The Master’s Degree in Marriage and Family at the University of Navarra ( www.unav.es/matrimonioyfamilia)
The Master’s Degree in Marriage and Family at the University of Navarra offers an interdisciplinary and comprehensive view of the reality of family and marriage, through the rigorous and systematic study of thirty-six different subjects.
The scientific areas that make up the studies are: human sciences; biomedicine; psychology, psychopathology and family therapy; education; social sciences; theology; politics and law; communication and arts.
The master’s degree lasts two years and is divided into four-month periods with final exams. The study method is varied: there are courses that require classroom attendance, others that require distance learning, and it is aimed at students from all over the world, preferably with training in one of the thematic areas mentioned. The complete program is based on 120 ECTS (European Credit System Transfer) credits, each equivalent to 25-30 hours of study. The student’s work is developed on a virtual platform that involves all members of the educational community: students, professors and course management staff. Undoubtedly, the closeness and direct assistance of the teaching staff are essential for an accurate understanding of the subjects.
The comprehensive vision of marriage and family that the Master’s degree offers is also important for enhancing one’s professional development.
The academic staff is made up of more than thirty professors, from the various faculties of the University of Navarra, as well as other prestigious Spanish universities.
Attending this study program is absolutely compatible with work and family responsibilities, but given its academic excellence, order and systematicity are required. As with all important things that are worth achieving, personal effort and family support are essential.
The first year registration fee is 3948 euros. The second year the IPC increase is added to the price.
Master in Marriage and Family Sciences of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute of the Pontifical Lateran University (Rome) (www.istitutogp2.it)
The master’s degree was created within the Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family founded in 1981 by John Paul II whose will was that “the Church be enriched with philosophical, theological and pastoral reflection on the truth of the person, marriage and the family, with the help of the human sciences.” It is mainly aimed at pastoral workers of dioceses and parishes and professionals in family guidance.
It lasts two years, of which the first requires attendance in Rome with a weekly lesson load of 20 hours and 63 ECTS credits. The second year is done remotely with the help of an online tutor and essentially consists of the delivery of three papers (8 ECTS credits). At the end of the master’s degree, a thesis of about 50 pages is presented. The master’s degree offers two specializations: pastoral and psychopedagogical. The courses are held in Italian. The cost is 2,000 euros.
The subjects and the bibliography reflect a strong imprint of the personalist philosophy of John Paul II and the biblical anthropology that underlies it. Just think that the famous book Uomo e Donna li creò. Catechesi sull’amore umana belongs to one of the Institute’s collections and is used as a basic text in one of the master’s courses.
The teaching staff, of an international nature, is made up of about 20 professors. Italian, Polish and Spanish professors predominate, almost all of them from the personalist school, such as Stanislaw Griegel, a disciple of Karol Wojtyla in the chair of Ethics in Lublin. Among the emeritus professors we highlight figures such as Cafarra, Scola, Ouelet, etc. The master’s degree enjoys a strong tradition in research and in the field of publications that give it considerable prestige, as can be seen in the five collections of books on themes related to the family, person and marriage, published for the Institute with more than 60 titles. In addition, the Instituto has a biannual journal of studies on marriage and family.
It is a shame that the website, like that of the Instituto, is so poorly maintained.
Love, Family and Education, of the Institute of Religious Sciences of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (htpp://www.pusc.it/issra/famiglia.html)
This is a course, not exactly a master’s degree. It is aimed at engaged and married people, educators and family counselors with the aim of deepening “the anthropological, psychological and theological foundations of the Christian vision of love and marriage, of the family and the education of children.”
The program develops over two years with a total of 60 hours of attendance and is structured in three cycles of two intensive days each year, in February, May and October. The total number of credits is 60 and requires a study program with mandatory and optional readings. The cost of the course is 820 Euros.
The teachers of the course, a total of 13, are all professors of the University of the Holy Cross or of the Institute of Religious Sciences of this University.
Master’s Degree in Family Sciences at the University of Malaga (www.masterenfamilias.com)
Now in its seventh version, the Master’s Degree in Family Sciences at the University of Malaga boasts of being the first program on the family, in its category, organized by a public university in Spain.
The coordinator in charge, Professor Tomás Melendo, points out that the objectives of the Master’s Degree are basically three: to deepen a scientific knowledge of the family and its possibilities for improvement; to show to what extent the quality of the family environment influences all the activities of the person and in society; to facilitate a deep knowledge of very current issues: sexuality, the meaning of work, happiness; the media and technology; the most current problems of bioethics; and legislative changes in all these areas.
Thanks to a very successful mix of theoretical and practical content, this study program is aimed, first and foremost, at parents who want to obtain the necessary knowledge for an adequate education. But it is also of great interest in three areas of professional development: education (teaching center managers, teachers, tutors); family care (family counselors and mediators, lawyers, social workers, political advisors); health (pediatricians, family doctors, child health workers, psychologists and psychiatrists and the whole broad field that links work and family, entrepreneurs, human resources directors, etc.).
The duration of the studies is two years. The load of the lessons is 72.5 credits: 36 credits in the first year and 36.5 in the second, distributed in 7 subjects and 20 modules. It is possible to attend the studies in two ways: online or by attending the courses. For the first way, the virtual teaching platform of the University of Malaga is used. The amount of the master is 4,300 euros.
