A T L A N T I S P R O G R A M M E Policy oriented measure US Final meeting at the University of Bologna September 19 th -21 st, 2008

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1 A T L A N T I S P R O G R A M M E Policy oriented measure US BENPHE BENCHMARKING NON PROFIT AND PHILANTHROPY EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS Final meeting at the University of Bologna September 19 th -21 st, 2008 Participants Robert Ashcraft (RA), Arizona State University Deborah Bolognesi (DD), University of Bologna Dwight Burlingame (DB), Indiana University - Purdue University (IUPUI) Giuliana Gemelli (GG), University of Bologna Johan Gärde (JG), Ersta-Skondall University College Andrea Martelli (AM), University of Bologna Siobhán McGee (SM), Trinity College - Dublin Lars Erik Olsson (LEO), Ersta-Skondall University College Paolo Palenzona (PP), University of Bologna Matteo Sgarzi (MS), Alma Laurea Interuniversity Consortium Peter Weber (PP), University of Bologna Absentee Steven King (SK), Oxford Brookes University 1. Introduction ( ) Minutes: Friday 19 th GG and PP greeted the participants welcome to Bologna and confirmed the schedule for the day. - AM suggested to briefly discuss the fact that Oxford Brookes did not attend several meetings, including this very last one, which is crucial for the future of the partnership. Everyone agreed to mention the fact in the final report, considering nonetheless the previous works done by SK, as well as the latest analysis on the situation in the UK. - In view of a the future Atlantis call, everyone welcomed SM and Trinity College as a new potential partner in a transatlantic consortium DB summarized Atlantis program s content (to the benefit of SM in particular) and the idea behind BENPHE, also based on the external evaluation of the FIPSE grant (US analogue to the EU Commission - DG Education) written by Roseanne Mirabella, which has been distributed to the participants and will be attached to the final report. DB acknowledged as the main outcome of BENPHE the opportunity of 1

2 getting to know each others, and consequently the possibility to extend the current partnership 1 between IUPUI and University of Bologna. This consolidated joint venture has already produced 4 cycles of the professional master (2 semesters + 3 months internship, 70 ECTS) in international studies in philanthropy (MISP), which is the current best example of an international graduate title in the sector. DB insisted on the fact that the future depends on the capacity to attract other partners as it is happening with the BENPHE with the aim of increasing the attractiveness, international level of the faculty and overall reputation of the MISP. As a result, he underlined that traveling has been the central task (both in terms of time and funds) for US and EU partners. - DB explained how and why Atlantis program recently modified its focus from undergraduate to graduate transatlantic consortia, in line with the choices made for MISP even before BENPHE. The mutual conclusion is that there is very little potential for the development of a joint undergraduate program between the US and EU partners at this period in time. Instead, a graduate degree offer several advantages in terms of shorter length of time of the program (two instead of three or more years), and the enrolment of older and more experienced students, who also have broader cultural and language skills crucial for the success of a transatlantic exchange. Nonetheless, an important goal of the future for any transatlantic partnership remains the extension of the academic curriculum to undergraduate and even postgraduate level, as it is happening more and more in the US. He therefore suggested to dedicate part of the discussion in this sense, including future collaboration in different areas as the new field of nonprofit and philanthropic studies develops: everyone agreed. 2. Analysis of academic curricula by operational phases ( ) - AM summarized the structure of the BENPHE project in terms of activities undertaken, thanking each partner for their latest contributions, and explaining how their analysis will be included in the final report. With reference to the revised work-plan in the Interim Report: Phase A. - The implementation of the database that gathers information on EU academic programs has succeeded in giving a quantitative support to the differences and similarities of the various disciplines involved in educational programs focusing on NPOs, NGOs, civil society and philanthropy. - GG underlined the fact that the current database forms the basis for future research in line with Roseanne Mirabella worldwide study in this area. GG reported also that Mirabella is collecting these type of preliminary studies in view of an edited book: BENPHE could make up a chapter of the book, drawing from the experiences of the current transatlantic partnership. At the moment the methodology has not been fully clarified, and specific resource to participate to the publication have not been allocated within the partners institutions. This would be a very good way of disseminating the experience, and the latest article published on BENPHE will be mentioned in the final report as well as the possibility of the edited book. Phase B. - GG, JG and LEO converged on the fact that the qualitative survey on a smaller number of academic programs, conducted by each EU partners in their respective geographical areas, revealed the existence of well consolidated graduate programs, in some case with a decennial experience and more. - AM suggested to summarize and include the findings of each partner report in the final one. Everyone agreed, while raising concerns about the limit of the analysis: so many different disciplines or group of disciplines (ie. Economics, philosophy, social work, public administration) has shown the capacity to attract students, both undergraduates or practitioners, but we should consider the cultural asymmetries from country to country. - With reference to the history of the original partnership between IUPUI and University of Bologna, GG noticed that once you have expanded the context of analysis (also including other partners), the complexity grows to the point that any taxonomy would probably fail. 1 Which was established in

3 - DB affirmed that the variety of approaches shown in Europe should be considered more as an opportunity rather than a limit. The whole field of nonprofit studies should be addressed considering this richness of point of views, keeping in mind the increasing global role of philanthropy. At the same time there is a need to work harder to find research techniques as well as quantitative and qualitative measure to apply in the non profit sector. Phase C. - AM explained why in this phase the study conducted by AlmaLaurea has shown that using quantitative methods to test effectiveness of programs in terms of job placement might be elusive, due to the lack of historical data as well as comparability. - As a general remark, JG expressed some concerns about excessive confidence in quantitative benchmark indicators directly derived from economics, in order to evaluate which program have the best chances to provide high quality training and effectiveness. He suggested to listen more to each others and learn from each others instead of focusing on purely quantitative studies. - While summarizing the findings of the AlmaLaurea report on job placement, on one hand MS confirmed that for the BENPHE the partners would be able to draw only prudent and partial conclusions, due to the fact that the field is still quite new and many students enroll as practitioners with some work experience. Moreover, the study had a focus on Italian undergraduates, who enroll in a graduate course by a large majority, while the whole university system is still adjusting after the Bologna reform 2. On the other hand he insisted on the fact that the methodology adopted in such preliminary study could be used also in the future, in order to find useful quantitative indicators as long as the universities consolidates non profit curricula. Everyone agreed that, in the meantime, each partner has relied more on the experience within their network of institutions to provide a proper assessment of the situation of job placement in their geographic region, without using the comparative tools used by AlmaLaurea who were able to utilize information from their existing database. - Such wealth of information is not available for example in the Nordic country, as JG affirmed. Nonetheless preliminary comparative studies are now available in Sweden for example, but with huge variations in terms of job placement, from over 90% employment rate at Ersta Skondall Social Work Programs, to under 30% for other programs. - The common conclusion is that, due to the instability of the field and lack of comparability, it would be very hard to get general indications out of these job placement surveys. - MS suggested that for the future, in order to allow any comparability, a fewer indicators/question should emerge from the experience with the existing graduate students, such as the level of initial interest in the field and the differences after the graduation as they approach (or re-entered) job market. Phase D. - For this phase AM detected further methodological concerns, based on the questionnaires filled in by a sample of potential employers. The main difficulty they ve been facing was to understand the questions in the first place, indicating a cultural gap between academia and practitioners. - LEO confirmed that the cultural context turned out to be the greater limit in the adoption of a single EU questionnaire applied to the Nordic non profit employers. Most of the questions could not be easily translated, while in other cases the terms such as philanthropy were quite unpopular; besides, many concepts could not be understood. - JG reinforced this point of view claiming that the problem has to be found within the academia, who often takes for granted that practitioners share their vision about the utility of academic education. - MS affirmed that in fact the questionnaire s quality was not the point, as the methodology failed in the very first approach to potential employers (NGOs in general), who could not understand therefore agree on the objectives of the study in the first place. - LEO confirmed that even after a telephone follow up, many directors or HR managers could not really understand the importance of letting universities know about the lack of training that their staff might 2 The Bologna process has modified the undergraduate configuration in Italy from the 4 years degrees to the 3+2 system. 3

4 have. He argued that the partners did not spend enough time and resources in discussing how to adapt the questionnaire to different contexts, which was thus based on too many assumptions. - DB and PP highlighted how many of the conclusion of the BENPHE will serve as a starting point for a possible transatlantic consortium in the next 2009 Atlantis call, and suggested to dedicate part of the Saturday meeting on the discussion of the future steps in that sense. Everyone share the thoughts and agreed. 3. Analysis of academic curricula: the Nordics situation as a starting point of discussion ( ) LEO presented the situation in Sweden, Finland, Finland and Denmark. He mentioned the difficulties in framing the non profit sector even for these four countries, in spite of the alleged homogeneity of the Nordics. In Sweden, the Welfare system (including all services to the public, from health to education) is quite large, but only a small fraction of the citizens employed in Welfare services (about out of 1 million) belong to non profit organizations. The large majority is in fact employed by the government, and even the business sector (to which the public services are increasingly outsourced) employs more than the non profit sector (with about workers). Volunteers in the nonprofit organizations are also in three times more numerous than paid employees. That s why it is so difficult for the nonprofit sector itself to be recognized in the first place, hence the problem in academic research s legitimization. - JG confirmed that the public administration does not want to lose the control over any areas of the Welfare system, often identified as part of the public sector. That s why the nonprofit sector is still at risk. - DB pointed out that the trend for US is quite the opposite, with non profit organizations engagement in the Welfare services that has recently sharply increased, while the business sector investments in the area are decreasing. - JG noticed two positive factors for the inclusion of the Nordics in the larger European research framework on nonprofit. The first is the presence of a platform among universities in all 4 countries, called Nordplus, that might host an interest group on nonprofit. The other factor is the adoption of English as a main exchange language among Nordic countries, particularly useful for the development of partnership such as BENPHE and other pan-european collaborations. - DB suggested to look at the next AECP (American English and Culture Program, active on the campus of Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, USA) call, which could provide additional funding for the participation of individuals to a possible Atlantis consortia. - GG suggested to include the findings presented by LEO for the Nordics, together with the most recent updates for Italy ( in the final report DB launched the discussion on why practitioners say, in general I don t need education - JG pointed out that practitioners really say I need education, but not necessarily an academic one. In particular, the quality standards in the provision of nonprofit services are fixed by the government, not by non profit institutions. Therefore it is much more attractive for an individual who is interested in working in the Welfare sector to gain a specific competence through a professional degree (such as nursing, social worker etc) rather than in no profit management or related topics. - GG remarked that this fact should push everyone in this field to address the problem more from a public policy perspective, to make an academic curriculum more relevant. - JG replied that, unfortunately, the demand for education is still very much oriented toward public service which controls the delivery of Welfare services and does not allow too many intrusions. In fact one of the nonprofit sector achievement in the Nordics has been done under the surface, in a way that could be described more as doing without saying. As soon as the non profit sector would claim any 4

5 legitimate space, the risk of being absorbed or controlled by the State would still be there. Philanthropy for example is considered as a shy way of helping people, or in some case even a bad word that highlights the limit of the Welfare system causing political discomfort. JG noticed that in the US is quite the opposite: Welfare state is bad, philanthropy is good. - GG confirmed that, in spite of the exceptional growth, politically in Italy philanthropy has a still a marginal role, as well as in the rest of Europe with the relevant exception of the UK. The ambivalence is rather a downside for philanthropy, often mistaken as traditional charity, which has even more negative connotations. Conversely, Welfare is a positive term that connotes individual rights. - JG concluded that practitioners, especially leaders of nonprofit organizations have no options in terms of education: either public or business sector orientation. Ersta Skondall is in fact one rare example of private and non profit academic institution training social workers offering courses in civil society issues. - DB noticed instead the US growth in programs specific to non profit management, for example to the benefit of health managers. - LEO pointed out that the weak point is in fact the internal demand of specific courses, even though an increasing number of students are getting interested in non profit issues, for example for their theses. - For JG one point of weakness is the fact that universities concentrates more on the supply side, hence offering courses that might not meet the practitioners needs and interest. One way forward is actually to work with leaders to decide which topics should be covered, and then apply for funding both at national and EU level. - GG observed that in fact this is the methodology adopted by business schools to grant success: concentrate on the demand. - LEO asked why practitioners tend to go towards non-academic or non credit courses, such as continuous education or professional training. - SM argued that tuition might constitute an obstacle, also considering that establishing MA is more costly than other courses. - JG dismissed the cost problem saying that is more how the offer has been articulated, actually not considering the demand side. The only way forward, as well as the perspective to adopt for the next stage of the Atlantis consortium, is actually to investigate more on the demand side, as funding is not the only issue. 5

6 Saturday 20 th 4. How the curriculum should look like ( ) DB briefed the participants about the 2008 call of the Atlantis program, in order to get everyone focused on the new guidelines while discussing the curriculum development during the day. He introduced the main principles to the benefit of SM, and carried on by explaining the possible strategies after the recent decision not to apply for the 2008 call. The 2009 guidelines for application, which should be out in November (2008) will probably contain further amendments/slight changes, even though the general framework for Atlantis should not change too much. In particular if the excellence in mobility for students and faculty members will be confirmed, it represents at the moment the best option for the current partnership, including the potential new member: the Trinity College. The 4 years program allows the mobility of a minimum of 6 students per year from each side of the Atlantic, that have to spend at least one semester/term (or four months) studying in at least one transatlantic partner institution RA presented the result of a 30 years long process of non profit education development in the US. He spoke not only as representative of the Arizona State University Center for Philanthropy and Non Profit Innovation, but also as the president of the NACC Nonprofit Academic Centers Council which is an interdisciplinary body of academic professors created to foster such development. The US framework could be of great help to the EU partners in view of a potential joint degree, keeping always in mind the cultural gap and much more complex situation (in terms of national system, legislation, job-market, language and cultural barriers). - In line with the previous day discussion, for example NACC involves human resources managers in their analysis and recommendation that are then applied by single universities as they develop their own particular curriculum in non profit and philanthropic studies. They also collaborate with well consolidated network of practitioners and non profit training agencies like American Humanics 3. - RA illustrated briefly a 2007 report published by NACC, which is available online 4, titled Curricular Guidelines for Graduate Programs in Nonprofit Leadership, the Nonprofit Sector and Philanthropy. He highlighted that the very first guideline is actually the adoption of a comparative global perspective with other disciplines and different cultural contexts. This is in line with the general trend of students increasingly interest to invest part of their curriculum abroad, in EU and elsewhere. Furthermore, there is an increasing number of foreign investors that for various reasons wish to sponsor cultural exchanges, for example with Turkey; this creates golden opportunities for student mobility DB focused the discussion on the usefulness of the transatlantic exchange, reaffirming the importance of finding courses that could complement the curriculum on each side of the Atlantic. Nobody has fully developed the curriculum yet, and actually the trend is to extend to both undergraduate and post graduate programs, as well as increasing research in each field that could be of interest to philanthropy and non profit sector. In fact, DB observed that students enrolling at IUPUI showed the greatest variety of backgrounds, and developed their curriculum in very creative and personal ways. - GG identified the variety of disciplines offered, again, as an opportunity. Instead of focusing on a fixed curricular choice, an international curriculum would have greater chances of success if it creates multiple pathways that actually meet the student s interest, who is often a practitioner. This would provide the joint degree a real plus, something they could use in their own country/work context, so that the transatlantic exchange would be seen not only as a cultural international experience. For example, the existing partnership already offer a variety of peculiar approaches to non profit and philanthropic

7 studies: Ersta Skondall has specialized in social work and civil society studies, University of Bologna focus rather on humanistic studies (history, religion, philosophy) and, finally, the Trinity College concentrates on management and social entrepreneurship. It would be very beneficial for a student to be able to choose the location of their training both for cultural and professional reasons. Everyone agreed that these ideas are the way forward. - JG urged everyone to focus even more on the student needs: each university knows the quality of the courses they offer but who is the potential student that we want to attract? - RA offered the US perspective: even though there is not really an average student, he knows at least one type of student, of about 25 years of age, often with previous work experience, who is interested to spend a semester abroad while increasing his educational level. - DB confirmed that to his knowledge, a semester is the maximum period to attract students that also want to finalize their MA while balancing their social and family life needs. - GG added that internship is in fact a way of attracting this type of students, as a way to provide a concrete professional orientation and opportunity. In fact the 2008 call foresee the recognition of ECTS through internships, provided that the sending institution recognizes this as a part of the curriculum. - DB and RA confirmed that the maximum US graduate credit that one student can currently take as internship are 9, equivalent to about 20 ECTS GG introduced a crucial point: in some cases, students are attracted by full graduate degrees in view of a PhD program. Currently MISP offer 70 ECTS (two semesters plus internship), while a standard MA consists of 120 ECTS. It is vital that the MISP finds a way to extend the current offer, at least for a small number of students, to reach the level of full Master of Arts or Laurea magistralis (the Italian equivalent). In Italy for example, this is a requirement for the admission to doctoral programs. GG admitted that a number of students of the past MISP editions had in fact misunderstood the actual value of the master program, which is in fact a professional title with academic credits, but in some cases not enough to apply for specific post-graduate programs. GG affirmed the need to extend the credits to the status of international MA also in terms of strategic development of the non profit and philanthropy academic field. - JG and LEO affirmed the need to develop an international curriculum for Ersta Skondall as well, as it is very feasible at the moment. - DB and RA stated that their respective institutions recognize a semester spent in a foreign university, in the framework of a graduate degree. The period of one year or two semester would be more difficult to integrate in the current program, at this stage. - JG suggested to summarize the different positions from the point of view of a potential students, originating 3 different types : 1. The NGO practitioner who is interested in one (or two) semester of specific courses in the areas more relevant to his/her own curriculum. 2. The Undergraduate student, who after earning a BA, looks forward to a more specialized training with a strong interest in internships and practical experience. 3. The Scholar, who is looking for an international MA (also with thesis) to open more career opportunities within the academia. The first two types can be easily integrated in the excellence in mobility program, thanks to the greater flexibility allowed. The third type would be attracted by a joint degree recognized both in US and EU, both professionally and in sight of a PhD. - DB said that even though many students complete a two years MA with thesis before applying for a PhD, the requirements actually allow a minimum number of graduate credits, but not necessarily a full MA. In fact, former MISP student, Peter Weber, has just been admitted to the IUPUI PhD program in Philanthropy after having spent a semester as a graduate exchange student in LEO confirmed that a one year master is equally valid to apply for a PhD in the Nordics. 7

8 - GG argued that in other EU countries an MA equivalent is required or at least very much recommended, while in Italy is in fact a pre-requisite to have a laurea magistralis, after the recent Bologna 3+2 process, who introduced a sort of two years long specialized degrees equivalent to an MA or MS in order to pursue an academic career or even to obtain certain legal professional requirements. That s why Italian students that initially liked the idea of 1 year professional degrees, are now turning their attention to the laurea magistralis, which is a title more recognized and prestigious, also for accessing public administration positions Everyone agreed that the first two type of students would be attracted by a more flexible curriculum abroad, with a shorter timeframe. The Atlantis Excellence in Mobility plan appears to be very feasible, very attractive and easily manageable by the existing consortium. The type 3 student would instead require an additional effort from the partners. He/she should attend two semester in its home institution, gaining about 60 ECTS, then spend: A. two additional semesters abroad (one in US and one in another EU institution) to gain another 60 ECTS, or B. one semester abroad (30 ECTS) and the additional 30 ECTS gained through internship, thesis or additional courses in his/her home institution (or combination of them), or C. two additional semesters on the other side of the Atlantic - The A option would require a separate agreement between the EU partners to have a mutual recognition of an international MA/MS, which the partners (Bologna and Stockholm) consider feasible. In terms of costs for mobility, it would require additional funding (external to Atlantis) to allow EU citizens to spend a semester in the other country s institution. - The B option would require the Atlantis funding but especially the possibility of having the 120 ECTS gained through the master program recognized by the University of Bologna as laurea magistralis. GG and PP are working to consolidate the position of the MISP within the Italian higher education landscape. GG added that it is also important as a way of legitimizing the academic research field in philanthropy and related disciplines, as well as looking forward the desired extension of the curriculum to both undergraduate and postgraduate levels., particularly concerning the possible application to The Erasmus Mundus doctoral program. GG ask the partners ESH and IUPUI to analyze the possibility to establish a joint degree for a limited number of students (2 - Sweden and 2 - US) as a basic framework to consolidate the partnership and create the appropriate framework for a complete educational program. Both paths:- the application to Atlantis mobility excellence and the strengthening of the partnership through a joint degree for a limited number of students, who will take the MA, are considered feasible, through a separate agreement between MISP and ESH and MISP and IUPUI - Concerning the option C that is the application to the transatlantic degree which was considered not feasible, according to the present guidelines of the program, the last word will be the publication of the new guidelines, which is expected by the end of the year. 8

9 5. Excellence in the future of the partnership ( ) SM expressed her satisfaction in participating to the meeting on behalf of the Trinity College, and anticipated different ways in which her institution could be involved in the partnership. She will be discussing the contents of the meeting with her colleagues in Dublin and then come back with a proposal to include her institution within the partnership at some stage. - SM described Trinity s excellence in different disciplines; even though it is not clear which courses could be included in the curriculum, she mentioned leadership, social entrepreneurship, human and financial resources management as possible area of specialization JG framework for the international curriculum is inspired by two existing and successful models, that have seen the participation of ESH: - the first is the Network of Humanitarian system among 9 European universities, for a total of 200 students involved [ ] - the second is based on the Micro-Finance Institute that in Africa has built very specific programs to train professionals [ 5.3 -For the sake of the final report, as well as for the next Atlantis step, it has been agreed that each EU partner (the US partner will do the same for the 2009 Atlantis call) will produce a brief self-assessment of their point of excellence, including the following principles: - establish which area and topics represent excellence at their institution, while leaving the door open for student to explore other possible path of study within the same university - a detailed list (name, address, website, referee or contact person) of the main non profit, business or governmental institutions that have a stable relation with the university in the provision of internship and job placement - explain which programs are available (why the university is attractive) in terms of cultural diversity, special schemes for minorities and disabled people The BENPHE final report should include also the following topics, mentioned during the discussion - The possibility to extend the partnership to an international PhD program, following the agreement of co-tutoring signed by IUPUI and Bologna, which will see the first candidate, Peter Weber, conduct part of his training and research in different Universities. - Research collaboration like the Giving in Europe project conducted by the Free University of Amsterdam, that should include the Nordics and Italy. GG thanked everyone for the efforts and positive attitude that animated the partnership in these two years as well as the Bologna meeting. Bologna, September 23, 2008 Andrea Martelli 9