Development of Youth Welfare Postgraduate Courses
Posted on: 29 July 2013
The development of postgraduate courses on international child and youth welfare was focused on recently by an international delegation hosted by TCD’s Children’s Research Centre.
As part of its collaboration in the EU Tempus Project, Transnational Academic Careers in Child and Youth Welfare (TACHYwe), the Children’s Research Centre hosted a delegation of 20 child and youth welfare experts from higher education institutions in Ireland, Israel, Russia, Germany and Italy.
The TACHYwe project, which is led at TCD by Dr Michelle Share, Acting Director of the Children’s Research Centre, aims to develop and implement MA and PhD courses on international child and youth welfare in 10 participating higher education institutions. The project is funded for three years by the EU-cooperation programme Tempus IV with a grant of €970,000.
The 10 participating universities and institutes are Trinity College Dublin, University of Hildesheim (Germany), Free University of Bozen (Italy), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel), Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Israel), Sapir College (Israel), Haruv Institute Jerusalem (Israel), Moscow State Regional University (Russia), Don State Technical University (Russia), and Fondazione Emanuela Zancan (Italy).
In addition to a focus on curricula content the project also provides networking activities to promote transnational academic careers for staff and students. A central activity involves the development of an online-platform that provides e-courses, learning materials, discussion forums, and designated areas for peer networking and international supervision.
The process of development and implementation of the courses is accompanied by activities that support research engagements and peer networking of students and staff from Russia, Israel, Ireland, Germany and Italy.
Professor James Wickham, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, welcomed the TACHYwe delegation to TCD. During their three-day visit the delegates progressed curriculum design and participated in lectures on European Youth Policy delivered by Professor Maurice Devlin, Centre for Youth Research, NUI Maynooth, and on innovative teaching methodologies, delivered by Dr Perry Share from the Centre for Research in the Social Professions, Institute of Technology, Sligo. The group also participated in a workshop hosted by the Migrant Rights Centre Ireland on issues facing migrant young people living in Ireland.
Speaking about the event Dr Michelle Share, Acting Director of the Children’s Research Centre, commented: “We were delighted to welcome the participants in the TACHYwe International Curriculum Development Project. Trinity can play a key role in helping to develop up-to-date and relevant materials on child and youth issues. At the same time there is great potential for our own students and staff to learn from others’ experience. The project can actively support the internationalisation of the university and develop synergies with EU neighbouring countries of Russia and Israel.”