The heart of this project is the development of an interdisciplinary MSc. programme in CCSAFS worth of 120 ECTS (90 ECTS course work & 30 ECTS thesis), in Suez Canal University, Egypt and Jerash University, Jordan comparable and compatible with EU equivalent programmes (Objective 3).  As pointed earlier, these two universities have strong undergraduate faculties of agricultures, they are in the periphery and need more attention for development. The other EU & PC universities together with SDF & RCE Crete will provide assistance to that. We will also involve our associated partner, the Jordanian Higher Education Accreditation Commission in the process of development. The 2nd National training Workshop (NTW) at each PC, followed up by the 1st Regional Training Workshop (RTW). The focus of the 2nd NTW at the development phase will focus on the TUNING methodology and a participatory or negotiated methodological approach to curriculum development. This implies that there should not be prescribed before. We will also discuss the inventory of CCSAFS competences revealed through the stakeholders’ survey. The 1st RTW will focus on discussing the curriculum outcomes. The Blended Learning System and the Laboratories as well as the Centers of Exchellence in CCSAFS will be established.

This MSc CCSAFS will be, also, partly developed to diversify the portfolio of courses to be developed, in a way that would be attractive to all partner universities, the EU partners, so as to make possible to take and transfer courses. Particular emphasis will be given to agro-food entrepreneurship and transversal skills, that were found to be missed in the field of CCSAFS.

Course materials will be drawn from a range of disciplines besides agricultural sciences and food sciences, including ecological science, geography, social science, environmental law, and economics. Some subjects, such as economics and social science, will be addressed in a cross-cutting way through their inclusion in multiple units, rather than through creation of subject-specific units. The programme will also integrate a gender perspective because of women’s central role in family, household, and rural activities. The course curriculum will also be structured flexibly to allow students to study either full- or part-time, enabling learning to be combined with other activities such as employment. There will also be a focus on integrating transversal skills (10Cs) and a focus on strengthening agricultural entrepreneurship and employability by giving the option to students of undertaking an extended professional placement and submitting a portfolio of work-based activities, in lieu of the more traditional research dissertation.