Training teachers of the master’s degree in environmental change in the Mediterranean in the Maghreb

Within the framework of the MEHMED PROJECT (Mediterranean Environmental Change Master Study and Ecosystem Building), the Department of Geography of the UdG, in collaboration with Sorbone Universite and Sassari University, is carrying out, from 4 to 6 November, an intensive online training seminar on various teaching methodologies for the professors of the eight universities of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, who will soon implement the master’s degree on environmental change in the Mediterranean taking as a reference and starting point the master’s degree in environmental change the UdG (MEHMED Master).

Thus, about 120 teachers from 6 countries participate over the last three days in the more than 16 online sessions offer by UdG professionals to deepen the teaching methodologies applicable to teaching training and innovation to improve the learning of environmental change, interaction with the environment and sustainable development in the Mediterranean basin (MEHMED Master).

The MEHMED project, led by the UdG, was born in 2019 as part of the Erasmus + Capacity Building project with the aim of a group of universities in the Western Mediterranean to form an alliance to prepare students in the management of environmental change, the biggest environmental and social challenge the planet has to face. The new environmental reality has direct consequences in terms of incidents, affecting social, economic, political, environmental stability and also putting the natural and cultural heritage of the Mediterranean basin at risk. The project was born as a form of reaction to this situation, taking advantage of the experience of the UdG and forming a new generation of techniques and managers that facilitate the adaptation of the new reality and the minimization of the impacts of human activity to prevent a future worsening.

Funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union, the project lasts three years. At present it is at a key moment, in the middle of its execution period, having achieved great progress on the planned objectives. Thus, five master’s degrees have been formally accredited at several of the participating universities: three at universities in Morocco: Université Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah, University of Abdelmalek Essaadi and Université Mohammed Premier; and two in Tunisia: Univeristy of Sousse and University of Monastir. In a short time, it is expected to get the accreditation of the three remaining master’s degrees in Algerian universities and this November begins to be taught first in Moroccan universities with a high demand by parts of the students.