EPN

UTVB3002 Introduction to the Development Enterprise Course description

Course name in Norwegian
En introduksjon til utviklingsindustrien
Weight
10.0 ECTS
Year of study
2023/2024
Course history

Introduction

The course description was approved 11.05.17 by the Academic Affairs Committee, Faculty of Education and International Studies. Revised by the Academic Affairs Committee 24.05.18. 

The Faculty of Education and International Studies at Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences (HiOA) 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 10 ECTS credits module in the 5th semester of the Bachelor programme.

The course will be taught in Norwegian (or in English, depending on needs according to the participants' language abilities). Exam papers can be written in English, Norwegian, Swedish or Danish.

Required preliminary courses

See programme description.

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 intervention - including development aid, policy coherence for development; advocacy and transnational activism; and corporate social responsibility
  • 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 development interventions
  • 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

Content

  • Main features of the global aid industry : Actors and channels of finance; geographic and thematic destinations of aid; shifting aid paradigms; and critiques of 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 partnerships : Policy coherence; advocacy and transnational activism; and corporate social responsibility
  • The politics of mediation: 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

Teaching and learning methods

  • Lectures on the curriculum. If exchange students attend, lectures will be held in English.
  • Seminars, supervised by the responsible teacher, where students, working in groups, discuss given seminar assignments. If exchange students attend the course, seminars will be held in English.
  • The course is taught intensively during four weeks. Students are expected to commit themselves to full-time studies.

Course requirements

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

  • Two individual seminar assignments - each being a report (1000 words) of group discussions on one given seminar assignment, as determined by the teacher - and subsequently shared with class
  • Attending at least 70% of classes

The purpose of the above is to ensure that students engage properly with the curriculum during the course, and share insights and reflections with each other.

The attendance requirement reflects that self-study cannot substitute for the imparting of knowledge and learning promoted by class-room activity. Students who fail the attendance requirement may request an additional work requirement (a paper of 3000 words, on a title given by the teacher, to be submitted as per the teacher's instructions). Students attending less than 50 % of lectures/seminars automatically forfeit the right to sit exam.      

Individual seminar reports must be handed in by deadline, and the student must be present in the seminars in which she/he is tasked with writing reports. Documented legitimate grounds for absence does not exempt the student from having to fulfill the work requirement. However, in such cases, the student may request an extended deadline.

Assignments are graded -accepted- or -not accepted. Students who do submit their assignments in time, but do not pass, may - once - request an new assignment (a 3000 words essay, on another title, given by the teacher, to be submitted within 48 hours of issue).

Assessment

A 72-hour home exam based on the course curriculum. The student responds to two out of four given questions. Each of the two answers must be of 1500 words +/- 10 %.

New/postponed exam

In case of failed exam or legal absence, 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 within the time limits set by OsloMet.  

Permitted exam materials and equipment

Examination support material is permitted.

Grading scale

A graded scale from A to E for passed and F for not passed will be used.

Examiners

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

Admission requirements

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.