UNU Intensive Core Courses

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  • STARTING DATE:
    2022•09•01
    APPLICATIONS DUE:
    2022•07•20

    Every year UNU-IAS organises the regular session of its four-week UNU Intensive Core (UNU-IC) Courses at UNU Centre in Tokyo, Japan. The courses are designed to provide analyses of global issues from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. Although advanced in nature, they are open to postgraduate students and professionals in various occupations who are not necessarily specialists in the field. The courses also draw on the research projects undertaken at UNU-IAS in Tokyo and at various other UNU institutes located around the world.

    The Autumn 2022 session of the UNU-IC Courses will be conducted online and will run from 1–29 September 2022.

    Applications

    The application deadline is 20 July 2022.
    ※ Applications may close before this date if the number of applicants reaches the capacity limit.

    For more information, please see the Applications tab.
    Your official application must be submitted through the online application form.
    Further instructions can be found on the Application Checklist.

    Faculty and Learning Environment

    The IC Courses are taught in a cooperative fashion by a team of scholars and practitioners comprising both in-house and outside experts. One of the unique features of the IC is that many of the practitioners come from United Nations organizations. Another important characteristic is the direct access to teaching faculty and the support provided to course participants by the UNU-IAS in-house academic staff who serve as academic counsellors. Because it shares a building with many UN agencies, UNU-IAS offers a unique learning environment.

    UNU Library

    The library functions to support the research programmes, teaching, and other activities of UNU-IAS. The collection contains over 27,000 books and a range of electronic resources including ebooks, ejournals, and UN related materials.  All students will receive a comprehensive library orientation session at the beginning of the course.

    Student Support and Accommodation

    UNU-IAS assists students throughout the courses, acknowledging that students may experience difficulties. Detailed information will be provided to successful applicants.

  • Target Applicants

    These courses are designed for:

    • students who are currently enrolled in a master’s or PhD programme in any discipline;
    • young professionals (with a college or university degree) in various occupations in Japan and abroad; and
    • those who wish to pursue careers in international fields in public service or private organizations, including the United Nations, multinational corporations and non-governmental organizations as well as national foreign service organizations.

    Tuition Fees

    JPY 200,000 per course

    English Language Requirements

    Excellent written and verbal English language skills are required. Applicants whose first language is not English and whose bachelor’s degree is not from an institution at which English is the language of instruction must submit proof of English language proficiency within the past two years. The minimum score requirements for TOEFL or IELTS are:

    • TOEFL scores (minimum: paper-based 600/Internet-based 100) or
    • IELTS (7.0) or
    • equivalent proof of English-language proficiency for non-native speakers.

    Exemptions

    The following applicants are exempt from submitting a score sheet:

      1. Applicants whose first language is English.
      2. Those who graduated from a university or a graduate school located in a country where English is the first language.
      3. Those who completed an undergraduate or graduate degree programme taught in English. In this case, please submit a certificate showing that the programme you attended was taught in English.
      4. Applicants who submit proof by any other means that have proficiency in English equivalent to that described in points (2) and (3) above.

  • Application

    The application deadline is 20 July 2022.

    How to Apply

    Your official application must be submitted through the online application form.
    Detailed instructions can be found here.

    Note: All of the application and related documents should be prepared in English.
    Please attach official/certified translations where necessary.

    Computer and Internet Connection

    Due to the current COVID-19 situation, UNU-IAS provides the courses remotely via Zoom video conference software. Please ensure the following before applying.

    Computer and internet connection:

    • You will need to have regular access to a computer with a reliable high-speed internet connection for the optimal learning experience on Zoom.
    • Basic equipment such as a speaker, microphone, and webcam will be necessary to maximise your learning from the courses.

    Time Zone:

    • As lectures will be delivered from Japan (local time: UTC+9), please be mindful of any issues with the time difference in your location.

  • The three IC Courses provide students with a solid grounding in the essential theories and multilateral approaches to issues of sustainability and development while emphasising interdisciplinary perspectives.

    Selection of Courses

    Students are allowed to choose two courses maximum. There will be fifteen 100-minute sessions per course — i.e., three to four sessions per week over the four-week course period. The courses will involve considerable reading and study but will be scheduled to allow students to have sufficient preparatory and review time for each session.

    Completion of Courses and Credit Transfer

    Students who successfully complete the course will be awarded a certificate of completion and a transcript from UNU-IAS. Each course is designed to be worth 2 credits and comprises over 30 hours of teaching time. While a number of universities have negotiated credit transfer agreements with UNU-IAS, ultimately the decision on whether credits are transferrable will be made by the student’s university.

    Course Details

    • UN System and Sustainable Development: This course presents the institutional background and policy tasks of the UN system, and provides an analytical framework to study complex issues ranging from reducing direct threats to peace, to strengthening sustainable development as an indispensable condition for peace. For further details, please click here.
    • Global Change and Planetary Boundaries: This course will cover the concepts related to global environmental changes, such as urbanization, climate change and social transformations; their implications on food, water and health; and various solutions including climate change adaptation and mitigation measures; and initiatives such as Future Earth and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. For further details, please click here.
    • Principles of International Development Project: This course has two sections: lectures and group work. In the lecture series, you can learn about the core issues of developing countries, project evaluation methods, relationships between engineering and international development, applications of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to preserve world heritage sites, natural disasters, and education in the context of international development, and the case of an international plant construction project.  The group work session aims to develop a proposal for an international development project. Suppose you are an expert consultant on a project, and it has been requested that you recommend development policies and projects to politicians and/or economic leaders in a developing country. For further details, please click here.

    Daily Schedule

    There are approximately fifteen 100-minute sessions per course — i.e., three sessions of courses each day (10:00–11:40, 12:30–14:10 and 14:30–16:10), though no single course will take the entire three sessions of one day.

    Mandatory Course Requirements

    For each course, students must complete the following requirements:

    • Mandatory reading of ca. 150 pages is required per course per week, i.e. a total of 900 pages of substantive mandatory reading per course in total. In addition, students are provided with lists of further recommended readings in the range of 150 pages per course per week/900 pages in total.
    • Regular class attendance and active participation in class discussions
    • Short written assignments
    • Group or individual presentation
    • Extended essay (of about 2,500 to 3,000 words) or any other assignments instructed by the course coordinator(s), to be submitted towards the end of the course
    • Course Evaluation form

  • IC Secretariat (icsec@unu.edu)

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