Training goals of the study: competences profile

Characteristics and objectives of the degree

The MSA programme is designed to provide students with an interdisciplinary education emphasizing experiential learning opportunities. It builds on a solid foundation of agricultural science, while providing courses and professional development opportunities in the biological, social, and economic elements of sustainability.
Indeed Sustainable Agriculture has several meanings and can be described in many ways:

• satisfying the food and income requirements of farmers
• providing people with a healthy and affordable diet
• protecting environmental quality and human health
• contributing to the vitality of rural and urban communities

Thus, on the successful completion of the Programme, the graduates will acquire:

• Ability to frame problems and ask critical questions concerning agricultural sustainability
• Knowledge of biophysical as well as socioeconomic aspects of agricultural sustainability
• Expertise in sustainable agriculture that transcends disciplinary boundaries
• Appreciation of the intellectual history of efforts to improve agricultural sustainability
• Ability to work interdependently and collaboratively
• Capacity to address complex agricultural problems by using systems thinking and other approaches
• Ability to critique different problem-solving methods and approaches, and recognize and display visionary leadership with moral and ethical integrity

Target groups /audience

1. Graduated students holding bachelor degree in related fields of study
2. Company staff  who are interested in master
3. NGOs staff
4. Public staff

Output profile of the graduates

MSA graduates to become a sustainable agricultural technologist with sustainable agriculture knowledge and experience, analytical and research skills. They will work for government and non-governmental organization, agriculture own business, or consultant.

Competences explanation

• Transversal competences (general)

• Ability to analyse and synthesize
• Ability to organize and plan
• Oral and written communication
• Knowledge of foreign languages
• Knowledge of computer science on the field of study
• Ability to manage information
• Troubleshooting
• Decision Making
• Ability to work in team
• Ability to work in an interdisciplinary team
• Working in an international context
• Skills in interpersonal relationships
• Recognition of diversity and multiculturalism
• Critical reasoning
• Ethical compromise
• Self-learning
• Adapting to new situations
• Creativity
• Leadership
• Knowledge of other cultures and customs
• Initiative and entrepreneurial spirit
• Motivation for quality
• Sensitivity to environmental issues
• Ability to apply theoretical knowledge in practice
• Use of the Internet as a mean of communication and as a source of information
• Ability to communicate with people who are experts on the subject
• Ability to understand the language and proposals of other specialists
• Professional ambition
• Ability of self-assessment
• Negotiation capacity
• Ability to contextualize the problem to be solved
• Have sufficient resources, skills and initiative to attack the problem to solve.
• The ability to produce a paper at a conference (poster or oral presentation)
• Being able to do a literature search on a particular topic using data bases on the Internet (e.g. ISI Web of Knowledge among others)
• Know the most important steps for writing an article

• Specific competences

• Ability to multidisciplinary consideration of an agricultural problem
• Awareness of the temporal and spatial dimensions of the agricultural processes
• Ability to integrate the experimental evidence in studies of field and / or laboratory with theoretical knowledge.
• Ability to interpret qualitative data
• Ability to interpret quantitative data
• Planning, management and conservation of natural resources
• Use of Geographical information systems (GIS)
• Use of statistical programs
• Preparation and project management
• Management of the environment
• Planning and Integrated land management
• Restoration of the natural environment
• Management, supply and treatment of water resources
• Design and implementation of rural development plans
• Advanced Environmental Physics, some of which should serve as a support for other subjects
• Strengthening of scientific methodology
• Knowledge of the most important world scientific research centres of agriculture and environment related topics
• Ability to write a scientific article
• Ability to understand and summarize a scientific article
• Get scientific methodologies
• Knowledge of scientific instrumentation