Mobility, Specialisations & Degrees

Please note: This information is valid for student intakes 2019 - 2023.

1st and 2nd Semester

All students of MARIHE will have the same mobility track in the first two semesters:

• 1st Semester: University for Continuing Education Krems / Austria
• 2nd Semester: University of Tampere / Finland

Internship

For the internship between the 2nd and the 3rd semester, students will be with an institution related to research and innovation in higher education, e.g. MARIHE associated partners. In addition, there will also be the possibility for students to come up with own ideas for their internship placement.

First part of the 3rd Semester

In the first part of the 3rd semester, students will attend a study trip to Asia. They will be able to choose between:

• Beijing Normal University (China)
• Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology (India)

Second part of the 3rd Semester and 4th Semester

Students can choose from four different specialisation tracks, which comprise the second part of the 3rd and the 4th semester:

Specialisations

• Research and Innovation, TAU (Finland):

The specialisation “Research and Innovation” focuses on analysing and conducting research on the topics "research" and "innovation" in the HE sector, from the perspective of organisations, management, policy and governance. It will respond, for example, to the current challenge on how to raise the innovation-capacity of HE. The subject “Research and Innovation” equips students with deeper understanding of analysing research and innovation in higher education from the perspective of organisations, management, policy and governance. The objective of the specialisation is to offer students methodological knowledge particularly about case-study-research-design and comparative research methodology thereby making students capable for conducting practice and policy-oriented research in the field. As such, the specialisation deepens the knowledge and skills of students in diagnosing and solving organisational challenges in the context of HE, innovation and research by utilizing the theory and knowledge learnt during the preceding modules of MARIHE studies. During the studies in this specialisation, students also increase their knowledge on evidence-based policy-making processes and policy analysis. As a transdisciplinary field, Research and Innovation specialisation equips students to use and apply theories, concepts and principles of organisational development, policy analysis, and system-level governance particularly from the perspective of research and development.

• Leadership and Management, UASO (Germany):

The specialisation “Leadership and Management” focuses on addressing current challenges for leadership and innovation in the academic sector from the perspective of the practitioners as well as the theoretical concepts of institutional management and organisational change. It will respond, for example, to the current challenge on how to make HEIs more effective and efficient. The specialisation takes an institutional perspective and provides the knowledge and skills enabling to deal with changes in HE, research and innovation in everyday practice. The management of HE, research and innovation is a fast growing area of applied academic research that focuses on the question how higher education and research institutions and their constituent actors – such as faculties, departments, staff and students – function and develop internally within their specific contexts of international, national/regional science and innovation systems and stakeholder constellations. In this area, the management of learning and teaching processes is a new, innovative component of the MARIHE programme. As a transdisciplinary field, leadership and management of research and innovation in higher education teaches students to understand and apply theories, concepts and principles of institutional management, organisational culture and change, economics and finance, public sector entrepreneurship and change management and leadership. In all these areas, specific approaches for leadership and management have to be developed, which work under the special conditions and within the special culture of HE and research institutions. For example, the implementation process of entrepreneurship education in all bachelor programmes of a university provides a rich research environment to analyse and test whether and under what condition general concepts and theories of management, policy implementation, financial incentives and leadership can be confirmed or not.

• Institutional Research, UWK (Austria):

The specialisation “Institutional Research” focuses on collecting and reporting information for supporting management decisions. Globalisation, demographic shifts, increase in student enrolments, rapid technological transformation, and market-driven environments change the way HE operates today. These new challenges changed the focus of related study fields like management and organisation of higher education (e.g. entrepreneurial university), policy formation (e.g. autonomy, funding), entrepreneurship and innovation studies (e.g. university business cooperation) but also learning sciences (e.g. e-learning, MOOCs). The course explores the impact of such changes on decision support and the nature of institutional research in HE. Institutional research as a new subject in Europe gains importance towards new public management and increasing institutional autonomy to support evidence based decision making for institutional leaders. In return, new HE policies and governance concepts as well as innovation studies gain their impact through data analysis of institutional practices and results. Institutional research is therefore a prerequisite of any policy formation and practice in HE. It further plays a growing role for improving the quality of teaching in HE. Entrepreneurship and innovation studies as well as learning sciences use institutional data and reports to improve practices and solutions. Institutional research as an academic subject influences those fields of studies with data and results, evidence-based decision-making, policy formation practices and system performance measures. Besides a theoretical background the specialization will also offer field studies and problem-based learning. Real cases will bring the function, challenges and opportunities closer to the students so they will be able to act as an institutional researcher by designing institutional research projects, developing analytical and explorative reports and studies as well as understanding the interplay between institutional research and higher education management.

• Learning and Teaching, ELTE (Hungary):

The specialisation “Learning and Teaching” focuses on the specificities of student learning and teaching practices in HE with a special focus on supporting the development of innovative learning environments. It will respond, for example, to the current challenge on how to equip HEIs with a strategy for employing a student centred learning and teaching approach. As entry criterium, ELTE requires minimum 50 ECTS from previous studies in any of the following study areas: pedagogy, psychology, andragogy, sociology, law, social sciences, economic sciences or health sciences. The recognition of learning and teaching being a key function of higher education, which also needs effective leadership and management, is a crucial component of widening the scope of MARIHE programme. This makes it necessary to include learning sciences as a new disciplinary field into the programme. Learning Sciences is basically interdisciplinary, relying on disciplines such as cognitive psychology, education, anthropology, computer science and organisational behaviour. Managing effectively the learning and teaching process requires substantial knowledge about how learning happens, how effective learning environments can be created and how the learning experiences of students can be effectively enriched. The whole MARIHE programme relies on the most important outcomes of the learning sciences, such as the centrality of the learner, the collaborative nature of learning, the crucial role of motivation and emotions, the importance of individual learning routes and personalized learning, the balance between high expectations and actual student capacities, the role of formative feedback and the positive impact of horizontal connectedness or boundary crossings. These conclusions, emanating from state of the art research on learning, have direct implications on the effective design and delivery of training programmes, supporting university teachers in teaching and professional learning, as well as on managing innovations of learning and teaching. In this context, learning is conceived not only as an individual behaviour, but as a key feature of organisations, including HEIs.

Mobility Scheme

 Through the mobility scheme in MARIHE, students have:

• access to a variety of expertise (higher education management, policy analysis and higher education consultancy, strong regional expertise in the field of higher education)
• access to different types of institutions of higher education in Europe and Asia (university of applied sciences, traditional university, university for continuing education), which will serve on its own as perfect contextualization for students
• excellent possibilities for internships linked to the field of research and innovation
• authentic contact with different national and cultural contexts, including China and India
• the possibility to learn a variety of languages (major and small languages)
• developing cultural sensitivity and diversity orientation

Degrees

Graduates of MARIHE will be awarded a Joint Degree or a Double Degree. The degree awarded depends on the specialisation (and the mobility path) chosen by the student:

• The specialisation “Research and Innovation” (led by TAU) leads to a Joint Degree “Master of Administrative Sciences, M.Sc. (Admin.)”, conferred by Partners TAU and UWK.
• The specialisation “Leadership and Management” (led by UASO) leads to a Joint Degree “Master of Science, M.Sc.”, conferred by Partners UASO and UWK.
• The specialisation “Institutional research” (led by UWK) leads to a Joint Degree “Master of Administrative Sciences, M.Sc. (Admin.)”, conferred by Partners TAU and UWK.
• The specialisation “Learning and Teaching” (led by ELTE) leads to a Double Degree consisting of a “Master (in Educational Science)”, conferred by Partner ELTE, and a “Master of Administrative Sciences”, conferred by Partner TAU.

N.B.: Until 2018, MARIHE was conducted according to the old mobility scheme.