Programme profile
The first cycle degree programme in International development and co-operation aims to provide students with basic knowledge of economic, political, institutional and social development. In particular, the programme aims to provide students with the essential skills for understanding the principal factors of local and global development, long-term development in different local, national and international systems, evaluating the relations between countries and regions of the world with different levels of wellbeing and adopting policy measures in favour of development.
The programme has an interdisciplinary approach inspired by the concept of sustainable development, in other words, that goods and services must meet certain specific requirements in human, social and political terms. The programme has a historical, economic, legal, politological, statistical and sociological profile and aims to promote qualitative and quantitative comparative analysis of structural and sectoral problems of local systems in the Mediterranean, Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, South America, Eastern Europe and European Union countries.
The programme aims to underline the importance of local cultures, dynamics and processes and autonomous development, favouring the use of original and innovative experience and concepts in development cooperation policies in different territorial areas. In this sense, the interdisciplinary approach is a fundamental aspect of the programme that also provides a wide range of integrated and related activities. There are optional subjects in the most important sectors for the graduate profile: economics-statistics, politology, sociology, law, history and languages. This broad approach defines the graduate profile expected from this programme by elaborating upon knowledge which is specific to this sector and area through course units that focus on different subject groups. The programme also provides research methodologies with particular attention to the demands arising from the new complex interaction between international dynamics and national dynamics which vary according to the context. To satisfy the training requirements of international, national and regional agencies, NGOs, private and public companies operating in the agricultural, industrial and service sector at national and trans-national level, the programme organises workshops as part of the elective activities, in which intervention methods are analysed, discussed and negotiated.
Expected learning outcomes
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING ABILITY:
Graduates:
- will have knowledge of basic concepts of the relevant disciplinary fields, that is law, economics, politology, history, anthropology and statistics;
- will have specific knowledge of economic politics, development economics and sociology so as to describe and analyse the different economic and social development situations in different areas and in particular in developing countries;
- will have knowledge of the history and structural and sectoral problems of local systems in countries in at least one of the following geographic areas: Mediterranean, Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, South America, Eastern Europe and European Union.
The knowledge, understanding and elaboration abilities in the subject areas listed above (belonging to the basic and core curriculum subject areas i.e. economics, politics-economics, law, history-anthropology, cooperation and development) are achieved and developed through lectures, debates supervised by professors, workshops and in-depth study activities, practical activities, individual work assigned and agreed with the professors, supervised home study, and home study.
Learning is assessed mainly through oral and written exams, intermediate or final tests and individual and group oral presentations.
ABILITY TO APPLY KNOWLEDGE AND TO UNDERSTAND:
Graduates:
- will be able to evaluate and manage public and private issues of organisations involved in development and governance policies;
- will have the knowledge and ability to apply notions in statistics, economics, and social statistics and demography and to correctly define the main aggregates and macro and micro territorial indicators;
- will have applied knowledge, developed also through personal experience, of the design, development and management of territorial intervention plans, administrative management plans, and monitoring techniques for specific critical situations.
Evaluation, management and application skills are developed through laboratory activities, including computer activities, the analysis of specialist magazines and/or publications containing the results of quantitative studies, use of statistical methodology for description and quantitative study of economic and social phenomena, the analysis of sources and bibliographic research provided for in particular by the core curriculum subject areas: economics, politics and economics, cooperation and development and anthropology. These skills improve further during the internship and preparation of the final paper.
Assessments (written and oral exams, essays, and problem solving activities) provide for specific tasks to evaluate the students' command over instruments and methodologies, and their critical autonomy. If an internship is provided for the skills are assessed through the presentation by the student of a detailed essay on the experience; in addition the tutor and the training manager of the body in which the internship takes place prepare an assessment report.
JUDGEMENT SKILLS
Graduates:
- will have knowledge of international law and of the political history of developing areas in order to be able to interpret important phenomena concerning the creation of international regulations, self-determination of peoples, individual rights and development prospects;
- will be able to integrate their knowledge and analysis methodologies and use computer and statistical skills to interpret and use data banks and indicators produced by international organisations concerning populations involved in both social and economic intervention plans.
Judgement skills are developed through debates during lectures, in-depth study of specific themes, comparative reading of different legal and normative systems and quantitative indicators, data bank web research and evaluation of their coverage and reliability, practical activities involving the creation of measurements and their interpretation, role playing, in particular in the legal, political and economic, cooperation and development, geography and organisation of the territory subject areas; these skills are also developed through related and integrated activities that focus on the interpretation of socio-economic development indicators in different regions and the interdisciplinary connections related to the evolution of international debates on development, assessment of development policies and fundamental human and individual rights. Judgement skills are also developed during internship activities and the activities assigned by the supervisory professor in preparation of the final paper.
The acquisition of judgement skills is assessed through the evaluation of the study programme course units, including related ones, and the students' autonomy and capacity to work alone and in groups during the activity assigned in preparation of the final paper and internship where applicable.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS:
Graduates:
- will have knowledge of one or more foreign languages (at least at level B1) and communication and relationship skills necessary for operating as part of international work groups also abroad.
Written and oral communication skills are developed mainly during communication workshops that introduce methods and phases for the preparation of reports, bibliographies, documents, workshops on public presentation of individual work that provide for reports and written documents, and the economics workshop. The communication skills listed above are also developed through the preparation of the final paper and where applicable through the internship/traineeship and relevant dissertation.
English language and another foreign language, chosen by students from the related subjects, are acquired and assessed through specific courses and tests. The passive comprehension of English is improved in seminars, organised by the university and faculty, on themes related to the programme, held by foreign professors.
LEARNING SKILLS:
Graduates:
- will be able to autonomously elaborate upon the themes of the different contexts studied and to perfect knowledge and professional capacities; this also thanks to knowledge of quantitative and qualitative methods for social and development analysis.
Learning skills are developed throughout the overall course programme, including a significant number of related course units, in particular during home study, the preparation of individual projects, organisation of role-playing activities and the preparation of the final paper.
Learning skills are continuously assessed during the course units, where particular importance is given to students' ability to work to deadlines and students are required to present data collected autonomously, through tutoring during projects and through the evaluation of self-learning skills developed during the activity in preparation of the final paper.