The TEMA Erasmus Mundus Master Course (120 ECTS) takes two years (four semesters). The curriculum includes an M1 and an M2 degree course, the medium is English and French. Its development was financed by the Socrates Erasmus Curriculum Development Grant.

The course structure guarantees two common objectives: a certain homogeneity in training and the appreciation of the specificities of each partner university. Accordingly, the TEMA curriculum has been divided into two parts: a common study core of foundational and methodological courses on one hand, and a unit of specialised and research courses on the other. The curriculum also includes two intensive weeks (at the beginning of each academic year), focusing on a specific subject of the TEMA programme. These intensive courses take place at a different partner university each year and they are excellent occasions for developing a team-spirit between TEMA students and teachers as well as for networking.  

TEMA students receive a multidisciplinary approach within the international context of social sciences, in which History, Geography, Sociology, Anthropology, Urbanism and Area Planning are concerned. A special emphasis is put on methodological questions, but the principal thematic goal is to study scientific analyses of space and territorial problematics.

The educational approach of this European course is based on a core syllabus, which focuses upon the methodology of social sciences and which expressed by the common approach to important and classical texts of each disciplines concerned. At each partner university, the seminar is held according to the same principles: the core texts refer to the four main issues of the MA programme, i.e. civilization, nation, region and city. These four objects represent four scales and four possible approaches and different viewpoints to the historical, political, social and cultural problems of space and territory.

Accordingly, the four readers (Civilisation, Nation, Region and City) put together by the teachers and researchers of the partner universities, mean the heart of the TEMA EMMC. Seminars based on TEMA are offered in the same order by each partner university.

The methodological and the common TEMA seminars are followed by thematic and research seminars, which represent the specificities of each partner university. These seminars allow the appreciation of the complementarity and the specificity of the partner universities, and they contribute to the diversification and to the specialization of the of the common training on the individual level.

Students are gradually prepared to be able to write their MA thesis from the introductory course. They receive a systematic introduction to research methodology, including research and academic writing skills in the methodological seminars. They are also expected to discuss their research projects among the teachers and fellow students in these methodological seminars. Each student is supervised by two tutors (one from each partner university, in which the student chooses to be enrolled), who assure a personal guidance.  

Students are required to study at least at two partner universities, with a mandatory mobility in Semester 3 and an optional one in Semester(s) 2 and/or 4. Those students who received their degree entitling them to enrol in the TEMA EMMC in the same country in which they enrol in the first semester, must study in Semester 2 or 4, in a different country than in Semester 3. Students choose the hosting and the mobility institutions on the application form. The final decision on the students' mobility track is taken by the TEMA Academic Board in accordance with the students' scientific interests and needs. This mobility is a significant contribution to the strengthening of intercultural dialogue and to the cooperation between European citizens. It is the best way to fight against racism and xenophobia as well as to promote common European values.

Detailed curriculum