Winter school, Inter-track seminars & projects and master’s conference

The pro­gramme includes activ­i­ties involv­ing the entire cohort, regard­less of the cho­sen track. They are designed to fos­ter col­lab­o­ra­tion among stu­dents: the Win­ter School, inter-track sem­i­nars, inter-track projects, and the final Master’s conference.

Winter school (Semester 1)

The Semes­ter 1 pro­vides a shared foun­da­tion for all stu­dents while intro­duc­ing com­ple­men­tary spe­cial­i­sa­tions. It cul­mi­nates with a Win­ter school, held in Jan­u­ary in Europe, in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the GLOBAL COOP part­ners. This event gath­ers the entire cohort, intro­duc­ing stu­dents to the unique per­spec­tives and themes spe­cif­ic to each track and engag­ing the North/South dia­logue. It also pro­vides a plat­form to plan the “inter-track joint sem­i­nars” (see below), includ­ing select­ing invit­ed guests and top­ics, and to ini­ti­ate “inter-track projects” (see below) by form­ing groups, dis­cussing top­ics, and explor­ing poten­tial col­lab­o­ra­tions with non-aca­d­e­m­ic actors. Addi­tion­al­ly, stu­dents will have the chance to engage in pre­lim­i­nary dis­cus­sions about their indi­vid­ual Master’s the­sis projects and iden­ti­fy poten­tial supervisors.

The Win­ter school is designed to

• estab­lish a shared foun­da­tion (com­mon objec­tives, rules, the­o­ret­i­cal background),
• intro­duce key staff and representatives,
• fos­ter mean­ing­ful dis­cus­sions among stu­dents enrolled in dif­fer­ent options/tracks,
• pro­vide oppor­tu­ni­ties for stu­dents to col­lab­o­rate and exchange ideas on the next steps of their cur­ricu­lum. This includes form­ing work­ing groups for the ‘inter-track’ joint sem­i­nars and joint projects.

The Win­ter school will also fea­ture a series of con­vivial activ­i­ties, such as cul­tur­al events and gas­tro­nom­ic gath­er­ings, to strength­en cohort cohe­sion before stu­dents tran­si­tion into their respec­tive tracks.

Inter-track seminars (IJS) (Semesters 2 and 3)

The Inter-track joint sem­i­nars (IJS) pro­vide a frame­work to deep­en the under­stand­ing of the eco­log­i­cal tran­si­tion from both EU and Glob­al South per­spec­tives (Semes­ter 2, 4 ECTS), and to explore glob­al coop­er­a­tion and alliances in rela­tion to trade, finance, and the just socio-eco­log­i­cal tran­si­tion from a four-con­ti­nent eco­nom­ic per­spec­tive (Semes­ter 3, 4 ECTS). The IJS pri­mar­i­ly pro­vide the cohort with a shared foun­da­tion on these challenges.

Whether deliv­ered online or in per­son, these sem­i­nars will be attend­ed by stu­dents in the class­room, with a local pro­fes­sor coor­di­nat­ing and mod­er­at­ing each ses­sion at each loca­tion. They are designed to:

• show­case the core exper­tise of the part­ners;
• broad­en per­spec­tives on coop­er­a­tion, alliances and sus­tain­able pros­per­i­ty;
• incor­po­rate inter­dis­ci­pli­nary approach­es;
• com­bine aca­d­e­m­ic insights with non-aca­d­e­m­ic exper­tise;
• expand the geo­graph­i­cal scope by address­ing issues rel­e­vant to dif­fer­ent world regions.

The sem­i­nars are deliv­ered by world-class researchers and professionals.They address a wide range of polit­i­cal, social, and region­al con­texts. They include speak­ers from dif­fer­en con­ti­nents, includ­ing Africa, Asia and Latin Amer­i­ca to devel­op a per­spec­tive on the Glob­al South by the con­cerned actors and to fos­ter a dia­logue between the Glob­al South and the Glob­al North. These inter­ac­tions will also con­tribute direct­ly to stu­dents’ employ­a­bil­i­ty by fos­ter­ing sus­tained engage­ment with real-world practitioners.

Stu­dents from dif­fer­ent tracks will joint­ly pre­pare the dis­cus­sion and act as dis­cus­sants of these sem­i­nars, con­tribut­ing to con­tin­u­ous exchanges among stu­dents in the dif­fer­ent tracks.

Inter-track joint projects (IJP) (Semesters 2, 3 and 4)

The inter-track joint projects (IJP) are group projects miwing stu­dents from dif­fer­ent tracks. They unfold pro­gres­sive­ly over Semes­ters 2, 3, and 4, ensur­ing con­ti­nu­ity and depth of engage­ment. They invite stu­dents to lever­age their cre­ativ­i­ty, knowl­edge, and expe­ri­ences in devel­op­ing col­lec­tive trans­for­ma­tive projects with­in spe­cif­ic contexts. 

Root­ed in an inter­dis­ci­pli­nary frame­work, these projects oper­ate at the inter­sec­tion of sci­ence and soci­ety, fos­ter­ing dia­logue with stake­hold­ers. Stu­dents active­ly address real com­mu­ni­ty needs, acquir­ing prac­ti­cal knowl­edge and hon­ing essen­tial skills such as prob­lem-solv­ing, con­flict res­o­lu­tion, net­worked think­ing, team­work, and organ­i­sa­tion­al abil­i­ties. In par­tic­u­lar, these projects aim to:

• crit­i­cal­ly exam­ine the eco­nom­ic and geopo­lit­i­cal ten­sions and oppor­tu­ni­ties stem­ming from Glob­al South and North per­spec­tives for new glob­al coop­er­a­tion and alliances and sus­tain­able prosperity;
• employ plu­ral­is­tic approach­es, encom­pass­ing the­o­ret­i­cal, mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary, and/or method­olog­i­cal diver­si­ty (e.g., qual­i­ta­tive and quan­ti­ta­tive methods);
• engage non-aca­d­e­m­ic actors (ser­vice learn­ing) to fos­ter dia­logue beyond acad­e­mia, and civic engage­ment opportunities.

The expect­ed out­comes can com­prise orig­i­nal sci­en­tif­ic con­tri­bu­tions, reports, events organ­ised for non-aca­d­e­m­ic insti­tu­tions, the cre­ation of seri­ous games, or oth­er rel­e­vant deliv­er­ables agreed upon with super­vi­sors and local coor­di­na­tors. All projects will be pre­sent­ed at the master’s con­fer­ence.

Master’s conference (Semester 4)

The master’s con­fer­ence is held in July dur­ing Semes­ter 4. It gath­ers the entire cohort to present the ‘inter-track’ projects and master’s the­ses and engage with fel­low stu­dents, alum­ni, pro­fes­sors, and invit­ed speakers/guests in dis­cus­sion groups and pan­els. Ses­sions are be co-chaired by stu­dents and pro­fes­sors, with stu­dents active­ly par­tic­i­pat­ing as dis­cus­sants. At the conference’s con­clu­sion, three “Master’s Con­fer­ence Awards” (one per Track) are grant­ed to stu­dents who have demon­strat­ed excep­tion­al per­for­mance in their Master’s the­ses and whom the GLOBAL COOP con­sor­tium wish­es to encour­age in pur­su­ing fur­ther research in their respec­tive fields. 

The con­fer­ence includes:

• ses­sions in which stu­dents present their the­sis work to all the par­tic­i­pants (and in which the oth­er stu­dents (and par­tic­i­pants) dis­cuss the pre­sent­ed work);
• invit­ed ses­sions with pres­ti­gious keynote speakers;
• ses­sions organ­ised by the GLOBAL COOP Stu­dents and Alum­ni Asso­ci­a­tion.

Alum­ni are invit­ed to the con­fer­ence, in order to fos­ter the devel­op­ment of the stu­dents and alum­ni net­work and the coop­er­a­tion and poten­tial ini­tia­tives among the par­tic­i­pants (research project, co-authored papers, pro­fes­sion­al ini­tia­tives, etc.). Togeth­er with the Win­ter school, the GLOBAL COOP mas­ter’s con­fer­ence serves as a key plat­form for stu­dents, alum­ni, pro­fes­sors, and invit­ed speak­ers to show­case research and fos­ter pro­fes­sion­al networking.