UTVB3003 Introduction to the Development Enterprise Course description

[Internt: Starting 2024/2025, this course is expanded to 15 ETCS, integrating key contents from the then-terminated UTVB3130 Recent trends in development assistance]

The Faculty of Education and International Studies at Oslo Metropolitan University offers interdisciplinary courses leading to a Bacherlor's degree of 180 ECTS credits in Development Studies. This course on is at the intermediate level and represents a 15 ECTS credits module in the 5th semester of the Bachelor programme.

If there are non-Scandinavian exchange students at the course, it will be taught in in English. 

The succeful completion of this course is a prerequisite for students wanting to apply for UTVB3901 Hospitering i utviklingsindustrien - med bacheloroppgave, in the sixth semester. 

See programme description. The course is open to exchange students with relevant background upon request. 

LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of the course the student has obtained the following learning outcome in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student

• has knowledge of key types of development interventions - including official aid; policy coherence for development; advocacy and transnational activism; and corporate social responsibility.
• has knowledge of key tendencies in the organization and aims of current development assistance - including new donors; coordination under the Sustainable Development Goals; the integration of aid with other global concerns (security, environment, and commerce) - and the overarching imperative of ensuring aid effectiveness.   
• has knowledge of how the development enterprise, as a field of practice, may be systematically and critically studied

Skills

The student

• has the ability to critically discuss various types of aid development interventions and trends
• understands the ethical challenges in the field of practice and in the study of this field

General competence

The student can

• identify and make use of relevant literature in discussion of topics in the field
• can give both written and oral presentations of a topic in the field, based on sound social sciences method

CONTENTS

• Main features of the global aid industry: Actors and channels of finance; geographic and thematic destinations of aid; paradigms in and major debates about aid. 
• Norwegian aid in perspective: Features of public development policy from the 1980s and up to the present, in comparative perspective; the approach and work of select non-governmental organisations.
• New actors, interventions and partnership types: Developing country donors; policy coherence and coordination including SDGs; advocacy and transnational activism; and corporate social responsibility. 
• 21st century trends: «Securitization», «environmentalization» and «commercification» of aid; effectiveness, evaluability and result based management in aid. 
• The politics of representation: The ways in which main actors in the development enterprise present development challenges; their own work and contributions; and the debates this gives rise to.

LEARNING METHODS

Lectures on the curriculum, along with student-led seminars. In seminars students work in groups where they discuss given seminar assignments. In each group, a student is assigned to write a report on the seminar discussion. If exchange students attend the course, lectures and seminars will be held in English.

REQUIREMENTS

Students may sit exam only if the following requirements are met:

• Submitting two individual seminar assignments - each being a 2-page report of a seminar group discussion. Assignments are graded pass/fail.
• Attending at least 70% of seminars.

The purpose of the above is to ensure that students engage actively with the curriculum during the course, and share insights and reflections with each other. Self-study cannot substitute for the imparting of knowledge and learning through class-room activity, and group-based and student-led learning is of particular importance. The individual student must be present in the seminars in which s/he is tasked with writing reports.

Students attending less than 50% of seminars automatically forfeit the right to sit exam, no matter the reason for absence. 

A student who fails the 70% attendance requirement, or who fails to submit his/her reports by deadline - but does have legitimate grounds for such failure - may request an additional assignment: a paper of 2,000 words, on a title given by the teacher, to be submitted within 72 hours of issue. The same applies to a student who does submit her/his reports in time, but does not pass.

ASSESSMENT

30 minutes’ individual oral examination. The student randomly draws 6 assignments from a basket containing all those discussed in seminars, and then selects 3 out of the 6 for examination.

New/postponed exam:

In case of failed exam or absence on legitimate grounds, the student can apply for a new or postponed exam. New/postponed exam is offered within a reasonable time span following the regular exam. The student is responsible for applying for a new/postponed exam as per the regulations set by OsloMet.  

None. 

A graded scale from A to E for passed, and F for not passed.

The exam is assessed by internal and external examiner/s.

The course is open to third-year Bachelor students in Development Studies at HiOA, and exchange students. Exchange students must have completed at least a one-year introductory course in Development Studies.