Curriculum Development for Sustainable Seafood and Nutrition Security Erasmus Project

Project Title

Curriculum Development for Sustainable Seafood and Nutrition Security

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Capacity Building in higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics:

Project Summary

Seafood is nutritious, delicious and probably the healthiest among the food items. Its demand is rapidly increasing in each country and globally as more people are becoming aware of the health and thus are shifting their food habits from red meat to white meat and then to seafood. Therefore, seafood sector has been increasingly important for food security, nutrition, income and employment. Annually 96 million tons of seafood is caught from the oceans and the natural water bodies while 82 million ton is produced from aquaculture (FAO data). Fish catch from the wild is declining due to overfishing. Aquaculture is rapidly expanding with the technological advancement often creating environmental problems causing frequent collapses of some aquaculture systems e.g. shrimp farming. Therefore, seafood insecurity has been a global issue urging the need to ensure long-term sustainability.Recognizing the key role of higher education in shaping the industry, a project entitled, “Curriculum development project for Sustainable Seafood and Nutrition Security (SSNS)” co-funded by EU Erasmus+ programme, was launched in Oct 2017. The main objectives of the programme were to identify the problems and missing gaps in the existing fisheries curricula in higher education institutions in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam, and improve the curricula by developing specialized courses in changing context. Other objectives were to establish specialized SSNS centres and offer vocational training courses and internship programs so that the industry could get new dimension and better understanding. The project engaged over 60 lecturers from Asia and over 15 from Europe. A total of 57 MSc courses (target was 20, nearly 3 times more) have been either newly developed or improved from existing ones. Amongst them, more than 75% have already been accredited, incorporated into the curricula and offered to over 200 students (target 90).Typical new courses include Seafood and Human Nutrition, Seafood and Sustainable Development Goals, Seafood safety, Fish Quality and Traceability, Smart and Environmentally Friendly Aquaculture, Innovations in Fish Product Development among others. All the nine Asian partners established a new SSNS centre each or revived or strengthened the one which had earlier. Six of them have established new ones each and three of them strengthen their existing centres to contribute to the project objectives. More than 63 vocational training courses have also been developed, and nearly half of them were already offered during the project period to update the knowledge and also provide specific skills to over 600 professionals. The project also developed 48 Internship programs (target 45) to offer higher education degree students so that they could get exposure to the industry and get hands-on work experience. However, due to COVID-19, it was not possible to offer, although two partners managed to offer somehow, even though the project was extended for 12 months ended by Oct 14, 2021. The project organized two study trips to Europe; Norway and UK during which about 50 lecturers visited the renowned universities of Europe and learn how the courses are delivered. They also visited salmon farms and processing plants. They have learned how the courses are delivered and are encouraged to do more. Due to COVID19, program for Indonesia was organized online. A final conference was organized to review the outcomes and disseminate the outcomes of the project. Overall, the project team considers it very successful.

Project Website

http://www.seafood-security.org

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 999556,1 Eur

Project Coordinator

ASIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY & Country: TH

Project Partners

• THE UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING
• GADJAH MADA UNIVERSITY
• CAN THO UNIVERSITY
• INSTITUT PERTANIAN BOGOR
• KHON KAEN UNIVERSITY
• PANEPISTIMIO THESSALIAS
• EUROTRAINING EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION