The aim of the Programme is to provide students with a solid basis for analysing and critically assessing change processes at all relevant levels in higher education, and to understand, for example, the management dimension in these processes. The Course puts a special emphasis on change processes related to quality development in higher education. This implies, amongst other things, that the relationship between national and institutional policies in areas such as funding, ICT, human resources development, and student support on the one hand and quality development on the other will be examined from a number of perspectives.

The Master Programme consists of four semesters. In the first semester students will have two courses, the first is an introduction to the history and philosophy of higher education, the main theories, concepts, and the range of disciplinary perspectives of relevance for studying higher education through a multi-level approach. The second course includes an introduction to social science research methods and statistics. In the second and third semester the students continue their studies of methods and statistics as well as focus in depth on change in higher education from a range of perspectives. The latter is provided in the form of three specialization modules each of which is developed and offered by various academic staff members of the involved universities and research centres. In the third semester students will prepare for their thesis in a thesis proposal seminar. In the fourth semester the Master degree students will work on their thesis.

The studies in the European Master in Higher Education master programme are advanced level studies. There is a separate application process for the master programme.

N.B. NO STUDENT INTAKE

The European Master in Higher Education is a joint programme organised by the universities of Oslo, Tampere and Aveiro. All the students study in the three universities
First semester at the University of Oslo
Second semester at the University of Tampere
Third semester at the University of Aveiro
For the thesis semester the students will be appointed a supervisor and a home university at one of the three universities. At the University of Tampere the professor is the academic coordinator of the master programme.