First Joint Master's Oriented toward Social Entrepreneurs
Barcelona (E), April 2013 - The International MBA Social Entrepreneurship Project (IMBASE) aims to link future entrepreneurs with the creation of sustainable social value. The IMBASE Project is the first effort co-funded by the European Commission and the Australian Government that promotes a joint degree between European and Australian universities.
The IMBASE is a joint-degree program being developed by Australia’s University of New England and Western Sydney University, Spain’s Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, and the ESC Rennes School of Business in France.
From 08 – 12 April, a follow-up IMBASE program meeting was held in Rennes, France. During the sessions, three professors of the UOC Business School, Angels Fitó, Ramon Gonzalez, and Enric Serradell, worked jointly with French and Australian counterparts. The result was an agreement on the program's mission: “The International MBA Social Entrepreneurship will develop entrepreneurs able to challenge humankind’s most pressing problems by identifying opportunities, generating solutions, and delivering initiatives that create sustainable social value.”
Launching in 2014, this innovative, international joint degree at the post-graduate level, which combines face-to-face and online teaching, will take eighteen months. Through the life of this project, the first forty students in this new degree program will be recruited in both Australia and Europe and supported through their studies.
One of the innovative aspects of this program is that European and Australian students are to receive mobility aids from the European Union and the Australian Government.
The value and uniqueness of this project lie in
- the international cooperation and collaboration between individual universities, drawing together online and face-to-face teaching to support the learning objectives, and focusing on real life problems through team projects;
- the international experience it provides for students as they progress through their degree, working across two continents in international teams as they transfer among the four partner institutions;
- collaboration with non-academic partners to shape the projects our students will engage in, thus developing an international network and exchange of best practice;
- its unique pedagogical approach, combining online and face-to-face teaching, as well as a focus on problem-solving for social enterprises.
