6 ECTS credits
150 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 6021217FNW for working students in the 1st semester at a (F) Master - specialised level.

Semester
1st semester
Enrollment based on exam contract
Impossible
Grading method
Grading (scale from 0 to 20)
Can retake in second session
Yes
Taught in
English
Faculty
Faculty of Social Sciences & SolvayBusinessSchool
Department
Institute for European Studies
Educational team
Harri Kalimo (course titular)
Activities and contact hours

26 contact hours Lecture
Course Content

The course deals with the key aspects of EU environmental policy, environmental law and environmental economics as they relate to the European economy at macro and micro-levels. Against this backdrop, the students acquire a thorough knowledge of the most important features of EU environmental policy (objectives, principles, institutional and legal frameworks), its instruments and the main theories that underlie it. This cross-cutting, theory-based exposé of European environmental policy is framed against the EU’s objectives to promote a resource efficient, low- carbon or decarbonised economy at micro- and macro-level.

In the course, we explore the core substantive areas of this vast field, focusing on the most topical and societally fundamental sectors such as the circular economy, trade-and-environment, the marine economy, industrial policy, innovation policy and finance. The course makes extensive use of practical case studies, where the theoretical and sectoral perspectives are given a real-life contextualisation by invited experts from industry, policy fields and civil society.

Additional info

Overall, this course is designed to offer a multi-disciplinary vision on the subject area in a Socratic (“interrogative”) teaching mode that includes a role play and innovative blended learning methods (e.g. “flipped classroom” mode that involves e.g. posting relevant preparatory material (text, video, audio) on an online platform in advance). It draws together and builds upon the previous EuroMaster courses, and makes use of EU experts working in Brussels, invited as guest lecturers in selected lectures of the course. The students are expected to prepare for and to actively participate in the discussion. The course evaluation is partly (20 % ) based on the student’s activeness in the classroom.

A detailed list of the course materials, which include the slides on the lectures as well as selected reading, is listed below per lecture. In whole the reading material is around 300 pages. Lecture slides, which greatly overlap with the reading material, are roughly 200 pages in length. The entirety of the course material (including readings, (narrated) presentations, videos, etc) and the related interaction (assignments) are delivered on an online platform.

Reflective questions on the most important themes are discussed via the learning environment. Examples of exam questions are discussed in the class and with the help of the online learning environment.

Learning Outcomes

General Competences

The course equips students with knowledge, skills and an enquiring attitude to understand and address matters of European environmental policy, law and economics during their subsequent professional careers.

  • All in all, the knowledge, skills and critically enquiring attitudes develop the students as interlocutors in a sustainable European economy.
  • The students acquire a good interdisciplinary knowledge of the main theories, concepts and debates of the areas.
  • The course enables students to better understand and address during their subsequent professional careers matters of European environmental policy, law and economics, as they are intertwined with the (European) economy.
  • The students will be able to independently and critically address issues of environmental policy for both academic and practical purposes.
  • They will be able to understand and analyze the larger econo-political context of European environmental protection in terms of its historical background, current situation and future perspectives. The students will also understand the complicated, interlinked multi-level frameworks of the environmental and economic actors, institutions, instruments and decision-making processes within the European integration process.
  • The learning outcomes also cover basic and in-depth knowledge required to make a company’s (or other stakeholder’s) micro-level activities greener.

The course also provides the students with the basic skills to deal with concrete questions relating on the interrelationship between the economy and the environment in real life policy-making and private sector contexts. Finally, students will be able to better engage in the English language in basic tasks relating to EU environmental policy, such as drafting memoranda, policy analyses and position papers, and advising non- environmental decision makers. The students will also learn to better engage in the English language in basic tasks relating to EU environmental policy, such as drafting and communicating memoranda, policy analyses and position papers, and advising non-economic decision makers. 

The students obtain an appreciation of the functioning of a sustainable environmental policy as an indispensable complement to the economic core of the entire integration project. 

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 80% of the final mark.
Other Exam determines 20% of the final mark.

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

  • Written Exam with a relative weight of 40 which comprises 40% of the final mark.

    Note: Open-ended questions
  • Written Exam _ Case Study with a relative weight of 40 which comprises 40% of the final mark.

Within the Other Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

  • Participation with a relative weight of 20 which comprises 20% of the final mark.

Additional info regarding evaluation

The students will be evaluated on the basis of their participation in class and in the blended-learning written online assignments offered as flipped class-room (20 %; formative evaluations), and a final written exam (summative evaluation).

The questions of the written exam will be:

  • 4-6 short open-ended questions (closed book, 40 %). Together, the questions will cover a representative (each year varying) range of the issue areas across the course.
  • a case study essay on a practical topical issue of (open book, 40 %). The case study deals with a theme, on which a number of issue areas of the course intersect.

All parts are based on the lectures and/or the assigned reading material. The short questions test the student’s knowledge and insight in understanding, remembering and explaining key issues of the course. The case study exam tests the student’s ability to apply his/her skills in a practical, real-life simulating situation in a coherent and persuasive manner.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark
The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context

This offer is part of the following study plans:
Master of European Integration: Track 3: European Economy - European Environmental Governance
Master of European Integration: Track 4: Migration and Europe - European Environmental Governance
Master of European Integration: Track 6: European Environmental Governance - European External Relations and Security Policy