1. Introduction

The MED-CAMPUS Programme aims to promote and support economic and social reform through diffusion of knowledge which encourages the modernization of public and private sectors, environmental improvements and economic and social development through a network of universities and higher education institutions from EU member states and Mediterranean Non-Community Countries (MNC).

The Med-Campus Programme is a co-operative, inter-university programme, established by the Commission of the European Union. The objective of the programme is to create new links and reinforce existing ties between higher education institutions in the EU and MNC. The Med-Campus Programme consists of four main project fields (Regional, Social and Economic Development, Management of Public and Private Enterprises, Environmental Management, and Cultural Exchanges), and also two main activities: Training courses for university professors and for post-graduates; and Skills development for MNC administrators and technical staff in public or private enterprises (1).

It may also result in temporary attachments at universities and companies to enhance the know how transfer; applied research to complete training activities; purchase of light equipment; and access to EU data banks and information services.

2. Aims and Objectives Med-Campus European Masters Degree Courses

European Masters Degree courses were originally developed in response mainly to the higher educational needs of the countries of eastern and central Europe.

These courses have two overall aims (2):

• to produce Masters graduates locally to best west European standards;
• to upgrade the local educational infrastructure, also to best west European standards

The courses are sponsored by the Commission of the European Communities, International Center for Technical Research (ICTR) of London and the European Centre for Pollution Research (ECPR), which offer a number of such courses in different disciplines in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Turkey. In each case one or more local university and/or institute collaborates with a consortium of European Community (EC) universities, institutes and/or enterprises in all aspects of teaching, training, upgrading. University and institutional partners actively involved in the Environmental Management Project in Ankara are:

• European Centre for Pollution Research, Queen Mary & Westfield College, University of London, UK
• The University of Ankara, Turkey
• The National Technical University of Athens, Greece
• The University of Bologna, Italy
• The Queen's University of Belfast, UK
• The Free University of Brussels, Belgium

All these courses are based on the following criteria aimed at highest possible standards (2):

• The course should address real local regional needs, emphasizing modern methods and subjects.
• The academic standard of the course must be in line with leading west European Universities.
• Internationally respected academics will act as independent External Examiners, charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the course achieves and maintains best west European standards.
• Best available teaching staff should be recruited from the participated EC Universities (or from other good western universities if necessary) to teach the course jointly with the local teachers.
• Projects should be mandatory and good facilities should be provided for project work.
• Good tutorial and backup services should be provided.
• At the end of the course, all students will be required to summit themselves to a viva voce which will be presided over by the External Examiner. The result of the viva voce will be an important factor in assessing students' overall performance in the final examinations.
• Local teachers involved in the course should be enabled to visit the participating EC Universities, institutes and enterprises for retraining and upgrading, and to familiarize themselves with west European methods of teaching and learning.
• Support and collaboration of local authorities, industry and enterprises should be sought, especially in order to ensure that real local or regional needs are being addressed.

Within the framework of the overall aims and criteria stated about, the major objectives of the European Masters Degree course in Environmental Management at Ankara are (2):

• To produce Masters graduate in Environmental Management whose knowledge and skills are in line with best west European standards and meet real local and regional needs.
• To enable local teachers, involved in the course, to visit participating EC Universities for updating their knowledge or for learning new skills.
• To enable local in-service professionals to update their knowledge, or to learn new skills, in one or more subjects on offer in minimum time.
• To enable promising students to go to the participating EC Universities for further studies which may lead to what is called the "split" Ph.D. degree.
• To upgrade the local educational infrastructure, in the discipline of the course offered, also to best west European standards.

The overall objectives of the Masters Degree course above are realized through the following major and strategic activities (2):

• performance of all academic tasks (such as curriculum development, teaching, monitoring, evaluation and examination, development of teaching materials etc.) jointly by component teachers from the partner EU universities and their local counterparts,
• systematic updating and upgrading of the participating local teachers at the partner EU universities under the supervision of their respective EU colleagues,
• mandatory individual projects which each student must do,
• mandatory written examinations and the mandatory viva voce to which all student must submit themselves,
• rigorous quality control of input, throughput and output which is done through the application of "Quality" under the supervision of one or two eminent experts in the field acting as independent External Examiners,
• acquisition of necessary equipment(i.e. hardware, computer software, text and reference books, journals and manuals)

Students who fulfill the requirements of the course and satisfy the examiners are awarded the European Masters Degree Certificate which is recognised by all the partner universities, both EU and local.

3. Structure of the Degree Courses

To date ECPR and ICTR have developed, organized and offered seven different Masters Degree courses in several countries in different subjects. All these courses are given in English, and the duration of each course is twelve calendar months. In each course:

• specific educational and training needs, that are considered to be priorities both locally and regionally for the wider socio-economic development of the beneficiaries, have been the criterion for both course design and selection of subjects constituting the overall course.
• accordingly the individual subjects constituting the overall course in Ankara have been selected on the basis of real national and regional needs in Environmental Management.
• they are also meant to address local and regional deficiencies in both teaching and training in priority subjects in that discipline (3).

The course structure below, and the outline syllabuses, was decided upon to meet real local needs of the recipients with regard to the MED-CAMPUS objectives. It is subject, however, to change and fine-tuning as appropriate. The structures and outline syllabuses are as follows:

• "Basic Ecology" is primarily designed as a general introduction to biological aspects of environmental science for engineers and non-biologists. It covers basic aspects of biochemistry and cell and organism function in order to develop the concept of the functional roles of organisms in the biosphere and the interaction between physico-chemical and biological activities in the "hydrobiogeosphere".
• "Society, Development and Environment" sets the scene for the entire course, its principal elements being: social attitudes to economic development and resulting environmental consequences; individual and societal responsibilities to the environment; concepts of GAIA, sustainable development, sustainable life-style and Eco-Economics; role and limitation of technology in the mitigation of environmental damage.
• "Basic Elements of Environmental Management" and "Advanced Elements of Environmental Management" are designed to train students to a level of expertise where they are familiar with State of the Environment Reporting, able to carry out EIA of proposed or existing projects and are familiar with the fundamentals of the evolving subject of Environmental Audit.
• "Solid Waste Management" is concerned with the increasingly challenging problem of managing solid wastes in developing countries. Management scenarios and relative advantages of the following modes of disposal are considered: landfill, ocean dumping, incineration, composting and co-composting.
• "Wastewater Treatment & Modern Developments" is concerned with the management of wastewater, both domestic and industrial. Aspects of treatment and modern developments in treatment also is considered.
• "Tourism and The Environment" is concerned with the lessening or, if possible, elimination of environmental damage caused by tourism. The following major topics is covered: interaction between tourism and the environment in terms of 'Menifacts', 'Artefacts' and 'Sociofacts'; strategies for reducing tourist impact on coastal areas, parklands and nature reserves; the concept of eco-tourism and how to get there; sustainable tourism.
• "Application of GIS to Environmental Management" is designed to train students on GIS software and hardware, and applications on the related subjects.

4. The Evaluation of the Quality

Major elements of the "Quality", which have been developed over the years by ICTR and ECPR to deliver west European quality standards for the various Masters Degree courses offered by these two organizations are these (3):

• Design of course structure and individual syllabuses and their validation.
• Setting of questions for written examinations and their scrutiny.
• The individual student project.
• The viva voce.
• Updating and upgrading of local teachers.
• Evaluation of teaching staff by students.

4.1. Design of the overall course structure

• Detailed design of the overall course structure, which is undertaken once the discipline has been decided upon relies on inputs from various target groups in the beneficiary country. Depending on the discipline, the target groups can be combinations of the following: students and teachers at the host university, industry, enterprises, municipalities, municipalities, chambers of commerce, agencies of local governments, government ministries and agencies and Non- Governmental Organizations.
• Meetings and discussions are held with the target groups, and site visits are made as necessary for fact-finding, in order to establish the following:

1. their specific teaching and training needs in the selected discipline area,
2. deficiencies and high quality teaching and training facilities locally in the discipline area and how the proposed course could and should address them.
3. best ways in which university-industry collaboration could take place, especially for the effective transmission of skills accruing from the proposed course to end-users.
4. inventory of new equipment, including books and computer software, needed for upgrading the hardware component of the educational infrastructure in the discipline area to west European standards.

Inputs from the target groups, when structured carefully and with regard to obvious local needs compared to deficiencies in quality, scope or both of what is available locally, crystallize into the subjects (Modules) which together with the mandatory individual student project, usually constitute the overall course.

On average an ECPR/ICTR Masters Degree course contains eight taught Modules, a compulsory individual student project, and mandatory viva-voce.

4.2. Writing of the Syllabuses of Individual Modules

• This activity is carried out jointly by local and EU teachers. Each module is assigned to a Module group compromising one or two more local teachers and one ore more EU teachers who specialize in the subject area of the Module.
• When ready, drafts of the Module syllabuses and the overall course structure are sent to the independent external examiners for their scrutiny and evaluation to determine whether they conform to west European standards.
• After the criticism of the syllabuses, sometimes even the overall course structure, they are then revised by Module groups and sent once more to the independent external Examiners for their approval.

4.3. The Syllabuses of the Module

The syllabuses of the Module typically comprises the following:

(i) The 'teaching objective' which is a statement of what new knowledge and skills the student is expected to acquire from the successful completion of the Module.

1. A fairly description of the topics to be covered by lecturer(s).
2. The 'coursework' content. A appropriate amount of coursework, which may be experimental, computer-based, essay(s), field work, or participation in a seminar or a 'brain-storming' sessions, is associated with each of the taught Modules.
3. A list of recommended text and reference books, computer software, educational videos and other teaching materials needed for the Module.

4.4. Setting of Questions for Written Examinations and their Scrutiny

• Students are required to take written examinations at the end of semester 1 in all the Modules taught in that semester, and likewise in semester 2. Two aspects are germane here with regard to "Quality":

1. every effort made to ensure that each question in each module has a significant element, the answer to which would demand original thinking on the part of the student and/or excite his or her imagination.
2. the drafts of all questions, set jointly by local and EU teachers, are sent to the independent external Examiners.

• The question paper on each module has two parts; questions in part A are set by the EU teacher(s) and those in part B by the local teacher(s).Books A and B are separately marked by the EU and local teachers respectively, and often the marks given are scrutinized together by them in order to ensure uniformity. Marked examination scripts are made available to the independent external Examiners during viva-voce.

4.5. The Individual Student Project

• Individual student projects are a mandatory and integral part of all ECPR/ICTR Masters Degree courses, and a great deal of importance is attached to them.
• Each student is required to do a project under the guidance of his or her supervisor who is usually a local teacher.
• Projects may be computer based, experimental (field or laboratory),or an extended essay or a literature survey.
• Projects must satisfy the following criteria:

1. they must have a acceptable amount of originality,
2. should be relevant locally or regionally,
3. should be capable of completion, including the writing up of the thesis, within the stipulated time.

3.4. The viva voce

• The viva-voce which is mandatory for all students and takes place at the end of the 12-month course, is the most important strategic intervention which the independent external Examiners make in order to ensure that quality of the project output conforms to best west European standards.
• Each student is orally examined, individually and separately.
• It is conducted by a panel of EU and local teachers.
• The purpose for the panel is to assess the project work of the student and to evaluate his or her overall profile in terms of knowledge and skills gained from the entire course.
• The panel evaluates the overall profile of the student with the following:

1. marks obtained in the written examinations (all examination scripts are made available to the panel)
2. quality of the project (each project thesis is sent for scrutiny to a EU panel member at least two weeks before the viva-voce and all project thesis made available to the panel.
3. quality of the coursework (coursework reports are made available to the panel)
4. student's performance in the viva-voce.

4.6. Updating and Upgrading of Local Teachers

• Updating and upgrading of local teachers is directly concerned with the uplifting the software component of the educational infrastructure to west European standards.
• Updating is necessary because colleagues from beneficiary universities have limited and sometimes no access to modern text and reference books, manuals, journals and teaching materials and aids in the video or CD-ROM format. Consequently their knowledge and information is dated.
• Upgrading is concerned with the acquisition of new knowledge information; enhancing the ability to analyze and synthesize the acquired knowledge and information; and emulating effective west European methods of teaching, evaluating, curriculum development and other academic activities.

4.7. Evaluation of Teaching Staff by Students

• Students are the main end-users of a given Masters Degree course and they are the customers of the service provided.
• It would make much sense, to solicit student' views on whether they consider their course as good, indifferent or bad.
• The purpose of the evaluation of teachers by students is to glean this information as truthfully as possible so that any defect or deficiency in the course can be speedily addressed. Two such evaluations are carried out by the Coordinator of the course at the end of each two semesters.
• Evaluation takes place in two forms;

1. general discussion of the course, its organization and management, teaching-learning process, and in particular to the competence of both EU and local teachers.
2. a questionnaire which each student is invited to complete in strict confidence.
   • In the questionnaire each student is invited to rate the competence of each teacher, both EU and local, on a scale of zero to ten under each of the following headings; depth of knowledge, ability to teach and general helpfulness.
   • If the aggregate rating given to any teacher falls below 15 for the three headings combined, then the teacher is replaced.

5. Conclusion

The overall quality and success are achieved by strict implementation of all the elements of "Quality" without exception. The management strategy is, paying particular attention to detail and making all the elements of the "Quality" to act together. This is highly appreciated by the students and the partner universities.

Apart from these, another important management strategy is concerned with motivating the local teachers to adapt west European methods of teaching and learning. In some cases, it may be extremely difficult to change from the existing local system and educational culture to a different teaching-learning method.

There is considerably a strong relation between one's age, status and his or her motivation to accept a change. Advancing age and elevated status, which usually go together, usually poses some problems. By contrast, young local teachers under the age of 35 are often easier to motivate. In most cases their change of attitude is profound. The benefits of change which the older ones find of little interest is far more interesting for them.

The local teachers who participated in the Masters Degree course in Ankara were highly motivated and willing to adapt the changes. Young local teachers, may be one of the most important factors in the success of the Masters Degree course in Ankara in achieving the objectives and the "Quality".

The long term benefits for the participating local teachers are also important. The close collaboration with EU teachers and the participating Universities, mostly leads several joint projects and publications.

Enhancing the local educational infrastructure through updating and upgrading of local teachers and through provision of books and equipment is another benefit of the Masters Degree course. A small library is established for the use of students and teachers. Reference books and educational videos are purchased. A computer laboratory is established for the same purpose and the necessary hardware and software purchased.

It is not difficult to organize a Masters Degree course, almost anywhere, provided that funding is available. What is far more difficult to do, however, is to ensure that the course achieves an internationally acceptable and recognized quality standard- evaluated rigorously and objectively- in all its academic aspects and especially in its main output (i.e. graduating class) it is difficult to see how such a course could be little more than a waste of time, money and effort if those quality standards are not achieved (3).

The ethical foundation of the hall course was taken to consideration right from the beginning. The first module which is named "Society, Development and Environment" structured to provide the ethical foundation of the course. It is done through introducing the students, the limitations of human beings and the implications of those limitations on our ability to deal with serious and growing environmental problems.

It is argued furthermore that, the fundamental reason why we exploit the resources and damage the environment is to be found within ourselves of human beings; in our aspirations, in what we expect from life, and most of all, in satisfying human greed, both individually and nationally, even if it means exploiting the earth, human beings or weaker nations.

So we really should not do something that we do not understand and damage anything that we can not create. It all lies within ourselves, our mentality, the way we regard fellow human beings, our ability to "bond" respectfully and harmoniously with planet earth and with creation at large.

All the seven modules were based on these fundamental ideas which lead the students to establish links between ethics and the taught subjects. We sincerely believe and know that the graduates who have different backgrounds disseminate this information in many different platforms to several people and ultimately, this contributes very significantly to the achievement of sustainability in terms of improved quality of life.

References

1. Descriptive Guide of Med-Campus Projects (1994-1995), European Commission, Rome (1995).
2.Prospectus of the European Masters Degree Course in Environmental Management at Ankara (Sponsored by the Med-Campus Programme of the Commission of the European Communities), European Center for Pollution Research, London, (1995).
3. Nath, B., Sˆzen, N. and Talay, I., The Concept and Implementation of Total Quality Assurance (TQA) in Higher Environmental Education. International Conference on Environmental Pollution, Proceedings Volume I, ECPR, London, (1996).