University of Victoria, Dunsmuir Lodge
Victoria, British Columbia
August 21-22, 2001
 
 

Monday August 21st, 9 am 

Present: P. Bonde (ECTS), H. Coward (UV), N. Moore (UCD), J. Rendtorff (UR), R. Roberge (UO), P. Trnka (MUN, Secretary), and H. Zwart (KUN, Chair).

Regrets from A. Buttimer (UCD).

HC welcomes us all to Victoria for the Directors_ Meeting, Conference, and UV intensive. 

1.  Agenda and Minutes.  Move presentation of ECTS by PB up to no. 8b, following item no. 8, Project_s Future; item no. 3 refers to evaluation procedures.

2.  Victoria Conference, _Transforming Landscapes and Lifeways_.  HC provides review of consortium conference.  Thanks to HC and Connie Carter for conference preparation.

3.  Evaluation Procedures.  RR worked with Suzanne McCullagh (MUN, DFAIT intern) preparing student and faculty evaluation forms; these now Acrobat coded and posted on the web; there are some problems completing them on the web but printed ones are being returned to RR.  Individual forms are to remain confidential and summary document of results will be produced (RR, PT, and HZ).  Purpose of evaluation is to monitor procedures and participant satisfaction and help evaluate future of the project.  Evaluations to be modified after feedback, especially following UV intensive; interdisciplinary curriculum issues should be highlighted.  Staff support for evaluation would be good.  We must ensure restricted access to evaluations that are completed on the web and secure permission for use of individual forms; also provide section on form for remarks that may be made public.

4.  Exchange Program.

4.1 Students
4.11  Challenges and Successes.  Difficulties remain in timely provision of funds, e.g., Danish and Irish student this semester; thanks to HC for forwarding of funds from UV for Irish exchange student, though we should avoid needing to make such requests as far as possible; case of Danish student complicated, with personal matters involved in reason for declining.  Provision of student exchange information as soon as possible to appropriate director essential for timely release of funds.  Students who have been successful in their university competitions should provide their relevant information (e.g., for Canada, SIN #s, bank account details or a voided cheque, home address) directly to the funding director (PT or HZ).  Report on Canadian exchanges (PT): overall very good, quotas met, no disasters; some worries among students concerning when funds available, how funds are advanced for ticket purchase, provision of accommodations, and expectations re. curriculum.  Report on EU exchanges (HZ): situation more complex with international money transfer between EU countries; more time is needed than expected for financial arrangements and smoother communication arrangements need to be made.  PT to circulate letter announcing fellowships competition.  Home director to provide students embarking on exchange with letter explaining their travel (for immigration officers).

4.12 Student Exchanges Planned for 2002.    HZ: estimate of EU finances shows that each EU university will be able to send 3 to 4 students; ability to send seems strong in each site.  Some sites (e.g., UCD) have hosted many more students than other sites and such should and will be considered next year when planning exchanges.  Provision of supervision at hosting site is not always in the exchange student_s specialization since this is an interdisciplinary exchange curriculum; such should be better communicated to students.  Language training should be fused with cultural training to improve student interest and better express our intent.  PT: estimate of Canadian funds indicates same potential level of activity as on EU side, if able to carry over unused funds for next year (some savings in exchanges of shorter durations, lower costs than projected, etc.); intensive courses are natural exchange attractors (as they should be) and such will make it more difficult to balance hosting responsibilities evenly across universities (especially if UCD is running an intensive next spring).  HZ and PT to make actual numbers of possible exchanges known soon.

4.13 Student Research and Ethics Approval.  Ethics requirements for research differ from university to university and continent to continent, with Canadian procedures being quite strict (approval often onerous and long) on research involving human subjects ; recent EU students at UV show need for attention to such (approval expedited given submission of projects as part of course work requirements and questions to general population treated as research from EU).

4.14 Credits.  Students enroll at home in cognate course and take it abroad; credits given for intensives and individual research papers.  We should develop a certificate for the consortium program, with HRDC and EU logo (PT).

4.2 Faculty Exchanges.  Various faculty traveled in both directions this year primarily for intensive courses but also for research, promotion, and curriculum development.  NM: intensive planned for UCD in Spring though some complications given new Chair in Geography.  PB: long-term (10 day) faculty exchanges are to be encouraged. 

Adjourn at approx. 12:30pm.
Reconvene after lunch at 2pm.  PT Chair and Secretary.

5  Intensive Courses

5.1  Review of Nijmegen Intensive  (See also web posted schedule/description.)  HZ: six week duration with 4 site visits and 4 essays, focus on water management; various disciplines involved (philosophy, policy, ecology, geography, religion, history); teaching divided relatively equally between Science Faculty of KUN, Philosophy of Science at KUN, and Canadian consortium faculty; 10 students altogether (4 Dutch, 6 Canadian); time-consuming but rewarding; would like to repeat biannually, hopefully within Coastal Inquiries framework, and as an elective in KUN Environmental Studies.  RR: well-organized, coherent, and expertly lead local fieldwork.  Main problems were uncertainty re. number of students and time involved; important that such work culminates in scientific output/publication.

5.2 Review of Victoria Intensive  (See also web posted schedule/description.)  Conference forms first half of intensive, which course runs 3 weeks in total; advance readings and assignments posted on web, but some difficulties in students finding articles; boat field trip follows conference; each student supplied with a desk in an office at the Centre, where number of other interdisciplinary projects are gathered; plenty of access to other faculty and scholars at CSRS, UV, and _Coasts Under Stress_; history and environmental studies major other disciplines.  PT: good distinction between intensive courses such that students who are at more than one do not repeat curriculum.  RR: equal balance between philosophy and geography seems to be forgotten.  HC: focus on interdisciplinary work with clear thematic focus, bigger than philosophy meets geography.  PT: faced similar disciplinary questions organizing Nijmegen intensive; need to be flexible and problem-oriented in approach.  RR: we need a basic encounter between logical positivist, empirical science and humanistic, cultural approaches.  HC: various conflicts need to be represented.

5.3  Review of Intensive Plans for 2002
5.31  Spring 2002 Dublin  NM: projected theme _City and Its Coastline_ with land reclamation, marinas, wind energy, and relation between economics and ecology as foci; possibility of linking course with Urban Institute at UCD; late May/early June likely.  PT: link also with Cities Project, of which MUN and UCD partners.

5.32  Summer 2002 St. John_s  PT: _Transport and Telecommunications_ theme, to be held in July/August or August/September; focus on globalization emerges well from city theme and contrasts with natural resource themes of first two intensives; staff and planning coming together, involving philosophy, geography, sociology, and history faculty.

6  Website  HZ: site has been growing steadily, now needs systematization; currently holds project application, intensive course schedules and descriptions, minutes of meetings, evaluation forms, and an archive of student papers; should also include fellowship application notices, student contracts, plans for upcoming intensives.  Should be universal responsibility for website, with a webpass address; consider refereed electronic publication as part of site (students submit essay with an abstract, refereed by 1 Canadian and 1 European faculty member, not from student_s home university); use Groupware software to restrict access to parts of site (evaluations, referee forms, etc.); each university should have a page linked to the main site.

Adjourn at 4pm.; Reconvene at:

9am, Tuesday 22nd of August.

Present: P. Bonde (ECTS), H. Coward (UV), N. Moore (UCD), J. Rendtorff (UR), R. Roberge (UO), P. Trnka (MUN, Secretary), and H. Zwart (KUN, Chair).

7  Communication

7.1  Communication Between Partners  We need to put exchange students in direct contact with lead directors and with intensive course directors to facilitate better arrangements for students.  Lead directors will attend Muenster international exchange conference.  Next round of applications (May 2002) will be discussed there (PB).  Use website to discuss next application.

7.2  Dissemination  Web-based student journal of refereed essays a good idea; papers to be sent to one of the lead directors in an electronic version, paper then posted on restricted site on web and refereed by one Canadian and one European faculty (with directors as likely pool of readers); students should be told clearly that such publication does make it more difficult to publish elsewhere.  Conferences are a good means of dissemination and Dublin may be the site for 2002.  Edited volume proceeding from Victoria conference: Anne Buttimer has bowed out, HC suggest lead directors co-edit; consider MacMillan, ISER, philosophy and geography series, Kluwer; perhaps combine papers from this and Dublin conference; consider a special edition of a journal.

8a  Future of Project Beyond 2002  PB: to receive funds from HRDC/EU Directorate, project needs _substantial addition_, e.g., academic embedding in existing programmes, administrative embedding, new partners, internships, emphasis on post-graduate and research components, at least one industrial/government/NGO endorsement.  Roundtable discussion on ideas of the future: HZ: intensive will be embedded and government and NGO contacts are being developed.  HC: Martin Taylor, VP at UV, very interested in project, and there are links with Earth and Ocean Research Center and other research projects.  RR: extension to include other French speaking universities would be good.  JR: southern Europe and French Annales school would be interesting.  NM: Scotland, e.g., Aberdeen, might be good; CORE, National Partnership for Sustainable Development, would also fit.  PT: Diplomas in Practical Ethics and Coastal Zone Management fit nicely, as does Humanities programme; links with Protected Areas Association and government offices; exploring other avenues of funding.  PT and HZ to explore how to proceed and will circulate a proposal.

8b  European Credit Transfer System  Presentation by PB on ECTS as a system, primarily focused on undergraduate students, for international cooperation; strategic details, dynamic components, grading scale, history, future, and ways of knowing more.

Adjourn 12pm.

Reconvene 1pm.  PT Chair and Secretary.

8c  Website Demonstration  HZ: need better address but google.com search for _coastal inquiries_ works; extensive demonstration follows.  First Class software allows posting of readings as course material; RR demonstrates the system, including course outlines, cafes, chat rooms, folders with different access permissions (general, select, one and two way access, etc.); First Class must be institutionally assigned, but there are various other such programmes (logins and passwords assigned by institution).  Link to Cara Segger_s cultural geography site a good idea.  NM to provide student information to HZ for upcoming intensive.  PB demonstrates ECTS website.

9  Financial Update  PT: efficient use of funds this year and managed full quota of exchanges of students as well as short and long-term faculty exchanges; estimates same for next year, with 3 to 4 student exchanges from each Canadian partner, plus faculty exchange, and some funds for publication and staffing for intensive course preparation (exact figures to follow); needs staff time accounting from HC and RR.  HZ: approximately the same for EU side, with annual report due in November (annual reports to be posted on web).

10  Other Business  Thanks to Connie Carter, Cara Segger, and Sonya Furstenou for help with conference and intensive preparation.

11  Setting Dates

11.1  Conference and Intensive  UCD in late May and early June.

11.2  Next Directors Meeting  In conjunction with Dublin conference, though too late for planning next application so we will need to communicate electronically re. such.

Adjourn 3pm.
 
 

               Return to Index