an article on the upcoming dual master’s program mpp-sdg was released in le monde, a prestigious french newspaper on november 7, 2017. the article is translated into english by michael benhamou, a student of sdg 2017.
a swiss-chinese partnership
university of geneva (unige) and tsinghua university created a dual master’s program dedicated to the accomplishment of the 17 sustainable development goals set by the un. this is the ambition of the new master developed by the unige in switzerland and the prestigious university of tsinghua in beijing, where the current and former chinese presidents have been educated.
offered since september, this program, taught in english and called master of innovation, human development and sustainability in unige (master of public policy and management for sdgs in tsinghua university) is dedicated to the accomplishment of the 17 sdgs by 2030 by the un.
the idea grew very fast, when the president of the unige and tsinghua officials met at the world economic forum in davos in 2016.
facing the importance of sustainable development in china, “the chinese university has shown great interest in being part of the sdgs accomplishments with a partner like unige, which multiplies contacts with the un, ngos and international organizations” said prof. francois grey, the director of geneva-tsinghua initiative. moreover, engaged in a large scale reform of its education system, china needs more creative profiles. for the unige, such a partnership allows a greater collaboration with the un head office situated in geneva.
based on a multidisciplinary approach, the program is inspired by studies and researches on new ways for education conducted by francois teddei, the director of the french interdisciplinary studies centre. the program is addressed to a great variety of student profiles, from biologists, economists to sociologists, etc. during their formation, students benefit from fundamental classes on sustainable development in all its dimensions (human, environmental, institutional). the master includes practical teaching, based on a project approach.
in switzerland, students spend two days a week in the sdg laboratory solution space, inaugurated recently at the centre of geneva. there, they meet ngo and international organization officials which exposes them to the current problems they are asked to work on.
concretely, 24 students are currently enrolled in unige, and 14 in tsinghua. after their first year, students in switzerland will go to china, and vice versa. doubling the number of students is foreseen to happen soon.
"we might not change the world radically with our master. but we want to have an impact on the change” claim the students. just launched, this program already interests other universities, especially in africa.
"our approach is original. we make available a solid student team to ngos in order to bring them solutions. ngos act like mentors. ” says francois grey. “we meet every week a great variety of actors. here, we are able to have a large vision of sustainable development’ underlines samsam mahmed, a canadian student from somalia, whose ambition is to work on the eradication of hunger in the world (sdg 2).”
"we all contribute at our level, which is motivating and enlightening. the possibility to spend time in china is really interesting ” points out emmanel kellner, a french-swiss student, holding a bachelor of micro-technic engineering.