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Through Mundo, UM contributes to higher education development in Mozambique
29 November 2010
Mundo, Maastricht University Centre for International Cooperation in Academic Development, will carry out a (1.8 million) NICHE project in Mozambique. This four-year project entitled “Introduction of student centred learning” aims at building capacity at the Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) to develop and implement participative learning methods university wide.
The higher education sector in Mozambique is changing significantly with innovation playing a key role in this process. The country’s fast economic growth in the last decade has had a great impact at all levels: government structures have been reorganised, international investment has clearly increased and the number of institutions of higher education has doubled. In face of this, both academic staff training and expansion of academic staff numbers are central as universities cannot lag behind. Graduates should be equipped to meet the needs and demands of the country’s changing society and economy.
But Mozambique is on the right track. The government is taking the development of higher education seriously. In earlier projects in Mozambique, Maastricht University (UM) has supported the Universidade Católica Moçambique, the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Eduardo Mondlane University. UEM, the oldest and largest university of Mozambique, is also responding actively to the societal and economic challenges by establishing new academic courses, and initiating both curriculum reforms and capacity building processes at most of its faculties. Moreover, it has established UEM Schools and subsidiaries throughout the country to improve university access for youngsters and professionals in need of further academic training. The newly established schools have already adopted student centred methods with apparent success.
The project to support UEM, starting in February 2011, will be implemented in consortium with MDF Training & Consultancy. It brings together a mix of global high level expertise in relevant practice areas from universities within and outside the Netherlands. As far as UM is concerned, Mundo will cooperate with academic staff from the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences, the School of Business and Economics, the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the Faculty of Law and University College Maastricht. The capacity-building component of this project includes strengthening pedagogical and organisational capacity within UEM, implementing participative methods university wide, incorporating gender perspectives in the whole capacity building process, and improving graduates’ competencies to fulfill expectations of the labour market. The project will also include master’s and PhD training.
For more information about this project, contact Annechien Deelman
For more information about Mundo, please visit their website
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