Popular international master's programme receives award

[2013-05-16] Jonny Holmström and Johan Sandberg at Umeå University have received a national educational award for developing the master's programme in IT Management.

“The prize acknowledges that we have succeeded in creating an attractive graduate programme, also from an international perspective. Thirteen different nationalities are represented in the first graduation class alone,” says Jonny Holmström, Professor of Informatics (in photo).

The student association SISA - Swedish Association for Information Systems - distributes the educational prize to draw attention to commendable education in informatics. Jonny Holmström and Johan Sandberg win this year's award for developing the relatively new and popular master's programme with a focus on IT innovation and IT development.

The motivation states that "the programme has a high number of applicants, and impressively combines findings from leading research with practical training."

“Of course our students’ satisfaction is the most important proof of a high quality education, but the prize is certainly motivating. It is not least a sign that our ambition to combine leading research with practice is successful,” says Johan Sandberg, PhD student in Informatics.

An important factor in the development of the master’s programme was that the students should work as a 'reflective practitioners' and gain knowledge through practical work. The programme attempts in various ways to include practical moments, for example with so-called "live cases" where companies from industry or the public sector present a problem to the students. Also, guest lectures and field trips are important elements in the education.

Photos by: Andreas Nilsson, Mikael Hansson