The political, economic and social development of least developed countries is one of the major challenges of globalization. Growing interdependence and integration offer a chance to strengthen cooperative relations between the North and the South of the world. The call to cooperation is urgent: poverty, inequality, conflict, instability, and uncertainty still affect everyday life of a majority of world population.

The Master’s Course in International Cooperation and Development offers a privileged framework for designing tentative solutions to the above mentioned problems through the collective action of governmental and non governmental agents, bridging gaps among people, groups and institutions.
This Master’s program aims at converting theoretical knowledge into practical wisdom, and to give students a specific set of professional skills to successfully face the job market. This is possible thanks to these distinctive characteristics:

• the limited number of admitted students guarantees an efficient interaction with instructors and colleagues in the class;
• active participation in class includes simulations, case analysis, team assignments;
• experts and executives take an active part in the program sharing their professional experiences with the students;
• the internship is a chance to directly test skills acquired during courses and a unique opportunity to network.

Since 1996 ASERI has been helping young people from all over the world to develop in their international careers; many former students are currently employed in private and public cooperation agencies.
ASERI has organized many seminars and short courses on development for both professionals and young graduates, such as “Globalization and Development: actors and instruments for international cooperation”, “Summer School in Peace and Democracy Building”, “Governance and Public Policies” (for a group of Iraqi officials and members of the Parliament).
MIC&D is the outcome of ASERI’s long and diversified experience: four editions were predominantly taught in Italian; in English since the a.y. 2010-11. In its history, this program has relied on ASERI’s international network of Universities, NGOs, public and private institutions from all over the world, exchanging visions, experiences and scientific reflections with each other and with students.
The Master’s Course (Master universitario di I livello) will be granted by the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore after the achievement of 60 credits gained through course attendance and the successful completion of all examinations.

Obiettivi
MIC&D trains professionals to be able to contribute to development cooperation with creativity, personality and competence:

• identifying local needs through a bottom-up approach;
• managing technical, financial and administrative aspects of cooperation initiatives;
• involving civil society in identifying resources and deciding upon their use;
• collaborating with national and international institutions within the policy framework of the country where projects are implemented.

The ability to interpret local and international events, to interact with all the stakeholders, to identify and manage environmentally and local culture friendly interventions requires both a basic multidisciplinary training and specialized technical and managerial competences.

Destinatari
The Master is open to students from different disiplines, in particular Political Science, Economics, Law, Humanities, Education, Foreign Languages, Psychology, Social Science, Engineering, Nursing Science, Agronomy, Environmental Science.
To ensure high quality of learning and stong class interaction, the maximum number of admitted students is limited to 25.
In order to enroll into the Master’s program, participant must:

• have completed a three-year university degree
• pass an entrance selection (for information, please visit the “How to Apply” section)
• for those candidates who have matured a significant professional experience nut do not have a degree, admission to the program as auditors may be considered at the discretion of the School Committee.

Contenuti
MIC&D is organized along four complementary levels, fostering multidimensional training and integrating scientific methodologies and operative competences.

1st level – Scientific Training
The first level provides students of different academic backgrounds with a multidisciplinary education on various dimensions of development processes aimed at acquiring the relevant economic, political, historical, legal, institutional and managerial competences, with a special focus on fighting against poverty and fostering social inclusion.
Main topics covered:

• Poverty, inequality and human development
• Geopolitics of development with focus on different geographic areas (Africa,Asia, Latin America)
• Globalization and social development
• Development Economics
• Trade and financial policies for development
• Human rights
• International law and development cooperation
• Economics and management of international cooperation agencies

2nd level – Professional Training
The second level aims at developing practical skills required to operate in the sector. They cover theoretical and practical exploration of development and emergency cooperation, including actors and strategies of intervention, emergency relief, natural resource management, conflict prevention and post-conflict reconstruction, and project cycle management (identification, formulation, funding, implementation and evaluation). The development of personal skills is also stressed, aimed at an efficient career management. Professional Training activities are based on team work, workshops, seminars, and role playing. The professionals and experts involved in these activities operate in NGOs, international organizations, public administration, and companies with which ASERI has developed carious forms of partnerships, including internships.

3rd level – Project Work
Students are required to develop a personal research project on an issue related to development cooperation, under the supervision of a MIC&D professor and/or a professional from a partner institution.
The project work will often be connected to the internship experience.

4th Level – Internship
The Master’s program is completed by an internship within one of the ASERI partner institutions or other entities whose mission and activities are consistent with the Master’s program. The internship will give students the chance to test and deepen the competences acquired during classes in a specific job context, in Italy or abroad, de. ned through a constant exchange between each student and the tutor, whose task is to support students in their academic and professional endeavour.

Note

Durata Gennaio - Dicembre Stage Internships are a key, compulsory component of the Master program and usually last 3 months. In those particularly popular companies or organizations where places are limited, students will be asked to sit an interview and will be recruted by the company or organization. Costo The Master's fee is € 7.000. The fee covers tuition, tutoring service, school's facilities and teaching materials.