What is the UArctic Catalogue?

The UArctic Studies Catalogue is a vital information tool for students interested in studying northern-relevant issues in UArctic member institutions. Likewise, it serves as an important promotional and marketing tool for member institutions to highlight their northern-relevant program and course offerings.  It is in the direct interest of member institutions, and UArctic as an education network to ensure that information on these study opportunities is as complete and up-to-date as possible.

How does it work?

All members institutions of the University of the Arctic are eligible and encouraged to add their programs and courses to the UArctic Catalogue, and to maintain their listings there. All new entries and updates should be sent to catalog@uarctic.org. You can submit the entries in any format you like, so long as the required information is included. You can also simply send us links to the course and program entries on your own institutional catalogue website (these must be publicly accessible). A working web link is mandatory for all entries so that we can link back to you, allowing students to dind out more information and get registration information. We will work with you to ensure the accuracy and relevance of your entries.

What is the benefit for my institution?

As the Catalogue is intended as a means of research for students, it can therefore provide an effective marketing tool for our member institutions, offering them a chance to present themselves as an attractive destination.

What courses and programs should be in the catalogue?

The primary aim of the UArctic Catalogue is to present all of the 'northern relevant' courses and programs of its higher education member institutions. The question of which courses and programs to select for inclusion is of course rather subjective, and based on how one understands the concept of 'northern relevance'. Largely, it is left to the member institutions themselves to determine which courses and programs they feel are 'northern relevant' and submit those for inclusion in the Catalogue. The UArctic International Secretariat can help guide institutions in their selection, but do not act as a gatekeeper for what is included or excluded.

What is a program?
- specific program of study, not a faculty, or exchange program, research network, etc
- if individual courses within the program are also themselves 'northern-relevant' these should be added to the Catalogue, in addition to the study program they form a part of.

What is a course?
A 'for-credit' study offering of a higher education institution.

What is 'northern-relevant'
That includes mostly those specifically dealing with the Arctic region and its countries, focusing on northern climate conditions, people and cultures in the Arctic region. Language courses are not normally included, unless they are for a northern indigenous or other minority language, or include a significant focus on Arctic culture as well.

The choice of the submitted programs and courses firstly lies with our individual member institutions. Cases where the northern relevance is not clear should however be discussed with the Catalogue coordinator (catalog@uarctic.org).

Language
While many courses and programs oriented towards international students are taught in English, this does not exclude those in other languages from being included in the Catalogue. Courses and programs taught in any language can be included in the Catalogue. Descriptive information on the UArctic Catalogue must still be in English, even if the local description and language of instruction are another language.

What information needs to be submitted?

The offered submission fields should be filled out as completely as possible, to improve the chances of interested students finding your institution's offered programs/courses during a search in the Catalogue. Fields left blank will not be shown in your entries.

Your submitted entries should be kept up to date. That includes deleting programs/courses no longer offered, as well as including new ones in time for interested students to still apply for them.

Organization Name
The name of the organization (institution) is generated automatically as it is associated with the userid used to login to the Catalogue management page.

Program Name
The name of the program, including any identification code used by your institution.

Program Description and Learning objectives
General description of the program's content and aims.
All information not being covered by the other submission fields but still considered important, should be included here.
(The description of the program's content can, when appropriate, include examples of single courses that are part of it. However, relevant courses should in any case also be submitted individually.)

Program Level
The degree achieved by completion of the program.
Please note that even programs not leading to a degree should be submitted - using the Non-Degree Program option in the menu - if they can be considered northern-relevant.

Program Weblink
The link to your institution's website further describing the program.
Please note that the link should lead directly to the site dealing with the respective program, not your institution's general web pages.
Also, the link should be permanent or regularly updated, as well as publicly accessible (i.e. not requiring a login at your institution or a connection to your internal network).

How to Submit or Edit a Course

Organization Name
The name of the organization (institution) is generated automatically as it is associated with the userid used to login to the Catalogue management page.

Course Name
The name of the course, including any identification code (i.e. course number) used by the institution.

Course Code
Institutional course code or course number.

Course Description
General description of the course's content.
All information not being covered by the other submission fields but still considered important, should be included here. (If the course is part of a program, mention of that can be made here.)

Course Learning Objectives
Information on the course's specific aims (preferably expressed in terms of acquired competences/learning outcomes).

Course Admission description
Information on how to apply to the course, including admission requirements (not related to formal or recommended prerequisites). Contact information of the responsible person for course registration can also be placed here.

Course Level
The degree achieved by completion of the course. Please note that even courses not leading to a degree should be submitted - using the Non-Degree Course option in the menu - if they can be considered northern-relevant.

Course Teaching place
Physical location where the primary teaching takes place. City, campus name, building, classroom, etc.

Course ECTS credits
The amount of course credits awarded for the course, expressed in the European Credit Transfer System standard. (This is a required field!) For institutions, especially in North America, not using ECTS credits, please include the credits for the course in the institution's credit system in the Course Description section. To convert other credit systems into ECTS, please consult the ECTS Guide (http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc/ects/guide_en.pdf).

Course Teaching term
For courses taught regularly in a given semester (i.e. every academic year), the semester name should be filled in here. You can use whatever semester categories are used at your institution (Spring, Fall, Summer, Winter, Term 1, Term 2, etc). Please note that one-time courses should not be submitted to the Catalogue!

Course Language
The course langauge of instruction. If not specifically given, the language shown in the Catalogue will be English.

Course Form of teaching
The methods of teaching for the course. Could include the share of practical teaching via labs, field trips, experiments, etc. as well as information about the theoretical parts like lectures, essays, self-study. Information about courses taught online/via distance learning should be included here. If known, state lecturer's name and contact info under this field.

Course Form of assessment
General information about the assessment of the students. Any information about assignments and examinations by which students will be evaluated should be included here, as well as information about how grades are calculated/assigned.

Course Formal prerequisites
Formal prerequisites for the course. (Please include course numbers and names, where appropriate.)

Course Recommended prerequisites
Other non-required prerequisites for the course. (Please include course numbers and names, where appropriate.)

Course Weblink
The link to your institution's website further describing the course. Please note that the link should lead directly to the site dealing with the respective course, not your institution's general web pages. (However, if the course is part of a program, the link may direct to it's site.) Also, the link should be permanent or regularly updated, as well as publicly accessible (i.e. not requiring a login at your institution or a connection to your internal network).

What are XML and CDM?

Most users need not be concerned with the technical terms formats of XML (Extensible Markup Language) or the CDM (Course Description Metadata) that underpin the operation of the Catalogue. According to Wikipedia, "XML (Extensible Markup Language) is a set of rules for encoding documents electronically. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C and several other related specifications; all are fee-free open standards." CDM is a set of descriptive elements, developed specifically for higher education courses and programs as an open standard by Norwegian Open Universities and Utdanning.no (http://cdm.utdanning.no/CDM). Adopting these open standards for the UArctic Catalogue, helps ensure that the data we collect can be meaningfully exchanged with other online catalogues and databases, rather than being trapped in a proprietary database format.

In practical terms, this means that UArctic institutions can submit XML files using the CDM standard and the contents will automatically be entered into the appropriate fields in the UArctic Catalogue. Likewise, all UArctic Catalogue records will be able to be exported in the CDM standard, and will have persistent links that can be accessed by other systems that use that standard.

If your institution is interested in automatically exporting existing records from your online studies catalogue, please contact catalog@uarctic.org.