The Humanitarian Action Qualifications Framework:
a quality assurance tool for the Humanitarian Sector

Bastiaan L. Aardema and Cristina Churruca Muguruza

About Authors

 

   Bastiaan Aardema (b.l.aardema@rug.nl), MA, MSc, works as academic staff member for the Joint Master programme in International Humanitarian Action at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Since 2004 he has been intensively involved with curriculum development, quality enhancement and TUNING within the framework of NOHA (Network on Humanitarian Action) and its European universities. In the EU funded project ‘European Universities on Professionalisation on Humanitarian Action (EUPRHA)’, he is co-leading with the University of Deusto (Spain) the work package that focuses on the development of a European Qualifications Framework for the humanitarian sector. Its intent is to provide a bridge between the already established humanitarian frameworks in the professional sector and the specific demands of the educational sector in terms of lifelong learning.

 

   Cristina Churruca Muguruza (cristina.churruca@deusto.es), PhD in International Relations, is lecturer and researcher at the Human Rights Institute of the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences at the University of Deusto (Spain) where she teaches international relations and humanitarian action and peace building. She is Director of the Joint Master’s Erasmus Mundus in International Humanitarian Action at this university, and Coordinator of the NOHA Master’s Consortium of Universities on Humanitarian Assistance and of the EUPRHA (European Universities on Professionalization on Humanitarian Action) Network. Her current areas of research are human security, protection and peace building. She combines her teaching and research work with the promotion of joint curriculum development and quality assurance in humanitarian action and participation in joint recognition and accreditation initiatives supported by the European Commission, national accreditation agencies and the European Consortium for Accreditation.