Italy: EU’s top non profit courses now benchmarked online

Mapping the best graduate non profit courses in Europe now has a name that reflects its mission: BENPHE, which stands for benchmarking non profit organisations and philanthropy educational programs. A name and mission, but also a web portal that selects and reviews graduate and post-graduate courses identifying those that are worth investing in for a future career. The face behind this web portal that, even if made in Italy, is very anglosaxon in style, is the director of Bologna University?s Masters in international studies in philanthropy, Giuliana Gemelli together with a prestigious network of international teaching institutions. These include the Oxford Brookes University in the UK and the Ersta Sköndal University College in Sweden and in the USA the Grand Valley State University and Arizona State University.

When and how did the idea behind the BENPHE project come into being?
In 2006, during a Conference on Nonprofit and Philanthropic Studies organised by the Arizona State University I presented a report on the state of Europe that was part of a wider study on international non profit and philanthropic studies. I had collected a significant amount of information about training courses in the NGO and philanthropy sectors, which is where it first occurred to me to analyse what was on offer with a critical eye. Two months later the European Commission launched a call for proposal for EU-USA academic cooperation and together with a long time partner of mine from a Masters course in philanthropy that I direct at the University of Indiana, we decided to submit our proposal.

What criteria do you use to choose and select the courses you include in the BENPHE listings?
First of all we define the main disciplinary and scientific areas covered by the course. Then, we compare the placement impact of the courses and carry out a qualitative analysis based on a questionnaire handed out to the course coordinators and directors. Our selection aims to highlight the international aspects of the faculties, the make-up of the student classes and the training strategies.

Who evaluates the courses?
We called on external partners to take on the role of evaluators: in Europe we chose Almalaurea, a permanent monitoring centre that focuses on graduate employment, and in the USA we called on Roseanne Mirabella, who is the most well known expert in the field of third sector training courses. As well as the evaluators, we also called in two of the most highliy recognised institutions as far as the European third sector is concerned in quality of advisors: the European Foundation Centre and The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation.

What emerged from this first ?skimming??
That there is a great deal of academic ?volatility?; that is to say that there are many courses that train for a specific employment but that are not linked to Universities nor do they have any scientific or academic track record.

What did your partnership with prestigious teaching institutions like Ersta Sköndal University College in Sweden contribute to BENPHE?
The collaboration with our American colleagues and the Swedish University was highly rewarding, while the partnership with the Oxford Brookes University was slightly less so. We found that our English partners were less inclined to measure the impact of their academic work, perhaps because there is a high level of professionalism within philanthropic organisations in the UK that already answer the research and training needs of the professional market.

Can Universities sign themselves on to the BENPHE?s data base?
Yes, we have an interactive system that allows the database to be updated automatically, through a system that filters and integrates information. This mechanism enables the ?volatility? of the academic sector to be corrected.

Have you identified any trends?
Truly international graduate courses are still few and far between, mainly because most courses are held in the national languages of the institutions that run them. For example: the new research department in Heidelberg, home to highly acclaimed researchers, only offers courses in German. Moreover, there is a predominance, both in Europe and in the USA, to offer managerial and business courses that dominate and monopolise the social entrepreneurial sector. What this means is that a discipline that is by its very nature cross-disciplinary risks being fragmented into sub-disciplines, and dominated by ecomomics studies.

And what does this mean for the third sector?
The profesionalisation of academic study dedicated to the third sector and to philanthropy can, I think, be a stimulus for renewal within the University system, that at the moment is too tied to its disciplinary tradition.

You have studied and worked in the USA a lot, what differences have you identified between the American and European scenarios?
In the USA the sector is more mature, radicated, visible. Training opportunities are much vaster as is the opportunity of employment. In Europe, on the other hand there is a fast growing volunteering sector ? no longer tied to faith related causes ? that has a cultural toughness that demands to be trained.

To find out more

• www.philanthropy.iupui.edu/Partnerships/Benphe