A tailor-made programme
Students can adapt their mobility choices to their research topics and the courses offered by the partner universities. Sites of study are chosen with the help of the programme’s teaching staff.
This Master’s programme features two majors depending on the main language of instruction. These formats will determine the universities the students will be sent to:
1The French track:
The programme "Identités, intégration, conflits", whose main language of instruction is French, begins at the University of Lille (Semester 1). Semester 2 is spent at Babeș-Bolyai University. In year 2, students select the partner university where they wish to spend semester 3. During semester 4 students return to the countries they spent semesters 1 or 2.
2The English track:
The programme "Migrations, Interculturality, Borderlands", whose main language of instruction is English, begins at the Free University of Brussels (Semester 1). Semester 2 is spent at the University of Wroclaw. In year 2, students select the partner university where they wish to spend semester 3. During semester 4 students return to the countries they spent semesters 1 or 2.
During semester 3, students are expected to follow courses at their mobility university and conduct their field study for their Master’s thesis.
The University of Lille supervises each student all along the programme, to ensure their mobility project remains coherent.
* For more information :: please visit the following page on the university curriculum.
A mandatory internship
The students must complete a 4-week full-time placement (35 hours a week or equivalent if over a longer time period) with an institution or voluntary organisation of their choosing. This placement needs to be approved by the relevant programme director. It has to be done either between semester 2 and semester 3, or during semester 3, or between semester 3 and semester 4, depending on the student’s mobility programme and the location of the host institution.
The placement cannot be done at the expense of the programme and doesn’t exempt students from attending classes. it is to be contracted by both the University of Lille and the host institution. Students are expected to produce a placement report on completion. A defence is organised during semester 4, at least two months prior to the Master’s thesis defence.
Students have access to a contact database which includes feedback from previous students and staff on the institutions and organisations with which placements can be arranged.
Placement examples:
- International Organisation for Migration in Senegal
- Nasc in Ireland
- EPDSAE
Guidelines for the Master’s thesis
The Master’s research thesis will be 80 to 100 pages long, appendixes and bibliography excluded. This thesis is to be the result of students two-year training in theoretical, bibliographical, and empirical research. Research directions may vary depending on the students’ line of inquiry and topic. Yet, the thesis must include either a case study or a field study.
The thesis can be written in either French or English with both supervisors’ approval. The thesis is to be supervised by two professors from the partner universities. The first supervisor generally is a member of one of the universities where the student spent either semester 1 or semester 2, and the second supervisor is the professor who helped the student conduct their field research in semester 3. The defence committee is composed of both supervisors along with an external examiner, who can either be a third professor or a practitioner from an institutional or voluntary organisation in relation with the student’s research.
The Master’s defence is to be scheduled between end of June and mid-July in year 2. The students studying in Cluj must defend their theses by the UBB defence deadline commonly set late June. Defences are due mi-July at Wroclaw university, late June or early July at the University of Lille. Defences can be organised in September only on very exceptional grounds. If the Master’s thesis has not been defended by the deadline set by the committee, the student will have to repeat the year.
Several degrees awarded
On completion, students will be awarded two or three degrees depending on the major chosen.
Once students have validated the four semesters (120 ECTS), they will be awarded two or three degrees from the universities they studied at, depending on their major:
- University of Lille: MA in Social Sciences and Humanities: course on Intercultural Mediation (Identity, Mobility, and conflicts).
- Free University of Brussels (FUB): MA in sociology.
- Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca (UBB): MA in Compared European Political Science (Studii Politice Europene Comparate).
- University of Worclaw (UW): Master’s in Sociology and Specialised Intercultural Mediation.
- University of Szeged (SZTE): MA in European Studies.
- University College Cork (UCC): MA Languages and cultures
- University of Grenada (UGR): MA in Social Development and Intervention in Social Education.
Cheikh Anta Diop University (Senegal) and The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) are also associate partners. They both fully contribute to MITRA and welcome students in semester 3 without offering diploma qualifications though.
The University of the Aegean is an associate partner and organises a summer school, which qualifies students to European Credits (5 ECTS).