Master’s: Regional Development, Product Origin and Quality (DTOQP)
Université Bordeaux Montaigne is offering a Master’s programme in Regional Management and Local Development (GTDL) in partnership with Bordeaux National School of Agricultural Engineering (Bordeaux Sciences Agro). There is a choice of three vocationally oriented subject pathways.
- A subject pathway in ‘Regional Development, Product Origin and Quality (DTOQP)’.
- A subject pathway in ‘Human Ecology (EH)’.
- A subject pathway in ‘Coordination and Organisation of Regional Projects (IAT)’.
Although the different pathways vary in terms of their key themes, they share a common aim to train professionals in the field of regional management and local development. Students come into contact with real-life professional situations via tutor-led projects supported by partners of the programme (including several external participants). They also gain concrete experience of the professional context via multiple internships (of several months) throughout the two-year programme of study. As a result, students quickly become aware of and sensitive to the dynamics of local networks.
All three pathways are aligned with the current quest for economic, social and environmental sustainability at the local level. They share a multi-level approach, analysing the involvement of stakeholders and applying systemic reasoning. The three pathways are firmly established in the field of social sciences.
A programme of study in response to emerging needs.
The ‘Regional Development, Product Origin and Quality’ pathway stems from a request from stakeholders in the Aquitaine region to respond to the need for the development and management of quality-certified production. This demand is itself in response to requests coming from the European and global levels. The implementation of quality certifications has emerged in the agricultural sector as an alternative to the perils associated with globalisation. This same logic – that the value of outputs can be boosted by the attribution of quality labels – has now also spread to the arts and crafts industry.
Regional accountability for quality is indeed perceived as the possible key to developing and maintaining rural populations. It is within the context of concerns about sustainable development, and fair north/north and north/south relations, that this programme of study has been developed in order to respond to societal and professional expectations.
The objectives of the ‘Regional Development, Product Origin and Quality’ pathway are to train project managers and project leaders who are capable of deciphering and then maximising production dynamics in a given region, which is considered within its economic, social and environmental contexts, whether these dynamics be relative to agriculture, arts and crafts or of a more abstract nature.
This programme of study calls on a number of participants from the professional sphere, mostly stakeholders in rural regional areas. The field of action has an international scope, tackling issues of quality production in European countries (wine, livestock products, intangible cultural heritage). But the programme also addresses tropical spheres (quality agricultural production chains: coffee, cocoa, vanilla, Argan oil) via many internships in connection with foreign universities and various networks of professional partnerships. The ‘Regional Development, Product Origin and Quality’ pathway has increased the number of course units merged with partner institutions, including Bordeaux National School of Agricultural Engineering and University of Bordeaux Institute of Wine and Vine Sciences (ISVV). The programme of study thus encompasses the multiple sensitivities and perspectives that the sciences can contribute. Moreover, Bordeaux National School of Agricultural Engineering jointly awards the overarching Master’s programme in Regional Management and Local Development. Thanks to some 90 hours of merged course units, students can add further value to their degree with an engineering speciality by way of a sub-degree. This agreement demonstrates a desire to establish this programme of study firmly within a context of multi-disciplinary openness, so as to increase the national and international recognition of the degree and thereby strengthen the success rate of our young graduates as they enter employment.