Educational Policy and Management Studies

Educational systems throughout the world have been engaged in major reforms over the past decade. At the core of many of these reforms is reducing the bureaucracy in the schooling system and increasing the decision-making powers of schools. Decentralisation is conceived of as a vehicle for making schools more effective and efficient institutions, which are more responsive to the needs of the local community and other stakeholders. Schools will find themselves in a more complex and uncertain environment that is characterised by an increasing competition with other schools, and with students and parents who hold the school accountable for the quality of their education. Schools, therefore, have to establish self-evaluation procedures and other means of performance feedback, and a system of quality care to maintain and further enhance their educational process. These developments require full efforts of all engaged in these reforms - either facilitating schools at the central, regional or local government, managing schools as principal or school board, or facilitating the implementation of these reforms as an external consultant. The Master Educational Policy and Management Studies offers the valuable knowledge for persons in these positions to develop educational administration configurations that serve the needs of today?s schools. Furthermore, after completion of this master programme a student is able to pass scientific and social judgements on the implications and effects of stearing models in educational systems. The Master?s Programme Educational Policy and Management Studies (EPMS) aims to foster new career perspectives by providing a powerful learning environment along modern approaches, based on both theoretical and practical perspectives, to the solution of real-world problems and constraints in educational policy and educational management. The Programme involves training technology in its fullest sense. The Programme educates for a broad spectrum of functions and jobs in institutions on local, regional, national and international level, with a primary focus on design and development of educational policy and management issues, as well as related to advisory, consultancy, evaluative research and policy tasks. The graduates will be able to do these tasks independently in co-operation with educational practitioners and relevant experts from related academic areas. In other words, participants will be educated as academic designers, applied researchers and advisors/consultants in the domain of educational policy and management. The EPMS Master?s is a joint venture between the University of Amsterdam and the University of Twente.

The competencies required for a successful performance in the aforementioned career options, span the following domains: *Methodical development of educational policy on national, regional, and local level, making use of comparative insights and views about educational systems and cultures; *Planning, co-ordinating and evaluating the implementation of educational policy decisions, in such a way that it accommodates crucial environmental and situational characteristics; *Re-modelling educational systems on an between national, regional and local level by way of analysis, evaluation, reflection, and support, aiming at increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of schooling; *Systematically analysing phenomena, dynamics, and impacts of structural, procedural and cultural characteristics of educational organisations; *Designing and evaluating in a grounded and systematic way organisational changes in educational organisations; *Supporting, in a systematic way, schools and educational organisations during their development and implementation of changes in the teaching and learning organisation, in management and leadership, and in the ways of communication and decision making; *Writing educational policy and management research requests, evaluating presented research proposals, and reviewing ongoing research and research reports. The Programme aims at attracting both Bachelors with a relevant educational background, as well as professionals from all sectors of educational policy and management who strive for deepening their initial knowledge and skills in these domains in a scientific way. The Master's degree programme seeks students with a Bachelor's degree or equivalent in a field relevant to the programme, in general all social and behavioural sciences. Applicants need to have a sufficient background in research methodology.Students who have prior training in disciplines other than the Educational Sciences must gain entry to the MA Programme by completing a special preparatory programme in the semester before the start of the MA-programme.The one-year Programme is delivered on-campus at the University of Twente and in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The nominal course duration is 48 weeks starting mid of August. This includes a two-week break at Christmas, a one-week break in early spring, and a one-week break at Easter. However, participants who need more time to conduct the Programme may extend the period up to 56 weeks (which implies graduating on the second occasion at the end of August). A focus is paid to the needs and situation of the individual participant through a highly flexible approach to Programme completion, culminating in a final Master?s Project, which (if applicable) preferably is tailored directly to the participant?s professional environment. At the outset of the Programme, as a result of the Introduction period, the participants formulate a Personal Development Plan (PDP) that contains the positioning of the participant (related to the Programme's competency profile), and that mainly determines the participant's learning trajectory in order to realise the goals of the PDP. The main vehicle to accomplish the PDP is the composition of a portfolio during the Programme. The portfolio contains all Programme's reports, products and its results, and ultimately forms the basis for striving for the Master's degree. In this regard, the portfolio should convincingly prove that the participant acquired all Educational Policy and Management related competencies.Graduates from the Programme will acquire a variety of career options in the field of educational policy and management on local, regional, national and international level. Next to the emphasis on design-related functions, the programme prepares for tasks in domains like consultancy, and research and evaluation.