ISSUE 40: NOVEMBER
2005-FEBRUARY 2006
network of research and training centres/programmes
FRONT PAGE | ARCHIVE |
Norway meeting for first GVU master class
The first master's degree programme to be implemented by UNU Global Virtual University (UNU-GVU) welcomed 29 students to Agder University College in Norway August 29 for a two-week face-to-face session, part of their work towards their master's in global environment and development studies.
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Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik meets the visitng students. |
The programme brought together students from Norway with others recruited through UNU-GVU partner universities in Africa – Mzumbe University (Tanzania), Makelle University (Ethiopia), Makerere University (Uganda) and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (Ghana).
During the face-to-face session, students attended lectures on environment and development issues as well as training sessions on how to use the GVU online learning management system.
They also attended a lecture by UNU Rector Hans van Ginkel on the Decade of Education for Sustainable Development and were visited by Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik.
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| Hans van Ginkel |
Welcoming the students on behalf of UNU, Prof. van Ginkel expressed a keen personal interest in the Global Environment and Development Studies programme.
"While working with the United Nations, I have spent a good deal of my time promoting the role of education in helping to achieve the goals of sustainable development," he said. "Courses dealing with questions of global development and the environment are essential in order to provide the international community with the leaders who will come up with sustainable solutions to the challenges we face, both now and in the future."
The students will be back together again for another face-to-face session at the beginning of the second year of their master's programme.
© 2006 United Nations University