Taskforce International Master Programme in Free Software

The FTA partners are designing an International Master Programme that will extend the current FTA programme and builds on previous experiences from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Open Universiteit Netherlands, Universitat Rey Juan Carlos and University of Agder. A taskforce has been set up with representatives from these universities and the Free Knowledge Institute.

WARNING: the date of this post is approximate! All announcements from 2008 to 2013 have APPROXIMATE, guessed dates, because restored from a partial backup, to document the history of FTA.

In 2010 the FTA set up a master-level programme, which is however not yet a full degree. Therefore, learners who would like to obtain a Masters degree can continue their studies at one of the partner universities. It would be much more attractive for learners to be able to follow a coherent and complete programme, taking courses from the FTA and partner universities. For the universities to set up such a programme, collaboration is clearly the most logical way forward. The efforts to set it up alone can be prohibitive, and designing, setting up and maintaining such master programme is both more economically efficient and more attractive when done collectively. The FTA Network is an ideal environment for collaborating on this and once the programme is ready, the FTA Campus can be used to run the programme with the interested partners.

In the model that is being developed a core part of the curriculum will be shared between all partners, while various tracks of different flavors can be optional, and may be offered only by some of the partners. Different options for recognition are being considered, such as local accreditation at the national level, double degrees between universities and joint degrees between various partners.

Initial members of the taskforce:

• Jesus Barahona, URJC/LibreSoft
• David Megias, UOC
• Carles Garrigues, UOC
• Lex Bijlsma, OUNL
• Janis Galis, UIA
• Wouter Tebbens, FKI