An expert from the University of Essex is to visit Armenia for a week to help develop a new degree programme in human rights and democratisation for four former Soviet republics.

Professor Rainer Schulze, Head of the Department of History, will travel to Yerevan State University (YSU), Armenia, on 24 May.

He will review the academic plan for a new EU regional MA programme due to start in the autumn. It is being implemented by YSU’s Centre for European Studies (CES), in partnership with three other universities: Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (Ukraine), Belarusian State University (Belarus), University of European Political and Economic Studies (Moldova).

Professor Schulze will consult with the staff who are helping to design and implement the new degree in group and one-on-one meetings, and will host intensive training for the local lecturers who will be teaching on the new MA. The training will focus on implementing western best practices in human rights and democratisation higher education, including developing professional syllabi, structuring subject matter, assigning appropriate literature and identifying and articulating specific learning outcomes. He will also address how lecturers can help their students to avoid plagiarism and to conduct academic research at the standard expected by western academic institutions.

Professor Schulze will also deliver a seminar on the Kurdish Question and give a guest lecture on Forced Migrations after the Second World War.