In each of the three regions UPEACE will organize a Master Curriculum Development Workshop (MCDW). During these workshops the Master's Degree Programme on Peace and Conflict Studies will be designed.

During the MCDW a group of academicians from each of the countries in each region will engage in the conceptual design of a Master's Degree Programme in the field of Peace and Conflict Studies. UPEACE will and facilitate the process to support the effort of workshop participants to tailor a Master's Programme to respond to their priorities and needs.

The participants will also identify courses of regional and local interest. This stage would culminate in the design of a complete outline of the programme with its courses, theses, and admission requirements.

After the conceptual design of the curriculum is completed, participants will then be divided into working groups, based on their expertise and interests, to develop outlines of the various course curricula. UPEACE staff will provide support to this effort by sharing examples of curricula already developed with UPEACE's Master Programmes and by facilitating the process of curriculum development.

In order to allow the partner universities to reach a wider audience, the third stage of the MCDW's will focus on developing modules conducive to the needs of professionals and other segments of society beyond graduate students. Participants will identify such needs on national and regional levels, and will produce modules appropriate for wide use with targeted populations.

UPEACE has initiated its plans to conduct the Master Curriculum Development Workshops (MCDW's) in the three regions: South Asia, the Horn of Africa and the Middle East. These workshops will be hosted by one Partner University in each region and are scheduled to take place in the following dates:

14-17 April 2008: MCDW in Alexandria, Egypt, in collaboration with the Institute of Peace Studies.

21-24 April 2005: MCDW in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in collaboration with Addis Ababa University.

28 April-2 May 2008: MCDW in Colombo, Sri Lanka in collaboration with the University of Colombo.

Four representatives of each Partner University will participate in one of the regional workshops.

UPEACE will offer two faculty members of each partner university a full scholarship for obtaining an MA at UPEACE, one during the academic year 2008- 2009 and one during 2009-2010. The goal is to facilitate academic capacity-building at the local level in order to provide faculty members with theoretical knowledge and practical skills for teaching in the field of Peace and Conflict Studies.

Recipients of the scholarships will not only attend one of the regular Master Degree programmes, but will also participate in a pedagogical training. The training will emphasize the importance of cross-cultural communication, appreciating diversity and understanding the "other".

This training session will allow the participants to build on their teaching experience to develop, with the support of UPEACE trainers, the most appropriate learner-centred and participatory pedagogy for educating in the field of Peace and Conflict Studies. Cultural relativity will be mainstreamed throughout this specific pedagogical part of the project.

Specifically, selected scholars at UPEACE will participate in training sessions on teaching two of the core Masters Programme courses: "Research Methods" and "Multiculturalism in Conflict and Peace". The participants will then have the skills and tools required to share this pedagogy with other faculty members upon their return to their home institutions, thus contributing to the training of trainer component of this project.

In order to make the scholars' experience at UPEACE more beneficial, instead of completing a Master of Arts thesis, each of them will develop three syllabi for courses identified in the Masters Curriculum Development Workshop. The rationale behind this exercise is that scholars will be expected to utilize the academic capacity of UPEACE resident faculty in order to plan, draft and execute specific curricula that both match the needs of their host institutions as well as their academic specialties. Specific subjects will revolve around the following specialties:

• Gender studies
• International Law and Human Rights
• Peace Education
• Media Studies
• International Relations
• Political Science
• Environment Sciences
  

As part of the academic capacity building, UPEACE professors will co-teach two courses of the curriculum: "Foundation Course in Peace and Conflict Studies" and "Practices of Peace and Conflict Management" at the partner universities.

By co-teaching the two courses with faculty members of the partner universities, UPEACE is implementing a training of trainers activity to mid-level and senior faculty members in each institution in order to enhance the local capacity of teaching Peace and Conflict Studies. The same pedagogical principles will be used to develop additional courses related to their field of expertise and to the field of Peace and Conflict Studies.

If a partner university prefers to teach one or both of these courses with local staff only, UPEACE staff will be available to co-teach other courses within the range of expertise of UPEACE.