International Master of Science in Rural Development

The International Master of Science in Rural Development (IMRD) is a 2-year master's program headed by the Ghent University. It is part of the Erasmus Mundus programs under the framework of the European Education system. IMRD organized by 16 worldwide European institutes in Agricultural Economics and Rural Development in collaboration with several partners from Belgium, Italy, Slovakia, Germany, France, the United States, China, India, South Africa, South Korea, Vietnam, and Ecuador. The program is headed by the Ghent University in Belgium, with partner universities including Humboldt University of Berlin (Germany), Universidad de Córdoba (Spain), Agrocampus Ouest (France), University of Pisa (Italy), Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra (Slovakia), and Can Tho University (Vietnam).

IMRD teaches about European rural development and rural economics in their diversity of approaches and applications and to make comparative analyses of EU and non-EU agricultural and rural development strategies and agricultural policies. It is supported by the Erasmus Mundus and EU-Atlantis Eka free programs of the European Union, and the Flemish Interuniversity Council for University Development Cooperation (VLIR-UOS) under the International Courses Programmed (ICP). The objective is to train students in Integrated Rural Development with a focus on socioeconomic and institutional aspects.

IMRD is a two-year (24 months) MSc. course program divided into 5 obligatory modules through which the students are required to obtain at least 120 ECTS upon graduation, of which the obligatory master dissertation (thesis) stands for 30 ECTS. With regard to the thesis, students are encouraged to collect data in their home country, or in one of the non-European IMRD-VLIR partner universities and countries.

Students can conduct an internship during their study for which they can obtain either 6 or 12 ECTS (depending on the content and finality of the internship). For each study track, fixed internship possibilities are provided by Belgian ODA-supported NGOs and in the non-European IMRD-VLIR partner universities and countries.

The International MSc in Rural Development methodology consists of training in technical, economic, and social sciences, divided over three study periods, a case study of one month in the European summer period, and an individual master’s dissertation research project in the fourth study period. Non-European students study mainly in the European Union, and European students study within and outside the EU.

All tracks are also open to self-sponsoring students or students with other scholarships. For all tracks specific scholarships are awarded each year by the IMRD consortium.