ABSTRACT

This paper addresses the methodological process of a teaching strategy for training Sustainable Rural Development & Project Management in postgraduate programs. The learning strategy is applied in an international Postgraduate Program for Sustainable Rural Development —Erasmus Mundus Master of Science— with the participation of five Universities of the European Union. This master program is the result of a cooperative experience from one Educative Innovation Group of the Technical University of Madrid, UPM (EIG-Project), two Research Groups from the UPM and the collaboration with other external agents. The proposal is made up of different methods —intuitive, comparative, deductive, case study, problem-solving, Project-Based Learning— and different activities inside and outside the classroom. The learning strategy covers two different aspects: first, the integration of technical, behavioral and contextual project management competences in real projects; and second, the evaluation of the complexity of project management in real situations of rural development projects, in which such complexity is mainly given by social interactions and complex social networks. Reflections on the experience, difficulties found and main success factors in the learning strategy are discussed.