We conceived the Postgraduate Program in Development Studies from an integrative perspective. Its overall aim is to upgrade, expand, and deepen your initial knowledge, skills, and attitudes. The program promotes knowledge that can be learned, skills that are long-lasting and robust, and an attitude rich in values such as perseverance, openness, ambition, inquisitiveness, and interest in learning (
including 'learning to learn'). We see our students as adults who want to increase their potential for:
- seeing what the issues at stake are
- gaining a relevant knowledge base (e.g. by studying the literature available)
- thoroughly assessing the alternatives
- acting effectively and in an ethically correct way
- solving problems at hand
- foreseeing and planning new courses of action
- taking on responsibilities
The program's method is:
instrumental: It is first and foremost useful. reflective: It promotes critical thinking. participative: It involves students, instructors, and other staff members. networking: It includes the whole world. biographical: It draws from students' and instructors' real-life experiences. contextual: It sharpens students’ awareness of the creative and multidimensional interplay of the local and the global by using real-life cases as learning material. holistic: It is at the service of the development of the whole student.
