Scholarships available for asian students
Deadline to apply: 18 Noverber 2008
International Peace Studies Dual Campus (San José, Costa Rica and Manila, The Philippines) The International Peace Studies Dual Campus Master Programme is a shared initiative between the Nippon Foundation and the University for Peace, in collaboration with Ateneo de Manila University, which aims to provide students from Japan and other Asian countries with an opportunity to pursue a peace studies post graduate degree with a content-based language-training module. This offers the support for individuals who do not have a proficient command of English to work in this increasingly common international language and to become comfortable in their professional abilities as they gain academic skills. As part of the programme, students have also the opportunity to apply their academic and practical knowledge through a four-month internship at the end of the Master courses.
The reception of applications to the Dual Campus Master Programme on International Peace Studies is currently open. Students accepted in the programme will be automatically granted full scholarships provided by the Nippon Foundation. A full scholarship includes: tuition fee, the language module, academic materials, and air travel and living expenses during the period of studies.
Description of the Programme
The Dual Campus Master Programme on International Peace Studies is designed to enable students from diverse cultures and backgrounds to attain a deep understanding of the central issues of peace and security which will determine the future of humanity. Through their coursework, participants in the programme broaden their base of knowledge and engage with the major concepts, themes, and debates within international peace and conflict studies, preparing themselves for work with NGOs, governments, aid agencies, the UN and other organizations where a deep understanding of theses issues is critical.
The programme provides students with the required theoretical and practical post graduate education to contribute to the work of building international peace. Furthermore, it empowers students to conceptualize the key challenges faced by the international community, and the most promising potential areas and courses of action through an interdisciplinary and multicultural programme.
In this 19-month intensive academic programme, the students undertake courses at Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines as well as at the San José UPEACE headquarters in Costa Rica. It is accomplished in three terms which start at the end of the language-training module. The programme begins in April 2008.
The Dual Campus M.A. programme has been planned primarily for receiving students from several Asian countries where English is not a widely used language, such as Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. Exceptionally, students from other Asian countries may be admitted.
Plan of Studies of the MA in International Peace Studies
| Language Instruction Module in Manila: April-August 2008 |
| Code |
Course Title |
Credits |
| DIPS 00 |
English course |
0 |
| DIPS 00 |
English content sessions |
0 |
| International Peace Studies in Costa Rica: September 2008-February 2009 |
| Code |
Course Title |
Credits |
| PCS 6000 |
Foundation in Peace and Conflict Studies |
3 |
| IPS 6011 |
Conflict Prevention |
3 |
| IPS 6052 |
Sustainable Development |
3 |
| IPS 6020 |
Research Methods |
3 |
| PCS 6005 |
Mediation Capacity and Techniques in International Organizations |
1 |
| PCS 6002 |
United Nations and International Peace |
1 |
| PCS 6003 |
United Nations Governing Bodies and their Procedures |
1 |
| |
Elective Course: During a three-week period, in January, students have the opportunity of choosing a 3-credit course as elective. This period coincides with the UPEACE Institute where non-UPEACE students are accepted for being enrolled in the regular UPEACE students |
3 |
| IPS 7030 |
Conflict Management |
3 |
| Studies in Ateneo de Manila: March-June 2009 |
| Code |
Course Title |
Credits |
| DIPS 6003 |
Gender and Peacebuilding in Asia |
3 |
| DIPS 6001 |
Asian Peace Psychology |
3 |
| DIPS 6002 |
Small Arms, Arms Control and Human Security in Asia |
3 |
| DIPS 6004 |
Social Movements in Asia |
3 |
| DIPS-6005 |
Internship Preparation Seminars |
1 |
| Internship in Phillipines: July-October 2009 |
| Code |
Course Title |
Credits |
| DIPS-7000 |
Internship |
8 |
| |
Total Course Credits |
42 |
Courses Description
DIPS-00 English Language Training for Academic Settings
The training is designed for non-native users of English from a range of cultures with varied educational backgrounds and needing advances skills in the English language to function effectively in university settings. The course is a 9-unit programme: 3 units for Listening and Oral Skills and 6 units for the Academic Reading-Writing skills. Listening and Oral Skills has 54-classroom contact hours while Academic Reading-Writing has 108-classroom contact hours. The programme combines classroom teaching and independent study. The latter consists of guided homework assignments, library work, and individual consultations with teachers on student’s homework assignments. These activities are designed to allow students to do meaningful language practice. They are exposed to more authentic situations to help them hone their skills towards becoming autonomous language learners. Materials design will include texts across disciplines as well as those provided by the University for Peace to give the students initial exposure basic concepts and some degree familiarity with language specific to their particular area of studies. In addition, the training will be supported by the assistant professor and the instructor in Manila, who will give at least two weekly content- based language afternoon sessions.
PCS-6000 Foundation in Peace and Conflict Studies
The University for Peace Foundation Course in Peace and Conflict Studies is designed to engage students in an examination of the major contemporary challenges to peace, sources of conflict and violence, and several key nonviolent mechanisms for conflict transformation and prevention. The course provides a common foundation for UPEACE students from all M.A. programmes. During the course, an understanding of the complex and interconnected challenges to peace will be developed, as will an understanding of the need for multi-faceted approaches to meet these challenges. Participants in the course will engage critically with various theories of conflict and violence. They will develop their understandings of the theoretical resources available in the area of peace and conflict studies as well as their capacity for putting theory into practice. The foundation course provides an opportunity to explore connections, sympathies, and synergies between the challenges and approaches identified in many different disciplines from a “wide-angle” perspective that will encourage students to continue making interdisciplinary connections and analyses throughout and after their tenure at UPEACE.
IPS-6011 Conflict Prevention
This seminar will provide students with a broad overview of the field of conflict prevention. Students will study the causes of conflict, the cycle of conflict, methods for conflict prevention, different stages of prevention, the role of different actors, and recent case studies of successful and failed prevention efforts.
The goal of this seminar is to provide students with a strong foundation to understand the causes of conflict and the theory and methods of conflict prevention.
IPS-6052 Sustainable Development
The seminar equips students with a sound understanding of the relationship between worldwide development trends, environmental constraints and conflicts linked to development, and of the potential avenues for constructing a more sustainable developmental practice. Students are introduced to diverse proposals for sustainable development at local, national, regional and global levels. Key themes include: human development within a framework of ecological economics; poverty alleviation and gender equality; sustainable production and consumption; use and control of natural and human resources; biodiversity, fresh water management, environmental conservation and protection, rural and urban sustainability, health promotion; and environmental factors as causes of conflicts, violence, and wars.
IPS-6020 Research Methods
This course develops students’ theoretical knowledge and applied skills in conducting qualitative, quantitative and participatory research in the social sciences. It addresses, inter alia: epistemology, critical theory, research ethics, and project development and grant writing. The course serves also to prepare students for the design and writing of the major research project required for their degree through the development of their abilities to formulate research problems and proposals and to conduct research.
PCS-6005 Mediation Capacity and Techniques in International Organizations
The academic and theoretical perspective of the role of international organizations in mediation efforts to settle conflicts that threat domestic and international peace are discusses. The rationale and underlying concepts of the mediation techniques more frequently used are also discusses.
PCS-6002 United Nations and International Peace
The practitioner perspective will be approached to discuss the following specific topics: UN evolution since 1945. UN peacekeeping role. Preventive diplomacy and peacemaking. Peace building and post-conflict reconstruction. Peace enforcement by the UN to enhance human security and human rights.
PCS-6003 United Nations Governing Bodies and their Procedures
Practical issues will be discussed on how UN General Assembly and Security Council work. There are other political diplomat intergovernmental bodies in the UN system such the Human Rights Committee, UNESCO Executive Committee and governing bodies in other branches of the UN system that should be examined for a very practice oriented learning experience.
Electives
During a three-week period, in January, students have the opportunity of choosing a 3-credit course as elective –This period coincides with the UPEACE Institute where non-UPEACE students are accepted for being enrolled in the regular UPEACE students.
All courses are taught by international academicians and professionals with extensive expertise in each of these areas.
IPS-7030 Conflict Management
This course examines the changing nature of contemporary conflict and the practices and techniques used in conflict management. It engages the question of the roots of conflict in greater depth and also explores the range of options for responding to conflict including negotiations, conflict resolution activities, the role of the UN, the role of peace operations, and the challenges of peacebuilding activities. A primary focus of the course is an examination of the capacity and potential of various cultural conflict resolution and transformation practices. The course also covers trigger events, ripeness theory, features of effective and ineffective peace process, and postconflict justice and reconciliation. Case studies at the local, social, national, regional, and international level is used throughout to examine the complex way conflict dynamics emerge and interact with social, environmental, economic, political, and other factors.
DIPS-6003 Gender and Peacebuilding in Asia
(This is the description of a course of the Gender Studies Programme, which will be adapted in order to have a specific focus in Asia)
This course focuses on the mainstream theories on security, the feminist perspectives on security, as well as feminist theorizing about international politics. It also tackles the gender dimensions of violence in the private and public spheres, both in wartime and “peacetime,” and both by state and non-state agents in Asia. In addition, the course analyzes the different phases of “gendered” conflicts and its implications in terms of security and the building of peace. The course will also explore the international context and the evolution of peacebuilding policies since the mid-1990s.
DIPS-6001 Asian Peace Psychology
This course presents a contextualized psychology of peace in Asia that considers features of direct and structural violence in the region. In Asia, direct violence takes on the form of intrastate intermediate-sized armed conflicts. On the other hand, structural violence is associated with foreign invasions and authoritarian regimes, chronic poverty, and cultural heterogeneity of nonmigrant groups marked by asymmetric power relations. The course presents peaceful alternatives to the violence in Asia, and focuses on that which is psychological or subjective in forceful peacemaking. Because of the nature of social conflict in Asia, this course on Asian peace psychology includes topics such as active nonviolent political transformation, healing protracted-war traumas, beliefs supporting economic democratization, social voice and identity, culture-sensitive political peacemaking, and psycho-political aspects of federalizing to address territorial conflict.
DIPS-6002 Small Arms, Arms Control and Human Security in Asia
The course examines the different perspectives on human security, and how they apply to the issue of small arms and light weapons proliferation. It also evaluates a diversity of social variables in selected Asian countries to determine the extent of damage of small arms proliferation to human security concerns. Such variables are:
- Criminality: Has gun proliferation contribute to the increase of crimes/ peace and order concerns in the community?
- Health and education resources and services: Are the health & education resources, services affected by the proliferation of small arms?
- Displacement of people: Does small arms proliferation contribute to heightened violence? Does it create a perception of insecurity that leads to displacement and migration?
- Economic activity: Does gun availability negatively impact on the economic activity of areas concerned?
- Social cohesion: How has gun proliferation affects the social cohesion of communities of peoples?
In addition, the course looks into the existing state agreements on the issue of controlling the supply and demand of arms in general, and small arms in particular (Arms and disarmament treaties, UN Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) and subsequent resolutions, and Regional agreements, and state compliance measures).
DIPS-6004 Social Movements in Asia
The course aims to develop an understanding of the significance of historical and contemporary social movements in Asia. The course focuses on two fields of inquiry – firstly, the schools of thought relevant to understanding and analyzing social movements and popular protest drawing on European and North American scholarship where appropriate; and secondly, the impact of social movements in effecting societal change in Asian societies. By exploring the emergence of social movements in specific countries in Asia, the similarities and differences in the origins, historical development and composition of organizations and networks that comprise and support them will be examined. This comparative approach allows students to interrogate the dynamics, interrelations and convergences among specific social movements in Asia and to examine how political, social and cultural change has influenced the popularity and longevity of these movements over time.
DIPS-6005 Internship Preparation Seminar
The seminar describes the purpose and goals of the internship phase. It prepares the students to work on the field, helping them to understand the mission and programmes of the international or non-governmental organizations in which they will develop their internships and define their own objectives and contributions they want to do to the organization. During the seminar, students also receive a brief training on project management. The seminar will also focus on the requirements of the internship reports that students should submit at the end of this phase as well as on the reports evaluation criteria.
DIPS-7000 Internship
The internship has been conceived as the final stage of the UPEACE/Nippon Foundation Dual Campus International Peace Studies (IPS) Master’s programme, and it will be programmed to take place between July and October 2007. During the internship, the students are meant to be involved with an agency working in the field of peace and conflict. This internship is offered as alternative to the thesis, which is the concluding piece of work of the ‘standard’ IPS programme.
The main goals of the internship within the Dual Campus International Peace Studies programme are: to give the students the opportunity to apply in the field the main theoretical tools learnt during the MA programme courses and to enable students to develop theoretical-practice balanced analytical capacities; to provide the students with practical experience which could help them to develop the necessary skills to perform their responsibilities towards international peace building; to enable students to establish new institutional and professional contacts which would allow them to build useful networks for their careers; to benefit institutions of the country in which the internship will be developed, through the contribution of new leaders prepared to deal with major tasks related to the search and enhancement of peace in the local, international and global community.
Admission Requirements
Interested candidates should submit to the UPEACE Department of Academic Administration the following items: application form; official undergraduate or last degree Transcript/Course of Studies; three letters of Recommendation; Curriculum Vitae; a statement of purpose indicating why they are interested in the Programme; a printed score of the Test of English as a Foreign language (TOEFL) or other recognized English language tests1; financial certification; six recent passport-size photographs; and a Costa Rican Entry visa application form.
Click here for full information on admissions and on line applications. Send your questions to Carla Ortiz, Head of Academic Administration at: admissions@upeace.org
Deadline for receiving application packages: November 18th, 2008
_______________
1UPEACE requests applicants to provide evidence that shows at least a medium level of English proficiency (TOEFL results should be at least 400 paper based and 170 computer based; IELTS results should be equal or over a band score of 6).
