The EMMA project aims to address the challenge of the fast ageing of Europe, by developing an interdisciplinary, compatible and future oriented European Master on Active Ageing and Age Friendly Society. The Master programme enables our future professionals to develop knowledge and tools to systematically build inclusive societies for the whole continent’s benefit. The population across Europe is rapidly aging. Active ageing aims to find new ways to engage older people in society even after retirement and thus enable them to continue to lead a meaningful life and even support economic sustainability. The active ageing concept encompasses also the concept of healthy ageing. Foster & Walker (2015) consider active ageing to be a more comprehensive concept, which takes into consideration the person’s entire course of life with all its dimensions. An age-friendly society in its turn means creating environments that are truly age-friendly. This requires action in many sectors: health, long-term care, transport, housing, labour, social protection, information and communication, and by many actors – government, service providers, civil society, older people and their representative organisations, families and friends. It also requires action at multiple levels of government. An age-friendly society demonstrates an appreciative attitude towards ageing and seeks ways of working to enable active ageing. It requires strategies, policies and ways of thinking and acting in the whole community for age-friendly structures and concrete age-friendly actions (Handler 2014). Older people need to be offered an opportunity to be active, integral and well-considered members of the society. Therefore, a systemic way to build inclusive practices, tools, approaches and policies is crucially needed, and the European Master on Active Ageing and Age Friendly Society educates future graduates to address this need. The EMMA project comprises a novel Master programme, with content, tools and validation developed through seven outputs: Need Analyses, Curriculum Frameworks, Core Modules, Elective Modules, E-learning and e-tools, Validation and Quality Assurance, and Accreditation. The outputs and the development of the deliverables is supported by the project management, sustainability, follow-up and dissemination actions. All the outputs have a lead and co-coordinator partner, who facilitate the achievement of the deliverables and team work. The outputs form a logic chain of development (base-content-tools-accreditation) where one element supports the other and every step brings the process into a new level. This entity of co-creation supports effective, high quality and timely implementation of the project. EMMA provides a channel to educate qualified professionals who are involved in tackling the phenomenon in a positive, ethical and resource-wise manner. The EMMA project results in 3-years’ time will be: • Learning needs identified and reported • Curriculum framework and tools created • Evaluation, quality assurance and impact assessment tools available • Strong multidisciplinary team of teachers with different expertise assembled • Staff training tools developed and shared • Master programme designed that is aligned to current European policy on ageing • Modules created and some teaching units piloted • European online master programme running in English, ready for accreditation in September 2023 • From 2024 on, offering of a 2-year long interdisciplinary online master’s programme together with partners. And in 10-years’ time, the results will be: • Master programme delivered through several cycles and iteratively adjusted as needed • Additional modules developed based on need analyses, results and impact • Master graduates leading policy development, reform and translation into practice • Master graduates performing formal postgraduate research (e.g. PhD) • The programme is successful and well known in Europe and beyond • The programme is established and embedded in the partner universities’ profiles and more widely • The programme is applied, further developed and offered outside Europe e.g. Brazil, Chile • A framework for continuing evaluation of the impact of the programme in society is set up • The partners have joint active research community working with knowledge, research and practice of active ageing. The main target groups are first, potential master students from diverse (undergraduate) degrees; second, professionals working in the field and needing up-skilling and re-skilling; third, teachers and researchers from different disciplines; and, fourth, professionals working within the topic of ageing in its widest sense. Indirectly, the Master in Active Ageing and Age Friendly Society will benefit a wide range of stakeholders among European societies.
The EMMA program will enable future professionals from varied relevant backgrounds and disciplines to develop interdisciplinary knowledge, skills, and tools to systematically build inclusive societies for the benefit of their own societies and the whole of Europe. The all-encompassing ethos of active ageing takes into consideration the person’s entire life course with all its dimensions. The concept of age friendly society is seen as a means to create environments and living conditions that are truly age-friendly, by developing opportunities for citizens of all ages to influence their own lives and enabling participation (Foster & Walker (2015). This requires actions in many sectors and actors with wide range of knowledge and skills. The EMMA program aims to educate these actors by providing a fully on-line, English language multi- and transdisciplinary learning experience in the context of active ageing and age friendly society. This program engages experts and teachers from the six partner universities, employs state of the art on-line learning and teaching approaches, and offers active and student-centred learning experiences to students across Europe.
(EMMA project refers to the Erasmus+Strategic Partnership project, EMMA program to the product, i.e the master program). The need to develop the EMMA program arose from the recognition of the rapid ageing across whole Europe. The recognized lack of practical tools and holistic knowledge and skills to address the challenges was the impetus for the project. The European Commission’s policy on Active and Healthy Ageing aims at helping people to stay in charge of their own lives for as long as possible and where possible. Addressing the challenges of the fast-ageing population is an integral part of the national policies in all the project partner countries. Older people can contribute to the economy and society, if society recognizes and facilitates this participation. Therefore, competent professionals are needed to work for this aim. A holistic exploration of the phenomenon of the ageing population and its future impacts in societies is crucial, and higher education must take an active role here. The EMMA program was developed to address these issues using transdisciplinary, transferable and integrated knowledge and skills mix in the development of the EMMA program and the curriculum for the transdisciplinary student cohorts.