The Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has selected the project ‘Leading to Success: SMART Choices and SMART Tools’, submitted by project leader Dr. Mindel van de Laar, for funding in a competitive selection process to encourage open and online education.
UNU-MERIT obtained the SURF subsidy to support the development of two open online services. These packages will be piloted with their Master in Public Policy and Human Development (MPP) students, and then be offered continuously to MPP students, alumni, future students, and external interested parties.
Firstly, UNU-MERIT will improve the specialisation choice of MPP students, offering a summary course per track. This serves two objectives: decreasing dropout rates of MPP students, while improving the chances of successful completion via ‘smarter’ specialisation choices.
Secondly UNU-MERIT will create online open education packages aimed at supporting and developing skills specifically important for the public policy field. These packages are offered as add-on materials, on top of the MPP required programme.
By offering the online open modules they will improve links with the public policy job market, which requires multifunctional and interdisciplinary skills among graduates. Students decide themselves what skills they wish to follow at what moment, during or after their studies.
The project will run from September 2017 to December 2018 and will be supported by Dr. Lutz Krebs and Dr. Martin Rehm.
