Opportunities across boundaries: lessons from a collaboratively delivered cross-institution Master's programme

Abstract

Advances in technology have created opportunities for collaborative multi-institution programme delivery which are increasingly attractive within a constrained financial environment. This paper details the development of a cross-institution collaboratively delivered masters and postgraduate diploma programme in Geographical Information Science in New Zealand. We explore the benefits of such an approach as well as the lessons learnt from its implementation. The recommendations presented will be of interest to teaching faculty considering specialized collaborative programmes as well as more senior staff who are keen to combine institutional resources to meet new and emerging demands for skills.

Keywords:

• cross-institution
• collaboration
• joint programmes
• GIS
• blended learning

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for support we have received from our home institutions: the University of Canterbury and Victoria University of Wellington. In particular, we would like to thank Wendy Lawson, Kathryn Salm, Shona de Sain, Michael Hannah, Stephen Marshall, Isobel Philips, Nathan Gardiner and the GIS technicians and support staff from both institutions. We would also like to acknowledge Barbara Breen of AUT who has recently lead AUT's involvement in the MGIS. We are grateful for support received from the University of Otago (Tony Moore, Peter Wigham, Brent Hall) and the University of Auckland participants (David O'Sullivan, Pip Forer, Mark Gahegan, Jay Gao, Tawan Banchuen). This programme was developed with support grants from the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), Learning and Teaching Grant Victoria University of Wellington and a University of Canterbury Teaching and Learning grant.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

^1. Subsequent to the establishment of the MGIS programme, the New Zealand shortage was formally recognized by Immigration New Zealand and added to the Long Term Skills Shortage List.

^2. Accreditation implications were not considered as few GIS professionals in New Zealand are certified by industry organizations.