FLKM4110 Introduction to International Development, Education, and Sustainabilities Course description

The learning outcomes of the programme include knowledge at the forefront of research, managing complex academic issues, and a high level of general competence in the field of health sciences. This means that the work and teaching methods must be sufficiently varied and complex to support the candidates' learning process on the way to achieving the learning outcomes.

Training component

Lectures

The lectures will cover key topics in the courses and will introduce current issues and new research findings.

Self-study

Achievement of the learning outcomes depends mainly on the degree to which the PhD candidate makes effective use of the instruction and supervision offered and accepts responsibility for working independently. Self-study entails student-initiated activities such as individual study and cooperation with fellow students. Self-study takes as its starting point the theoretical and methodological issues and a knowledge base in the health sciences.

Seminars

Organized group work requires candidates to discuss given research problems based on a topic covered in the course and on their respective academic backgrounds. This offers the candidates opportunities to reflect on multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research problems. The outcomes of the seminars are presented and discussed in plenary sessions, providing candidates with training in both academic dissemination and peer review.

Practical application of methodology

Different methodologies are applied in practical exercises, such as research interviews, qualitative and quantitative analyses, and different types of software. This provides candidates with practical experience in addressing, for example, complex analyses.

Research component

Research work

The work methods for the thesis consist mostly of self-study and research activities. Self-study entails student-initiated activities such as individual study and cooperation with fellow students and researchers. Research activities involve planning and conducting own research, processing the results, and designing the thesis. This part constitutes the most important contribution to the PhD candidate's research competence.

Supervision

The main supervisor has overall academic responsibility for the PhD candidate and shall normally be an employee of OsloMet. As a general rule, the candidate shall also have a co-supervisor from OsloMet or from another institution. If an external main supervisor is appointed, an employee of OsloMet shall be appointed as co-supervisor. Each PhD candidate is entitled to 210 hours of supervision, including preliminary and follow-up work. Supervision includes time spent on preparatory work, discussions with the PhD candidate, and follow-up work. Requirements regarding supervisors and rights and obligations are regulated in the PhD Regulations, section 3-1 to 3-3. The PhD candidate and the supervisor(s) must independently submit annual progress reports. Supervision of the thesis shall ensure that the project is in accordance with ethical guidelines and shall contribute to the design of research problems and the quality of the methods to be used.

Participation in research communities

The candidates' thesis projects are linked to OsloMet’s established research communities via the candidates' supervisors. Active participation in the research communities will provide candidates with insight into research management and experience in multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research cooperation. Participation also provides them with opportunities to discuss research problems and designs, challenge established knowledge and practice and present their own projects. Candidates will have opportunities to establish and further develop cooperation with national and international research communities.

Research seminar and dissemination

Candidates must present their projects at the start and halfway through the programme.The midway presentation must ideally be conducted in English and be followed by a discussion on the current progress between the PhD candidate, an independent evaluator, and the supervisor(s). Furthermore, candidates are expected to present their research at international scientific conferences. This gives candidates competence in participating in scientific discussions within their field of research in cooperation with national and international research communities. Candidates are also encouraged to disseminate their projects to broader audiences, such as giving lectures to users or through popular science channels.

Descriptions of the work and teaching methods for the individual courses are provided in the course plans.

OsloMet has an extensive international network that includes cooperation partnerships in doctoral programmes and research projects in the health sciences. The Faculty of Health Sciences will place emphasis on inviting health science researchers from foreign institutions to give lectures.

OsloMet will encourage candidates to conduct some of the work on their thesis through collaboration with international research communities. Candidates may earn up to 5 credits for undertaking research stays abroad. Such research stays must be academically relevant and must last for at least 2 weeks. Up to 1 credit per week may be awarded, and a stay of 5 weeks may therefore be awarded 5 credits. Candidates are required to give at least one presentation of their research to their host institution during their stay. An agreement must be made to ensure that candidates participate in an active research community at the host institution and that they are provided with the necessary infrastructure to do so.

Candidates are expected to present their research at an international scientific conference.The midway presentation of the thesis must ideally be conducted in English. All teaching and supervision in connection with the PhD programme may also be conducted in English if necessary.

Examination and grading systems

Assessment of examinations in the training component will be conducted in accordance with the provisions regarding examinations and cheating in the Regulations relating to Studies and Examinations at OsloMet; see the PhD Regulations, section 4-3.

All examinations in the training component will be specified on the certificate.

The forms of assessment for courses PHVIT9100 to PHVIT9600 (except PHVIT9550) and the PHBA courses in the training component consist of individual home examinations, essays, or portfolio. Home examinations shall be used for the compulsory courses and the methodology courses. These are appropriate for testing candidates' knowledge, skills, and general competence under specific conditions. Home examinations are based on specific questions. Answer papers must normally contain up to 3,500 words for courses worth 5 credits, and 5,000 words for courses worth 10 credits. Essays are used for examinations in some of the elective courses and are based on a specific concept and/or theory of the candidate's choice. As a form of examination, essays are suitable for giving candidates the opportunity to critically reflect on their own research work in terms of topic, research problems, concepts, theoretical issues, and methodological and ethical challenges covered in the respective courses. Essays must consist of up to 5,000 words and must be submitted no more than 2 weeks after the end of the course. The portfolio exams can consist of several individual works. For the elective course PHVIT9550, each candidate must plan and write a protocol of a systematic review based on a research question of their choice, to be submitted no more than 6 months after the first day of the course.

Course code / Assesment / Grading scale

• PHVIT9000 / Individual home exam / Pass-Fail
• PHVIT9100 / Individual home exam / Pass-Fail
• PHVIT9200 / Individual home exam / Pass-Fail
• PHVIT9300 / Individual home exam / Pass-Fail
• PHVIT9560 / Individual home exam /Pass-Fail
• PHVIT9570 / Individual home exam/Pass-Fail
• PHVIT9580 / Indidivual home exam/Pass-Fail
• PHVIT9510 / Essay / Pass-Fail
• PHVIT9520 / Essay / Pass-Fail
• PHVIT9530 / Essay / Pass-Fail
• PHVIT9540 / Essay / Pass-Fail
• PHVIT9600 / Essay / Pass-Fail
• PHVIT9550 / Protocol of a systematic review / Pass-Fail
• PHBA8110 / Portfolio / Pass-Fail
• PHBA8200 / Portfolio / Pass-Fail
• PHBA8230 / Portfolio / Pass-Fail
• PHBA8240 / Portfolio / Pass-Fail
• PHVIT9900 / Thesis / Pass-Fail

Grading

Assessment of PhD theses in health sciences is regulated by the PhD Regulations, sections 6-1 to 6-8 and general regulations regarding doctoral degrees at OsloMet. Supplementary guidelines for the PhD Programme in Health Sciences contain more details regarding procedures for assessing PhD theses.

Examinations are assessed by an internal examiner. All courses are graded on the basis of pass or fail.

The thesis is assessed by an assessment committee consisting of three members, two of whom are external examiners: see the PhD Regulations, section 6-3. Once the thesis is considered worthy of public defense, the candidate must deliver and receive approval of a trial lecture on a given subject and must defend the thesis in a public defense.

The degree of philosophiae doctor is conferred on the basis of

• approval of the training component
• approval of the thesis
• approval of the trial lecture on a given topic
• approval of the public defense of the thesis

Study progression

The training component must be approved by the faculty, and the work required for PHVIT9900, the thesis, must be approved before the candidate may apply to have the thesis assessed.

The course introduces different approaches and theories about economic and social development, including present mainstream directions based on neoliberalism, economic growth, technological changes, and market-solutions in combination with governmental regulations. There is also a focus on the history of ideas of development as well as demonstrated practices, and the students are introduced to the history of economic growth and crises.

In the topic of environmental and climate change we focus on explanations of the gradually evolving environmental and climate crises, with discussion of concepts such as ‘the anthropocene’ and ‘the capitalocene’, as well as examination of the broad spectre of different approaches to sustainable development. Green change choices are introduced, such as green growth/green economy and various versions of Green New Deal, ecomodernisation, and degrowth. The agenda of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is discussed in terms of the emphasised goals and strategies. The course introduces the students to the academic debate on whether or not decoupling between economic growth and global warming is possible. The students learn how to critically examine consequences of different climate mitigation options for climate justice for future generation and with special and social variations of consequences for people today.

This course highlights and critically examines characteristics of the mainstream approach to mass education, seeking to produce ‘good workers’ and ‘good citizens’, underpinned by human capital theory and promises of poverty reduction through education. The Global-Local dialectic at play is explored in the ‘education and development’ nexus, and its social, political, economic, and historical context. This includes understandings of how models of education and their curricular and pedagogical systems have historically and continue to be transferred between and within countries, and their relationship to global and local conceptualisations of development. The course includes an examination of;how education is approached as one of the SDGs (no. 4), and the ways that the SDGs are presented in the global initiative Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Project as well as in other academic approaches to education on sustainable development. The review of ESD critically examines the program in terms of its alignment with and/or break from the conditions that generated the problems that the SDGs seek to solve: the global climate crisis, the crises of the anthropocene, cyclical and cumulative crises of the global economy, poverty, and significant crises and failures of international education.

Throughout the course, opportunities are created to consider the focused issues at multiple levels of scale (local, regional, national, global) and across time. Student assignments in the course may include consideration of: Mainstream and alternative theories and approaches of development, green change, climate mitigation options, and alternative approaches to mass education and its purposes.

Approval

Approved by the Academic Affairs Committee at Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences on 16 October 2012Last amendment approved by the Vice Dean for Research and Innovation at the Faculty of Health Sciences, OsloMet, on 17. January 2025

Syllabus

Course syllabuses will be reviewed and, where necessary, updated every time they are offered. Candidates must submit a detailed list of their chosen syllabus, which must meet the specified learning outcomes for the respective courses. The candidate's chosen syllabus must be approved by the course coordinator.

No coursework requirements.

The assessment consists of an individual home exam/academic paper over five days, of 3000 words (+/- 10 %).;

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Resit/rescheduled exam The resit/rescheduled exam is organised in the same way as the ordinary exam.

Examination support material is permitted.

The grades pass/fail are used.

All submitted papers will be assessed by two internal examiners. In accordance with the Guidelines for Appointment and Use of Examiners at OsloMet, the mode of assessment will periodically be reviewed by an external programme supervisor.