build networks and get more hands-on experience that is valuable in terms of future job opportunities. Some of the courses, such as GEOG 3518 Global Production Networks has also included a full day visit to an international company, something that is valued by the students. We also see that the competencies developed at the programme are highly sought after in an increasingly wide pool of positions and that several of our students secures a job before their studies are concluded. We could, however be better at communicating this at the programme level. Internationalization: This is the foundation for the programme which includes students from all over the world. Most students also travel in relation to their internships and master thesis projects where they link up with a number of companies, organisations and research institutions abroad.

The MSGLOPOL programme is a collaboration between five departments at NTNU, and draws on the competencies of a number of staff in these departments in terms of courses, supervision, and input into the programme board. At the Geography Department who owns the programme, the field of Globalisation and Sustainable Development has been weakened during the past 3-4 years as key staff has moved on or retired, and been replaced by staff who has some intersection with, but maybe not the core of the MSGLOPOL programme as their area. This is a cause of concern as it makes the community of practice surrounding the programme vulnerable, and partly hampers the development of the programme and its corresponding courses. There is, however some potential in making more use of the political ecology competence at the department in towards the different courses and the programme. This should, however not come at the costs of the strengths of the MSGLOPOL programme in other areas and its profile compared to for example MSc in Natural Resource Management also offered at the department. This is something that could be communicated more strongly to the Geography Department leadership in terms of future recruitments to ensure the robustness and profile of the MSGLOPOL programme. As for the courses offered in the programme, the course evaluations indicate that they are of high quality. However, some courses lack course evaluations and reference group reports such as HIST3295, GEOG3005 and GEOG3006. That makes them difficult to evaluate.

Globalisation and Sustainable Development (Master's Programme) - MSGLOPOL