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The need for emergency and disaster professionals with multidisciplinary knowledge and holistic understanding is widely recognised. Despite this, there is currently no international nor an Australian consensus on a set of common standards for higher education that could ensure graduates possess knowledge and skills with sufficient commonality to facilitate interoperability in all facets of disaster management cycle. Thus, this research project aimed to develop a standard and an associated conceptual framework for higher education programs in emergency and disaster management.

The Generic Emergency and Disaster Management Standards (GEDMS) were developed through a mixed qualitative research approach involving a systematic literature review, mapping of current course content offered in Australia and New Zealand, focus groups of experts and consultation with policy makers, industry representatives and other relevant stakeholders. The Standards consist of three main domains: knowledge, skills and application. Governance and policy frameworks, theoretical and conceptual basis for practice, and contemporary disaster management were identified as underlying themes for the knowledge domain. Leadership, communication, and collaboration were fitted under the skills domain. The professional practice, together with critical thinking, were considered the means by which knowledge and skills are applied.

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The second World Congress of Colleges and Polytechnics was held in Melbourne, Australia in March 2002. The Congress explored outcomes aligned to themes of accessibility, technology and globalisation, strengthening partnerships and youth as a vocational education and training (VET) customer. This paper reports on a project intended to look at the context within which English colleges sought and achieved accreditation from the USA to award Associates' Degrees as part of the wider project aim of benchmarking international vocational qualifications. The strategic issues that have arisen from this project are discussed and insight given into the challenge of researching international curriculum development.

The volume of papers is indexed at TD/TNC 71.726; selected individual papers are indexed from TD/TNC 71.727 to TD/TNC 71.766. Show less