ECTS
60 credits
Duration
1 year
Training Structure
School of Medicine
Overview
In September 2014, the University of Montpellier launched a Master 2 program titled “Expertise in Gerontology” – IDEFI-TIL (Initiative for Excellence in Innovative Training – Trans Innov Longevity).
This master’s program consists of 80% e-learning (recorded courses accessible via a platform) and 20% in-person instruction. Each enrolled student receives individual mentoring from a practicing professional in the field, with whom the student maintains close contact throughout the year. The e-learning format allows practicing professionals and individuals who live far from the university to benefit from a high-quality university education.
This master's program is jointly accredited with Sorbonne University, which offers the following 8 course units:
Standardized Gerontological Assessment
Training for Trainers/Instructors in Gerontology
Nutrition and Hygiene for Older Adults
Telehealth
Therapeutic Education
Training in the Use of ICT in Education
Psychology and Communication in Old Age
Research Methodology Applied to Gerontological Care Research
The Trans-Innov-Longévité (TIL) project—a transdisciplinary, interuniversity system of excellence focused on the fields of longevity and independent living—is one of the winning projects of the IDEFI initiative under the National Research Agency’s (ANR) “Investissement d’Avenir” program. It models an innovative framework for interuniversity, cross-disciplinary training programs suited to both initial education and lifelong learning. It expands a system of high-quality training by leveraging national and international university networks.
TIL promotes access for new audiences to new degree programs, offering a wide variety of hybrid educational models and pathways built on multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary skills, centered around a structured yet flexible pedagogical framework. To this end, it has developed a comprehensive program that combines in-person and distance learning courses taught by university faculty who lead master’s programs and mentor and empower professionals from multidisciplinary backgrounds to serve as instructors and tutors. TIL thus relies on a new instructional design strategy that combines a database of digital teaching resources produced by university faculty and by instructor-tutors.
TIL is a master’s-level degree that prepares students for leadership roles in gerontology within the health and medical-social sectors, as well as for numerous careers related to gerontology. TIL is designed to help students acquire a wide range of interdisciplinary skills.
The Master 2 in Gerontology offers students a choice of two tracks:
- Research and Training Track in Gerontology
- Career Path: Management and Coordination of Services and Facilities
The TIL Master’s program consists of about twenty modules, some of which are required, while others are tailored to the various professional tracks offered. Each track comprises 10 modules of 30 hours each. These modules cover all major topics in gerontology and longevity to address the diversity of relevant professions and students’ expectations. This wide variety of modules allows for the customization of training tracks based on students’ prior learning, their expectations, and their career goals. The interuniversity IDEFI-TIL Master’s program thus offers multiple, interdisciplinary tracks tailored to a diverse student body.
Each student's course of study will be determined in consultation with the Master's program director in order to identify the modules necessary to achieve their career goals.
Objectives
The purpose of the master’s program is to provide healthcare executives, on the one hand, and physicians and other medical professionals, on the other—and more generally, those involved in healthcare and health promotion—with training that complements their initial technical training in the fields of the humanities, social sciences, and education. It thus creates a synergy within the Montpellier Faculty of Medicine with the “Health Biology” master’s program. It is delivered in collaboration with faculty members and researchers from the Faculty of Education at the University of Montpellier 2, which merged with the University of Montpellier 1 to form the University of Montpellier.
Medical students are offered a choice between biomedical research, on the one hand; research in health administration and management, on the other; and, finally, research in the medical humanities.
Healthcare executives find that the Faculty of Medicine and the University of Montpellier 1 provide a favorable environment for specialized training focused on emerging issues related to dependency and autonomy, at a time when pursuing an academic path is becoming a necessity.
In the fields of human relations management related to chronic illness, the administration of gerontology-specialized institutions and services, and research in the humanities and social sciences, the University of Montpellier 1 and the School of Medicine are particularly well-positioned to offer a program that is both integrated into the healthcare system and focused on the humanities.
The master’s program and its six tracks thus offer a unique and innovative approach to health—spanning the life sciences and the human sciences—within a medical university, bridging the gap between the University of Montpellier’s School of Medicine and School of Education.
Expertise and Skills
Graduates of the master's program will have mastered:
- quantitative and qualitative research methodology,
- the methodology of reasoning in the humanities and social sciences,
- techniques for searching, indexing, and analyzing information,
- training methods,
- written and oral communication skills,
- the basics of citing sources for publication in scientific journals,
- an understanding of the social and institutional context of vulnerability: older adults and people with chronic illnesses
He is capable of:
- supervise and lead specialized multidisciplinary teams
- manage care teams for vulnerable or dependent individuals
- to consider sick or vulnerable individuals as subjects and in their entirety (relational, ethical, and professional aspects)
- Identify the social environments of vulnerable individuals and understand their effects in terms of discrimination and inequalities regarding access to the common good, as well as in terms of their relationship to knowledge and health education
- Develop expertise and social engineering capabilities, specifically:
- identify humanities and social science methodologies appropriate for a research topic,
- develop research hypotheses
- conduct needs assessments for a specific population, audience, or service
- analyze a region and individual and collective needs, and assess the situation
- conduct technical studies and propose solutions
- design, present, and defend a study, a project, or a research paper
- synthesize and make the most of the information
- develop information, training, and outreach programs
- evaluate initiatives, user satisfaction, and project outcomes
- draft and submit the results of the evaluation; propose solutions
In terms of attitudes, a master’s degree holder is able to:
- support extended listening
- to evaluate oneself
- communicate with people who are struggling or vulnerable with empathy
- be open to different ways of thinking and acting
- act in an ethical and responsible manner
- to maintain a reflective distance from one's own actions
Program
And then
Employment Placement
For the Gerontology and TIL tracks:
Executive in a medical-social facility; Project Manager for a local government agency; Gerontology instructor; Project Manager, consultant, and gerontology expert; Coordinator of a regional initiative (health network, CLIC, etc.)