In cooperation with the University Of South Eastern Norway (USN), the Faculty of Education at the Islamic University held an introductory session on the masters scholarships offered by the USN Under the umbrella of a joint project to Develop the Early Education in Palestine and Norway.
The online session, which streamed live via the IUG Facebook and Zoom program on Thursday 29th of October 2020, included professors from USN: Prof. Ingrid Chrestine, Associate Professor of pedagogy at USN; Prof. Anders Davidsen, coordinator of NORPART Project and responsible for MSc in Human Rights and Multiculturalism; and Siri Gro Bjornstad, who worked at the USN International Office. Professors from the Islamic University were Prof. Nazmi AL-Masri, Director of NORPART; Prof. Ibrahim Al-Astal, Dean of IUG Faculty of Education; and Sharehan Al-Masri and other members in the project.
Prof. Nazmi Al-Masri welcomed the gusts from both universities and interested graduates confirming that this meeting is part of a joint Project between the USN, IUG and Hebron University, and funded by the Norwegian Agency for International Cooperation and Quality Enhancement in Higher Education (DIKU). This five-year project seeks to develop the area of early education in Palestine and Norway and advance the level of proficiency of academics and graduates in both countries. One of the activities to do so, as he added, is to provide graduates with full funded master programs in the fields of “Multiculturalism and Human Rights” as well as “Early Childhood Education Theory & Practice”.
Prof. Ingrid detailed about the Master program in “Early Childhood Education”. The content of the program is specialized in kindergarten leadership, themes of active learning methods and didactics, inclusive education, research methods and the MA thesis. She mentioned the criteria students should know before applying to the program: BA or equivalent with at least 80 ECTS credits in completed teacher education (BA), and for other applicants, they have to have at least ECTS in Pedagogy. Applicants also must fulfil the English Requirements as she added.
On the other hand, Prof. Andres explained about the MA program in “Multiculturalism and Human Rights”. He mentioned that students through the course of study would look at human rights from the perspectives offered by different cultures as well as academic disciplines and how human rights are to be perceived in the light of cultural diversity. This program requires BA (or equivalent), with at least 80 ECTS credits in the following fields: Law, social sciences, education, philosophy, history and related fields. Applicants must also fulfil the English Requirements.
Prof. Al-Astal spoke about the importance of this project in promoting the programs of the Faculty of Education and in leading to the development of academic staff. He pointed out that the faculty provides fifteen academic programs including BA, MA, and PhD. The Faculty of Education, in addition, has international relations with world prestigious universities through projects that exceed more than 10 projects with different countries, such as Finland, Malaysia, Germany, Australia and Britain.
