Azerbaijan | Mediats

About Mediation Programs in Azerbaijan

Khazar University

Academic staff of the related departments – Law, Psychology, Economics & Management, Political science & Philosophy – are responsible for the development of curriculum.

Each academic department mentioned above works on related part of the curriculum. In order to ensure the interconnectedness and integrity of the curriculum, interaction and continuous cooperation among departments is maintained through the supervision of Quality Assurance Center and Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs.

The Quality Assurance Center directly supervises the work of curriculum development team to ensure their compliance ESG higher education standards. It should also be noted that recent national accreditation standards are based on European educational standards. Therefore, we can testify that our curriculum is being developed by taken into account the mentioned standards.

In addition, on December 18, 2019, Prof. Jan Van Zwieten, the rector of the Netherlands Business Academy, visited Khazar University and met with the rector of Khazar University to discuss the future of the program following the 3-year implementation. Prof. Zwieten offered to Khazar University and other project partner universities to be part of the internationally accredited mediation program and offer a double degree in mediation which was welcomed by Khazar University administration.

The internationally accredited double degree program, the novelty and necessity of this specialty in Azerbaijan, the state-level support to the development of mediation values in the society provides the ground for the sustainability of the program following the implementation of the project

The main challenge for Khazar University is the number of students allowed for the enrollment of the Master Program. Since Khazar University and GSU will be the first universities that will have enrollment in Mediation in Azerbaijan, Khazar University was only allowed to offer 5 places for the first year. Following the success of the 1st year's enrollment, the number of places might be increased.

The preparation and development of the MBA program in Mediation was initially based on the existing MBA program in Management of Khazar University. There were many relevant courses, which had been taught for several years at the School of Economics and Management:

Legal and Ethical Environment of Business
Economic and Business Law
International Business Law
Strategic Business Communication
Management and Organizational Behaviour
Organizational Development and Change
Negotiation and Conflict Management
Human Resource Management
Leadership, Power and Politics
Project Management Framework
Research Methods
Taxation
International Management (Cross-cultural management)

The university applied to the Ministry of Education for a registration of a program called Management (Mediation of Business Disputes). Permission was granted and the first student enrollment is started for 2020/2021 academic year. The curriculum of 2 years of 120 ECTS master program has been created.

Quality Assurance Office, Department of Management, and Office of Education, Department of Innovation will be involved in curriculum development and related project activities. Each academic department mentioned above works on related part of the curriculum in order to ensure the interconnectedness and integrity of the curriculum, interaction and continuous cooperation among departments. Quality Assurance office that is created through another Erasmus+ project, EQAC (Establishment of Quality Assurance Centers in Azerbaijani Higher Education Institutions) closely collaborates to take into account the principles set out in the Bologna process.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the war, and surprisingly the regulations of the Mediation Council we have faced a challenge on our master's degree. As you know last academic year the Ministry of Education accredited MBA in Mediation program and followingly announced the admission to the program.

However, due to the regulations of the Mediation Council - mediators should be above 25 years old & the right to act as a mediator could be granted for those with 2 months of training offered only by the Mediation Council - the program failed to attract interested candidates in Mediation. Nevertheless, the program succeeded to enroll 1 student. But with the start of the war, the student decided to freeze his studies, and thus, the program has been frozen for this academic year as well.

Therefore, as a way out of the situation we propose to offer optional/elective courses in Mediation in the Spring Semester for the students majoring in MBA, Psychology and Conflict Studies. It is also worthwhile to stress that mediation is a new field of study in the education sector of Azerbaijan and there is temporarily less demand in the labor market for mediators.

Meanwhile, the promotional campaign in Spring will be intensified, and a new call for admission to the master program for the next academic year will be launched through the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

Preliminary Program

Major Compulsory Courses:

Introduction to Mediation – 6 ECTS

The Basics of Law – 6 ECTS

Communication – 6 ECTS

Research Methods – 6 ECTS

Mediation in Business Relations – 6 ECTS

Mediation and Administrative Law – 6 ECTS

Conflict Theories and Analysis – 6 ECTS

Mediation in Family Disputes – 6 ECTS

Cognitive Psychology and Mediation – 6 ECTS

Major Elective Courses:

Elective 1 – 6 ECTS

Mediation in Propoerty Diputes
Mediation in intellectual property and industrial relations

Elective 2 – 6 ECTS

Mediation in Health Care and Compulsory Health İnsurance – 6 ECTS
Mediation in Labor Disputes

University Reguirement Courses:

Foreign Language – 6 ECTS
Psychology – 6 ECTS
Pedagogy – 6 ECTS

İnternships

İnternship – 6 ECTS
Apprenticeship – 6 ECTS

Thesis – 24 ECTS

Total: 120 ECTS

Note: The study plan was developed by the relevant academic departments of Khazar University under the supervision the Quality Assurance Office and the Vice-Rector for Academic affairs. The work according to this study plan was enhanced by the visit of the Jan van Zwieten to Khazar University in December 2019. In his meeting with the Khazar University administratin and later at the PSCM2, Prof. Zwieten proposed Khazar University – and other partners to be part of the internationally accredited mediation program and offer a double degree in mediation. The offer was welcomed by all partner universities, including Khazar University.

The study plan for the Master Program in Mediation offers 9 compulsory major courses, 4 major elective courses, 3 university requirement courses, internship, apprenticeship, and the master thesis. Each course consists of 6 ECTS, and the thesis consists of 24 ECTS, a total of 120 ECTS.

Updated program

MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Speciality code and name: 060409 Mediation

Principles of Mediation – 6 ECTS
Applied Economics - 6 ECTS
Applied Statistics and Decision Making - 6 ECTS
Accounting and Finance for Decision Making - 6 ECTS
Management and Organizational Behavior - 6 ECTS
Strategic Management - 6 ECTS
Concentration courses (5 courses can be chosen)
Mediation: Theory and Practice 6 ECTS
Negotiation: Theory and Practice 6 ECTS
Conflict Theory and Psychology of Mediation 6 ECTS
Organizational Conflict Resolution 6 ECTS
Cross-Cultural Conflict Resolution 6 ECTS
Business Mediation 6 ECTS
Legal and Ethical Environment of Business 6 ECTS
Mediation in Consumer Law 6 ECTS
Strategic Business Communication 6 ECTS
Electives (recommendations from a wide range of courses. 3 courses can be chosen)*
Mediation in Family Law 6 ECTS
Mediation in Health Law 6 ECTS
International Business Law 6 ECTS
Mediation in Property Law 6 ECTS
Human Resource Management 6 ECTS
Leadership, Power and Politics 6 ECTS
Organizational Development and Change 6 ECTS
Research Methods 6 ECTS
International Management 6 ECTS
Project Management Framework 6 ECTS
Taxation 6 ECTS

GSU

Following courses updated or added/updated to the created master program called Management (Mediation)

Compulsory:

Basics of mediation: 8 ECTS Mediation procedure: 8 ECTS

Psychology of influence: 4 ECTS Conflict management and organization of the negotiation process: 8 ECTS
Mediation in business disputes: 8 ECTS

Electives set 1:

Negotiation skills: 4 ECTS

Basics of negotiations: 4 ECTS

Ethics of business negotiations: 4 ECTS

Electives set 2:

Features of the use of mediation in resolving labor disputes: 8 ECTS

Cross-cultural management and mediation: 8 ECTS

Change and stress management: 8 ECTS

Electives set 3:

Mediation in multilateral conflicts: 4 ECTS

Mediation in highly escalated conflicts: 4 ECTS

International research experience in the field of mediation: 4 ECTS

Electives set 4:

Project management and application of mediation in administrative-legal disputes: 8 ECTS

Mediation in civil law disputes: 8 ECTS

Mediation in administrative disputes: 8 ECTS

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1a139CCuSd9ZGITApRen1drADFxq-RoQG?usp=sharing

The course was developed according to the best EU experiences gained during the visits to NLBA, and Breda in the Netherlands, as well as Turiba and UCAM Universities. But the master course on mediation at Ganja State University was mainly based on the materials from the program offered by the NLBA program.

Before the course was developed several advisory meetings were held with the coordinator universities. Several Zoom and Skype meetings were conducted for this purpose. Due to aforementioned national regulation problems it was not possible to create a master degree, and therefore a course instead of master degree was created. This nuance was discussed and approved by the coordinators during the meetings. Thus, a 3-month annual course was created and announced in August 2021 and then started in September.

A 3-month training course was organised which was followed by 1 week-long exam. In total 12 week courses were organised. Afterwards, the successful students (certificate recipients) received an additional opportunity to attend an international internship within the project. In the end, each student received a certificate, which was considered a proof of completion of the full course. Upon completion of the full course, students received a final certificate from both the rector of GSU and the coordinator of the Project. During the course, training materials were prepared in alignment with the mediation program offered by NLBA.

Link to the training on Course on Mediation:

https://gdu.edu.az/the-course-of-mediation-continues-at-ganja-state-university/

30 credits allocated for the courses and 30 courses allocated for the internship.

Introduction to Mediation: 6 ECTS
Alternative Dispute Resolution: 6 ECTS
Theories of Mediation: 6 ECTS
Mediation Processes: 6 ECTS
Mediation Skills: 6 ECTS

3-month training includes: 5 days a week 3 hours (1.5 hours’ lecture and 1.5 hours’ workshop) every day

During the training of Course on Mediation staff and students use meeting halls of the Department of Innovations and the Centre for Mediation for organising classes. Trainings are also held in the Centre for Mediation. Centre for Mediation is equipped with necessary equipment such as a printer, projector and desktop computers that is provided by the MEDIATS project and these devices are used during the training. Ganja State University also provided necessary equipment such as office tools, rooms, furniture etc. during the trainings. The “Course on Mediation” of Ganja State University was assessed by the coordinators from NLBA and KROK University. Recommendations by the coordinators were that course on mediation should include not only training but also internships. Documentation on Mediation Program https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/18DDNhjpPhqjB3zFfZ1Rwqw5fsrXE54RI?usp=sharing